Untitled Flashcard Set

Interest Group

An organization of people with a shared interest who try to affect public policy in favor of their interest.

Pluralists Theory

Theory that political power is distributed among a wide array of diverse and competing interest groups.

Elite Theory

Theory that political power is divided among class lines where the upper-class has all the power.

Hyperpluralists

Theory of political power that says competing groups weaken government because it becomes paralyzed and cannot accomplish much.

Disturbance Theory

The theory that an external event can lead to interest group mobilization and that groups form to counteract the efforts of other groups.

Transactions Theory

Theory that states public policies are the result of narrowly defined exchanges or transactions among political actors.

Collective Goods

Something of value that cannot be withheld from a nonmember of a group; for example, tax write-offs or a better environment.

Public Interest Groups

An organization that seeks a collective good that will not benefit only select group members.

Economic Interest Groups

Group with the primary purpose of promoting the financial interest of its members.

Potential Group

All the people who might be interest group members because they share some common interest; always larger than the actual group.

Actual Group

That part of the potential group that actually joins the group.

Free-rider problem

Problems faced by unions and other groups where potential members do not join but receive the benefits; larger groups face larger free-rider problems.

Political Action Committees (PAC)

Fund-raising organizations created for the sole purpose of raising money for political candidates, regulated by the Federal Election Commission.

Olson’s law of large groups

A principle that states the larger the group, the further it will fall short of providing an optimal amount of a collective good.

Lobbyists

Representatives of an interest group seeking to influence legislation that benefits their organization or client.

Selective benefits

Goods that a group can restrict to those who pay their annual dues.

Single-issue groups

Interest groups that have a narrow (single) interest.

Electioneering

Direct group involvement in the electoral process, such as funding campaigns and providing testimony.

Right to work law

State law forbidding the requirement that workers must join a union to hold their jobs, permitted by the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947.

Public Interest lobbies

Lobbyists who seek a collective good rather than benefiting only a select group of people.

Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007

Lobbying reform banning gifts to members of Congress and their staffs, toughening disclosure requirements.