Interest Groups

• A private organization that tries to persuade public officials to respond to the shared attitudes of its members

• Interest groups attempt to influence public policy by operating where those policies are made or can be influenced, at every level of government.

Political Parties and Interest Groups

• There are three major differences between political parties and interest groups

1. Parties nominate candidates for public office.2. Political parties are chiefly interested in winning

elections and controlling government. Interest groups are chiefly concerned with controlling or influencing the policies of government.

3. Political parties deal with a wide-range of affairs. Interest groups only focus on the issues that immediately effect them.

Good or Bad?• Valuable functions of interest groups:– Help stimulate interest in public affairs; represent the

interest of their members; provide useful, specialized, detailed information to government; vehicles of political participation; add another element to our checks and balances system; provide competition in the political arena.

• Criticisms of interest groups– Some are more highly organized and better-financed than

others; it is hard to tell who, or how many people a group represents; many groups do not represent the views of all the people they claim to speak; some groups use dirty tactics.

Economic Groups

• Business Groups – business have always looked to government to promote and protect its interests.– The U.S. Brewers’ Association, National

Association of Manufacturers, Chamber of Commerce, Business Roundtable

– Trade Association – a segment of a business with its own interest group. (American Trucking Association and the National Restaurant Association)

Labor Unions

• An organization of workers who share the same type of job or who work in the same industry.– The AFL/CIO is the largest labor union in the

country with over 13 million members.

Agricultural Groups

• Interest groups that serve the interests of agriculture.– The Grange, American Farm Bureau Federation,

National Farmers Union

Professional Groups

• Protect the interests of workers in occupations that require extensive and specialized training, such as medicine, law, or teaching.– American Medical Association, American Bar

Association, National Education Association

Other Interest Groups• Groups that promote a specific cause

– ACLU – fights to protect civil and political rights.– Common Cause – works for reforms to the political process– League of Women Voters – dedicated to stimulating participation by

women in the political process.– National Rifle Association – protects the 2nd Amendment

• Groups that promote the welfare of certain groups– American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars– American Association of Retired People– NAACP

• Religious Organizations– Christian Coalition– National Catholic Welfare Council– Anti-Defamation League

Public Interest Groups

• An interest group that seeks to institute certain public policies of benefit to all or most people in this country– Common Cause– Ralph Nader’s Public Citizen, Inc.

Interest Groups at Work

• Three major goals of interest groups– To supply the public with information an

organization thinks the people should have.– To build a positive image for the group.– To promote a particular public policy.

Propaganda

• A technique of persuasion aimed at influencing individual or group behaviors. Its goal is to create a particular belief.

• It works by beginning with a conclusion, then bringing in evidence that supports it.

Affecting Public Policy

• Interest groups try to sway decisions of political parties by keeping close ties with leaders of both parties, by urging members to become active in party affairs, by supporting a particular candidate, and by donating money through PACs.

• Single-interest groups are PACs that concentrate their efforts on one issue, such as abortion, gun control, or health care, and campaign for or against a candidate based solely on that issue.

Lobbying

• Is the activities by which interest group pressures are brought to bear on legislators and the legislative process.– The major task for lobbyists is to work for those matters

that benefit their clients and against those that may harm them.

– They try to persuade legislators and other policy makers by giving them information about their cause, testifying before committees, apply “grass roots” pressures, present legislation to Congressmen, and rate members of Congress in terms of helpfulness on public reports.

Lobby Reform

• Federal Regulation of Lobbying Act– Required lobbyists, whose “principal purpose” is for

influencing legislation, to register with the clerk of the House and the secretary of the Senate.• The act was ineffective because it was difficult to define “principal

purpose”

– Lobbying Disclosure Act• Requires registration by all individual lobbyists and organizations

that seek to influence members of Congress, their staffers, or any other policy-making official.– Name, address, principal place of business, description of activities,

and similar information about their clients.