What is public opinion?

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Interest Groups

• Interest groups are groups of citizens who share
  a common interest, whether a political opinion,
  religious affiliation, ideological belief, social
  goal, or economic objective, and that try to
  influence public policy to benefit their members.
  
• Constitutionally, they are protected under the
  1st Amendments right of freedom of association
  (right to assemble).
• They are also the very factions that Madison
  warned about.

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Types of Interest Groups

• Most interest groups arise from conditions in
  public life.
• A proactive group arises when an enterprising
  individual sees an opening or opportunity to
  create the group for social, political, or
  economic purposes.
• A reactive group forms to protect the interests
  of the members in response to a perceived threat
  from another group, or to fight a government
  policy they believe will adversely affect them,
  or to respond to an unexpected external event.

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The Right of Petition

• Interest groups do not exist in a void. The form
  for the specific purpose of influencing public
  policy.
• The right of petition gives individuals with a
  claim against the government the right to ask for
  compensation, but it also includes the right to
  petition to ask for a policy change or to express
  opposition to a policy.

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Lobbying

• Today, the rights of association and petition
  most often take the form of lobbying.
• Trying to persuade elected officials to adopt or
  reject a specific policy change.
• Lobbying is a legitimate form of petitioning, and
  interest groups of all sizes and purposes engage
  in it.

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How Does Lobbying Work?

• Interest groups lobby the legislative, executive,
  and even judicial branches of government, at the
  state and federal levels.
• Meet with staff aides to members of Congress to
  make the case for their policy goals.
• Try to influence the executive branch by meeting
  personally with key bureaucrats and policy
  makers.
• Lobbying of the judicial branch takes the form of
  lawsuits against government policies that
  interest groups see as fundamentally
  unconstitutional or that go against the original
  intent of a law.

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The History of Interest Groups

• Abolition
• American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833
• Womens rights
• National Woman Suffrage Association in 1869
• Trade Associations
• National Association of Wool Manufacturers in 1864

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The History of Interest Groups
Abolitionists used stark imagery and words to
rally citizens against slavery. In 1843 Lydia
Maria Child compiled The American Anti-Slavery
Almanac. Its cover alone makes the case for
abolition. Child was a writer and editor who
was also active in the womens suffrage movement.
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The History of Interest Groups continued

• Veterans rights
• The Grand Army of the Republic in 1866
• Prohibition
• Anti-Saloon League of America in 1895
• Labor Organizations
• International Ladies Garment Workers Union in
  1900
• Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

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Interest Groups Today

• Today, business and trade associations, unions,
  citizens organizations, and grassroots movements
  are a familiar part of the landscape of interest
  group politics.
• Business and Trade
• The Chamber of Congress
• Unions
• American Federation of Labor-Congress of
  Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO)
• Citizens Organizations
• National Rifle Association (NRA)
• Grassroots Movements
• Greenpeace

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Interest Groups Today Union Membership
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Economic Interest Groups

• Economic interest groups form to advance the
  economic status of their members and are defined
  by a specific set of financial or business
  concerns.
• Trade associations are a subcategory of economic
  interest groups that focus on particular
  businesses or industries.
• Chamber of Commerce
• Professional associations are similar, as they
  are formed by individuals who share a similar
  job.
• American Bar Association

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Economic Interest Groups continued

• Large corporations can be included as a type of
  economic interest group, because they try to
  influence policy on their own as well as joining
  trade associations comprised of businesses with
  similar goals.
• Wal-Mart

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Economic Interest Groups continued

• Unions are a type of economic interest group.
  They are comprised of people who share a common
  type of employment. Unions seek safer working
  conditions and better wages for their members.
• Collective bargaining is protected by the
  National Labor Relations Act, passed by Congress
  in 1935.
• The act provides that only one union can be
  selected to represent workers in a specific
  location
• Power rests in the ability to call strikes or
  work stoppages.
• Power to mobilize members to vote for or against
  a candidate.

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Ideological Interest Groups

• Ideological interest groups form among citizens
  with the same beliefs about a specific issue.
• Citizens Groups
• Citizens groups are typically formed to draw
  attention to public issues that affect all
  citizens equally, such as environmental
  protection, transparency in government, consumer
  product safety, ethics reform, and campaign
  finance reform.

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Ideological Interest Groups continued

• Single-issue groups form to present one view on a
  highly salient issue that is intensely important
  to its members, such as the right to carry a
  concealed weapon is to Students for Concealed
  Carry on Campus.
• Grassroots groups form in response to an economic
  or political event, but do not focus on only one
  issue.

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Ideological Groups and Polarization

• Because ideological groups get power from the
  fact that they have agreement within their ranks
  on a highly salient issue, it discourages debate
  and disagreement within the group and any type of
  compromise outside the group. This leads to
  polarization between ideologically opposed
  groups.
•  Polarization is the condition in which
  differences between parties and/or the public are
  so stark that disagreement breaks out, fueling
  attacks and controversy.

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Foreign Policy Groups

• Foreign policy groups form to generate support
  for favorable U.S. policies toward one or several
  foreign countries.
• American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)
• Coalition to Save Darfur

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The Coalition to Save Darfur
The Coalition to Save Darfur is an interest group
that mobilizes people to e-mail, call, or send
letters to their legislators on behalf of its
effort to end violence and famine in the Darfur
region of the African nation of Somalia. In 2006
thousands joined a grassroots rally in New York
City to express their support for sending United
Nations troops to Darfur to help stop the
violence there.
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What Interest Groups Do

• Interest groups perform a number of functions in
  the political process.
• Inform
• All interest groups provide information to their
  members, the media, government officials, and the
  general public.
• Interpret
• - Interest groups do more than merely report
  on current policy developments they also provide
  members and the government with an interpretation
  of how these developments will affect the groups
  mission and goals.

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What Interest Groups Do continued

• Lobby
• Almost every kind of group, with every kind of
  economic interest or political opinion, engages
  in one form of lobbying or another.
• Lobbyists
• According to the Center for Responsive Politics,
  in 2009 there were 13,739 individuals registered
  as active lobbyists in Washington, D.C.
• Phone, e-mail, or meet with congressional
  staffers, their clients, and possibly members of
  the media to gather information about relevant
  issues for their clients or to promote their
  clients policy positions.

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Top Spenders on Lobbying
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What Interest Groups Do continued

• Lobbying Strategies
• - Inside Lobbying is where lobbyists deal
  directly with legislators and their staff in
  asking for a specific policy benefit or in trying
  to stop a policy that they oppose.
• - Public or Outside Lobbying is where a group
  may go straight to the press to provide details
  about the adverse effects of the proposal, in the
  hopes that journalists will then inform the
  general public.
• - Grassroots Lobbying is where groups encourage
  an action among their own members and the larger
  public to try to influence public policy.

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What Interest Groups Do continued

• Campaign Activities
• Interest groups also promote their views by
  engaging in campaign activities, though federal
  law regulates their participation.
• 501(c)(3) Groups have a tax-exempt status and are
  prohibited from engaging in any activity on
  behalf of a candidate or party in an election
  campaign.
• Political Action Committees raise funds to
  support electoral candidates and are subject to
  campaign finance laws.
• Issue Advocacy is the practice of running
  advertisements or distributing literature on a
  policy issue rather than a specific candidate.

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Top Twenty PAC Contributors
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The Impact of Interest Groups on the Democratic
Process

• Do interest groups provide a natural balance or
  do they create disproportionate power?
• Robert Dahl argued that in a pluralist society,
  the varied interest groups that emerge to
  represent their members will, in their battles
  over public policy, produce a consensus that
  serves the publics common interest.
• Pluralist is a view of democratic society in
  which interest groups compete over policy goals
  and elected officials are mediators of group
  conflict.

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The Impact of Interest Groups continued

• Theodore Lowi argued that in a democracy some
  voices are louder than others and that government
  is more responsive to louder voices and will
  consistently serve those groups at the expense of
  those who cannot make their voices heard.
• Elitist is a view of democratic society in which
  only a select few interest groups shape policies
  in favor of a small group of wealthy or powerful
  citizens.
• Special Interests are a set of groups seeking a
  particular benefit for themselves in the policy
  process.

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Interest Groups as a Threat to Democracy

• In his Farewell Address in 1961, President
• Dwight D. Eisenhower (195361) warned of what
• he called the military-industrial complex.
• A self-serving interconnection among the U.S.
  military, the defense manufacturing industry, and
  federal agencies overseeing military expenditures
  and production.
• Iron Triangle describes the insular and closed
  relationship among interest groups, members of
  Congress, and federal agencies.
• Revolving Door describes the movement of members
  of Congress, lobbyists, and executive branch
  employees into paid positions in each others
  organizations.

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Interest Groups as a Threat to Democracy Iron
Triangle
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Issue Networks

• Interest group scholar Hugh Heclo claims that the
  interconnections of interest groups and the
  government is more benign, suggesting that the
  term issue networks is better than iron
  triangle to describes the relationship.
• View of the relationship among interest groups,
  members of Congress, and federal agencies as more
  fluid, open, and transparent than the term iron
  triangle.
• Congress and the federal bureaucracy each have an
  elaborate set of rules governing their behavior
  with respect to interest groups and lobbyists,
  and most members and bureaucrats follow them
  closely.

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Characteristics of Successful Interest Groups

• Leadership Accountability
• Transparency
• Membership feedback
• Membership Stability
• Whether a group is small or large, attracting and
  keeping members over time are essential to its
  survival.
• Selective benefits
• Solidarity Benefits
• Expressive Benefits

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Successful Interest Groups continued

• The Free Rider Problem
• Many of the benefits that large interest groups
  seek on behalf of their membersclean air by the
  Sierra Club, or gun rights by the National Rifle
  Associationare public goods. That is, they are
  available to all.
• - Tangible Benefits
• - Economic and Political Changes
• Financial Stability
• Membership dues
• Not for profit status
• Donations

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Interest Groups and Public Policy

• Immigration
• Interest groups align along both sides of the
  debate.
• Proponents of amnesty argue that bringing
  illegal residents into legal society would make
  it possible for them to earn fair wages,
  participate in politics, and pay taxes on their
  earnings.
• National Council of La Raza
• Opponents of immigration reform argue that the
  previous amnesty program has only encouraged more
  people to enter the United States illegally and
  that illegal immigrants take away jobs from the
  legal resident population.
• NumbersUSA

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Interest Groups and Public Policy
On March 21, 2010, Reform America staged a huge
march on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.,
calling for immigration reform that includes a
secure border strategy, expansion of the number
of legal immigration visas, and amnesty for
illegal immigrants currently in the United States.
Through the use of mass media and
advanced technology, groups can organize protest
marches on a much larger scale than ever before.
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Focus Questions

• How do interest groups influence economic and
  social policy?
• How do interest groups help or hinder government
  responsiveness to all citizens in an equal and
  fair way?
• Are interest groups themselves democratic
  organizations? Are their leaders accountable to
  their members? Explain.
• Do interest groups balance each other out, across
  income levels, regions, and ethnic backgrounds?
  Explain and give examples.
• Are interest groups gates, or gateways, to
  democracy?