Political Science Chapter 8 Interest Groups Flashcards

What is the definition of an interest group?a. A group of people who work to get a candidate elected from a certain partyb. A group of people who work to influence policy and support candidates regardless of partyc. A group of bipartisan votersd. None of the above Which of the following is not a type of interest group?a.

Economic groupsb. Labor groupsc. Civil rights groupsd. Demographic groups What do pluralist theory, transaction theory, and disturbance theory all have in common?a. They explain why candidates need interest groups.b.

They explain why interest groups are no longer important in politics.c. They explain how interest groups are formed.d. They explain whether and how interest groups hurt politics. Which of these is an advantage of interest groups?a. They argue against substantive policy change.b. They allow people with strong opinions on relevant issues to try to affect policy.c.

They increase the amount of dark money in politics.d. None of the above Which of these is a disadvantage of interest groups?a. Interest groups represent multiple viewpoints about how people want government to act.b. Interest groups raise money for candidates so that their policies can be implemented.c. Interest group activity can lead to a minority rather than a majority being heard in government.d.

Interest groups play no role in government. An interest group is an organized collection of individuals who work to influence government and policy. There are several different types of interest groups. Economic groups can be divided into categories such as business groups, labor groups, agricultural groups, and professional groups. Noneconomic groups include public interest groups, single-issue groups, civil rights groups, and ideological groups. Various theories explain why interest groups form.

Pluralism suggests that diverse interests represent a variety of views and demands and that political powers are distributed among these various groups. Disturbance theory, on the other hand, asserts that interest groups change in response to complex issues in society and calls on the government to react to these changes. Transaction theory refutes pluralism, arguing that government actors only respond to a narrow set of interests. Interest groups are important to the political process because they bring a diversity of views and demands before the popularly elected government. Interest groups also foster the development of social capital, or the maintenance of relationships and networks that allow citizens to solve collective problems. However, interest groups have their downsides.

One is factionalism: while a multitude of interest groups may represent many problems, only a small number of them garner the government’s attention. This may be due to the economic bias in the interest group system, where moneyed interests are more likely to be represented and catered to. Interest groups work to influence government through inside lobbying, which is when groups create formal relationships with governmental officials. When interest groups rally public support for policies or political candidates, they engage in outside lobbying. The last attempt to reform lobbying activity was in 2007, though in 2021 President Biden signed a series of executive orders limiting lobbyist involvement in the executive branch. A political party is a group of people who share a common political ideology and work to get their members elected into government.

In addition to scouting and electing candidates, political parties raise money and work to influence governmental policy. Parties are also heavily involved in registering new voters. Party systems take on different forms. In the United States, we have what is called a two-party system, where there are two major political parties involved in government activity. In contrast, much of Europe uses a multiparty system where the government is made up of multiple parties that must share power. Single-party systems, like those in China and North Korea, are political systems that consist of only one party.

Some scholars argue that political parties play a decreasing role in US politics due to the rise of the candidate-centered campaign. In candidate-centered campaigns, candidates are increasingly less reliant on parties to run for office. These candidates may be independently wealthy, and in recent years there has been a rise of populist candidates who are less reliant on traditional political structures. Lower voter registration rates, declines in party activism, economic factors, and the rise of communication technologies illustrate a weakening of party systems around the world. Elections are formal decision-making processes in which groups determine which individuals will hold public office. Elections are a vital part of democracy that rests on the idea of popular will since they are the mechanism by which people express their preferences, and they are one of the most important...

Elections face problems in that sometimes voters do not have all the required information to make decisions that best represent their interests. Moneyed interests can have a heavy influence on election outcomes, and the people’s will can be misrepresented when political actors choose to make decisions that differ from voters’ intentions. Relative to other countries, America has low voter turnout; a significant number of people registered to vote do not actually turn out on Election Day to cast a ballot. There are a variety of reasons for this, including voter fatigue, the lack of an Election Day holiday, onerous registration requirements, and low levels of social capital.

People Also Search

• Political Science Chapter 8 Interest Groups Flashcards
• Chapter 8: Interest Groups Flashcards by Cassandra Gomez
• political science chapter 8 Flashcards - Cram.com
• Chapter 8: Parties, Interest Groups and Public Policy
• Chapter 8 Notes - CHAPTER 8 - POLITICAL PARTIES AND INTEREST GROUPS ...
• Chapter 8, Interest Groups, Political Parties, and Elections Video ...
• Intro to Political Science Chapter 8 Interest Groups Flashcards
• Parties, Interest Groups & Public Policy: Chapter 8 Overview
• Ch. 8 Summary - Introduction to Political Science | OpenStax
• Chapter 8: Political parties and Interest Groups Flashcards