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American Government 4/e Thomas E. Patterson | |||||
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American Government 4/e Thomas E. Patterson | |||||
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CHAPTER OUTLINE
Introduction
Interest groups killed Republican plan to include Medicare in balanced budget proposal
Did these groups hurt the public’s interest?
Interest Group: "A set of individuals organized to promote shared political concerns"
The chapter’s main points:
Economic groups are the most thoroughly organized
Noneconomic groups often have organizational problems
Groups use lobbying and electioneering to influence political leaders
The interest-group system overrepresents business interests and the wealthy
The Interest-Group System
Introduction
United States had incredible group diversity
Organizations differ—skills, money, time, leadership, capacity for action
Economic Groups
An organizational edge—immediate access to abundant financial resource
Private or individual goods granted to individual members
Madison: Property was the cause/source of factions
Types of Economic Groups
Business Groups—very active/numerous
U.S. Chamber of Commerce—180,000 businesses represented
American Petroleum Institute—single trade/industry
Have the "size factor" advantage (delay of air bags in autos)
Labor Groups
Dominant group: AFL-CIO (13 million members, ninety-seven affiliated unions)
About one-seventh of all workers currently belong to unions
Nation’s largest unions today represent service and public employees
Agricultural Groups
American Farm Bureau Federation (4.7 million members ) is largest group
Disagreement exists among groups
Professional Groups (AMA—250,000 members)
Citizens’ Groups (Noneconomic Groups)
Members join for purposive incentives
The Free-Rider Problem—due to offering of collective or public goods
Groups seek to combat problem by offering benefits available only to group members (e.g., newsletters, activities), using Internet
Types of Citizens’ Groups
Public Interest Groups—claim to represent broad interests of society
League of Women Voters
Common Cause (250,000 members—founded by John Gardner)
Single-Issue Groups—concerned about one policy area only (e.g., right-to-life, pro-choice; environment)
Ideological Groups—philosophical or moral stance (e.g., ADA, NOW, NAACP)
A Special Category of Interest Group: Governments
Foreign governments use lobbyists in Washington (one thousand registered agents)
States, cities lobby—intergovernmental lobby (trade associations, bureaucracies)
Inside Lobbying: Seeking Influence Through Official Contacts
Interest groups similar to political parties in some ways, but differ in important respects
Parties address broad set of issues; interest groups usually have narrower concerns
Parties’ primary concern is to contest and win elections
Modern government: involved in many issues, oriented toward action
Lobbying—"efforts of groups to influence public policy through contact with officials"
Effectiveness depends upon group’s size, finances, nature of policy demands
Acquiring Access to Officials—inside lobbying
Lobbyists provide information, indications of group strength
Lobbyists: many are former members of Congress, Washington lawyers
Money—"the essential ingredient of inside lobbying efforts"
American Petroleum Institute
Many groups spend $1 million or more each year
Persuasion Through Contact and Information
Lobbying Congress—identify bills worthy of support
Lobbyists must be willing to compromise
Arm-twisting is an unacceptable practice (NAFTA and AFL-CIO)
Lobbying Executive Agencies
FCC—example of agency "capture"
Capture theory—describes only some agencies some of the time
U.S. bureaucracy ranks high in terms of efficiency/honesty
Lobbying the Courts—judicial nominations, amicus curiae briefs, lawsuits
Webs of Influence: Groups in the Policy Process
Iron Triangles—small/informal sets of bureaucrats, lobbyists, legislators (Veterans Affairs)
Issue Networks—informal grouping of officials, lobbyists, policy specialists
Unlike iron triangles, issue networks built around policy expertise
Example: nuclear power
Outside Lobbying: Seeking Influence Through Public Pressure
Constituency Advocacy: Grassroots Lobbying
Good example: MADD (membership of over 2.5 million)
Precise impact of grassroots campaigns usually difficult to assess
Electoral Action: Votes and PACs (money buys access; influence of NRA)
PAC Spending—political action committee
Raises money by soliciting contributions from members/employees
1998 ceiling: $10,000 per candidate ($5,000 in primary, $5,000 in general election);
Now about four thousand PACs
PACs: account for nearly a third of congressional campaign contributions
More than 40 percent of all PACs associated with corporations
The Incumbent Advantage
PACs donate more money to incumbents because incumbents are likely to win
PACs especially likely to support incumbents on key committees
Should PACs be Abolished? (too much influence over public officials?)
PAC advocates say groups have the right to be heard
PAC critics say PACs exercise undue influence over public officials
The Group System: Indispensable but Flawed
The Contribution of Groups to Self-Government: Pluralism
Group activity is an essential party of self-government
AARP—30 million members; powerful lobby for elderly
Reason for social security being off-limits
AARP members—generate more mail to Congress than any other group
Pluralist theory: sum of people’s varied interests equals society’s collective interest
Flaws in the Pluralist Argument
Theodore Lowi: Minority (special-interest) rule doesn’t equal collective interest
Interest-Group Liberalism—a series of minorities is favored
Example: federal stickers on used cars repealed by car dealers
Officials support policy demands of groups with a special stake in policy
Government partially abdicates its authority over policy
Economic Bias—group system is not representative
Organization not distributed equally
Biased toward America’s economic groups, especially business
Biased toward upper-middle-class interest
A Madisonian Dilemma
Madison: realized the need for advocacy of self-interest under guise of liberty
Checks and balances: designed to block control by a majority faction
But system has permitted minority factions (special-interest groups) to win
Rausch: describes the debilitating effects of groups on government as "demosclerosis"
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