Interest Group Factors Shaping Systems Britannica

Actually, there are three major types of interest groups. Animal rights groups such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals(PETA) and environmental interest groups such as Greenpeace usually organize as public-interest groups. These groups claim to work not for self interest but for the best interest of the public. Underpaid professional workers may organize as groups. Lawyers belong to the American Bar Association, doctors belong to the American Medical Association, and teachers belong to the National Education Association or the American Federation of Teachers. Labor unions such as the AFL-CIO and the Teamsters' Union to protect workers in factories or businesses.

The most common type of interest group is formed around businesses, corporations, and trade associations. Part of their reputation for power is based on the fact that they represent about half of all interest groups in Washington. People who criticize interest groups for having undue power in government believe that the business groups get special privileges for people who already have more wealth and power than ordinary citizens. For example, the oil and tobacco industries each have interest groups who promote their respective interests on Capitol Hill. Interest groups send representatives to state capitals and to Washington, D.C. to put pressure on members of Congress and other policymakers.

They engage in lobbying, or the organized process of influencing legislation or policy. Lobbying can take many forms. Interest groups can testify in congressional hearings. For example, several years ago, when Congress was considering discrimination in private clubs, representatives of the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts appeared in hearings to try to persuade Congress to allow each one... Lobbyists also contact government officials directly or informally, present research results and technical information, talk with people from the press and the media, and sometimes even help to draft legislation. Why should the politicians listen?

Interest groups also actively involve themselves in political campaigns. This electioneering is intended to help elect candidates who favor their positions or to defeat those who oppose them. It is generally conducted by political action committees (PACs), who serve as special political arms for the interest groups. Classroom Resources > Democracy in America > 14. Interest Groups: Organizing To Influence Interest Groups: Organizing To Influence

After completing this session, you will be able to: This penultimate unit delves into the role of interest groups in American political life. America has, as Tocqueville noted, long been a nation of joiners. We have a long history of joining together for common purposes, and thus it no surprise that organized groups prevail throughout the political system. As the unit shows, however, interest groups are not easily categorized. There is a wide variety of interests represented in the political system and they use an equally wide array of tactics and strategies.

Part of this unit demonstrates the vibrancy of strategies and tactics employed by groups attempting to influence public policy. The framers of the U.S. Constitution understood that organized interests would always attempt to exert influence on policy. They developed a constitutional system of republican government that takes organized interests as a given, and thus allows interests to weigh in on policy-making in various ways. In making the case for the Constitution’s ratification, James Madison placed the problem of organized interests at the center of his theory of republican democracy. In “Federalist No.

10,” he warns of the “mischief of factions” (i.e., organized interests) that could threaten individual or other groups’ liberties. The remedy for the problem of factions lies not in trying to eliminate them, but in controlling their effects. One solution is to encourage the proliferation of various groups of different shapes, sizes, and motives so that no one group dominates the others in ways that undercut basic rights and liberties. Who rules the United States? Does the American constitution enable the public to control public policy? Have the various institutional changes that have altered the constitutional system—changes in federalism, constitutional law and rights, as well as the development of the bureaucratic state—enhanced or undermined popular representation?

This chapter will consider these questions by examining the role of interest groups in American politics. There are no simple answers to these questions. Our ability to know the precise effects of interest group power is limited, because it is extremely difficult to determine whether the American federal government, responds to the interests of “the public” or the... Nevertheless, even though it can be difficult to determine the precise impact of interest groups on American politics, we can determine the features of American government that enable interest group power, and the changes... Theories of interest group power in American politics fall into two broad categories: pluralist theories and “power elite” theories (with many individual theories falling somewhere between these two extremes.) Pluralists argue that interest groups... Pluralists do not believe that interest groups necessarily “dominate” government in a way that has an adverse effect upon society.

Pluralists think that James Madison’s predictions about the character of American society in Federalist Paper #10 were correct. “Power” in American society is widely distributed amongst different groups, not least because political power (understood as the ability to exert influence over others) has many different sources: wealth, knowledge, education, numbers, organization, fame,... Given the wide variety of sources of power, and given the conflicts between different kinds of economic elites (the kinds of conflicts anticipated by Madison), interest groups in the United States do not form... There are many different kinds of interest groups, many different ways to exercise power within the American political system, and no permanent ruling class of interest that is always able to achieve its ends. Interest groups, therefore, do not distort American democracy; they are part of American democracy, and provide important links between government and the people. Without interest groups to provide information, mobilize the public, and lobby government officials, American society would arguably be less democratic.1

Critics of pluralism argue, in different ways, that the “chorus” of interest-groups in American society “sing with an upper class accent.”2 One modest version of this approach– sometimes referred to as “neo-pluralism”– is that... Evaluating pluralist and power-elite theories of interest group power is no easy task. Consider, for instance, the American federal government’s response to the financial crisis of 2008. The crisis was one of the most disruptive political events of recent decades. A collapse in housing prices destroyed or undermined major financial firms, which caused a deep and prolonged recession, and, arguably, led the public to reject the incumbent Republican administration of George W. Bush.

The financial crisis also led to some of the most extensive government economic intervention in recent memory. Both Republican and Democrat politicians were willing to use the immense resources of the national government to bail out financial institutions, as well as non-financial firms such as General Motors. The financial crisis and its aftermath appeared to confirm what many critics of American public policy had long suspected: legislators and regulators at the national level, rather than serving the public good, had succumbed... According to this perspective, Republicans and many Democrats enabled the rampant speculation that had created the housing bubble5 by repealing laws such as the Glass-Steagall act6, and by failing to update the regulatory framework... Rather than allowing the guilty parties to pay for their bad bets, the government stepped in to rescue many of them from the adverse consequences of their decisions. The Troubled Asset Relief program (TARP), which was part of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, directed almost $700 billion dollars in federal money to distressed financial institutions.

The Federal Reserve loaned financial institutions nearly twice that amount of money in response to the crisis as well.7 In good times, governments had provided the financial industry with deregulation; when times turned bad,... Yet some might claim, with good reason, that the federal government’s response to the financial crisis served the public interest. While it is difficult to know what would have happened in the absence of government intervention, it is possible that a complete breakdown of the American banking sector would a have occurred, a breakdown... Cabinet officials, bureaucrats, and representatives did work closely with Wall Street during the crisis, but this was unavoidable—devising and implementing the necessary policies would have been impossible without the expertise and cooperation of major... Furthermore, the Obama administration, working with its allies in Congress, passed the Dodd Frank Act, a set of comprehensive banking and financial regulations that place greater restraints on Wall Street in order prevent gigantic... From one perspective, then, the financial crisis seemed to suggest that the power of even the most resourceful industries was not unlimited; government power was asserted to protect the public interest, and not simply...

As Barney Frank, then Chairman of the House Financial Services committee put it, “when money comes up against the people, it never wins.” Interest group systems refer to the various ways in which organized groups attempt to influence political decisions and policy outcomes in different countries. These systems can vary significantly based on the number of interest groups, their organization, the political culture, and how they interact with government institutions. Understanding interest group systems helps to illuminate how diverse interests are represented in the political process and how this representation affects governance. Lobbying: The act of attempting to influence government officials or policies, often conducted by interest groups to promote specific legislative agendas. A political system where multiple interest groups compete for influence, leading to a balance of power that promotes democratic governance.

A system where interest groups are integrated into the policy-making process through formal channels, often leading to cooperative relationships between the state and organized interests. \( \newcommand{\vecs}[1]{\overset { \scriptstyle \rightharpoonup} {\mathbf{#1}} } \) \( \newcommand{\vecd}[1]{\overset{-\!-\!\rightharpoonup}{\vphantom{a}\smash {#1}}} \) \( \newcommand{\dsum}{\displaystyle\sum\limits} \) \( \newcommand{\dint}{\displaystyle\int\limits} \) \( \newcommand{\dlim}{\displaystyle\lim\limits} \)

This chapter describes the different types of members interest groups aggregate, how they are involved in the group, and their influence within the organization. The chapter opens with a brief reflection on the intermediary role of membership-based interest groups, who are often seen as transmission belts that relay the preferences of their members to policy-making processes. Subsequently, different types of members based on their nature (i.e., individuals, firms, institutions, and groups or associations), and the societal interests they represent (i.e., sectional, or cause) are discussed. In doing so, this entry also examines the different collective action problems experienced by interest groups and the consequences for the involvement and influence of members within the group. The main argument is that the internal logics that characterize member involvement in interest groups that aggregate individuals are significantly different when the members of groups are... This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Ahrne, G., & Brunsson, N. (2008). Meta-organizations. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited. Berry, J. M.

(1977). Lobbying for the people. The political behavior of public interest groups. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Binderkrantz, A. S.

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