PSC 111 Exam 3 Concepts

Interest Groups Defn

Interest Groups Defn

Organized groups of people seeking to influence public policy

Examples of Interest Groups

• Mothers against Drunk Driving (M.A.D.D.)

• NAACP

• Sierra Club

Iron Triangle

• Policy making relationships - mutually beneficial political relationship concerned with a particular policy domain

• Policy made for benefit for the group, not the people

• President and public can be unaware

Three “points” of an Iron Triangle

Bureaucratic agencies, Congress, Interest Groups / Industry

Congress to Interest Groups / Industry

Friendly legislation and oversight

Interest Groups / Industry to Congress

Electoral support (i.e. campaign contributions, endorsements, advertising, future jobs, expertise)

Interest Groups to Bureaucratic agencies

• Congressional support via lobbying

• Monitor federal register

• Oversight

• Future jobs

Bureaucratic agencies to Interest Groups

• Low/favorable regulation, special favors

• Allies for Congress

Congress to Bureaucratic agencies

• Approve budgets

• Determine jurisdiction

• Funds and political support

Bureaucratic agencies to Congress

• Policy choices and execution

• Information

• Tailor policy

• Constituent complaints

Lobbying

Activities through which individuals, interest groups, and other institutions seek to influence public policy by persuading gov’t officials to support their group’s position

Lobbyist

Professionals who work to influence public policy in favor of their clients’ interests. Often old members of Congress

Inside Lobbying

Direct interaction with public officials for the purpose of influencing policy decisions

• People in Washington

• Building relationships

Outside Lobbying

attempts to influence gov’t policymakers by encouraging the general public to put pressure on them

• General public/public opinion

Inside Lobbying Tactics

• Trafficking in information (technical, political, info to inform and persuade)

• Political persuasion

• Building credibility

• Cultivating access

Outsider Tactics

Activities to mobilize constituents using both a

• Signaling role - communicate to politicians that they need to take care of policy (Letter writing and calls)

• Expansion role - influencing public opinion (mass media, demonstrations)

Insider And Outsider Tactics Share…

• Litigation (Challenge hostile laws, tend to be corporations)

• Electoral Politics (influence elected positions, monitor and publicize votes)

• Political Action Committees (pool money, give to political individuals, increase access to politicians)

Civil Liberties

protections from government (bill of rights)

Civil rights

Rights by the government (gov must do to protect equal citizenship)

Timeline

1861-1865 American Civil War

1865-1877 Reconstruction

1877-1960s Jim Crow Era

*1896 - Plessy v Ferguson - “Separate but equal”

*1954 - Brown v board - “Separate is NOT equal”

13th Amendment

• 1865

• Formally emancipates slaves

• Backlash came in the form of black codes

14th amendment

• 1868

• Apportion seats based on population

• Grants citizenship/ defines citizenship (1st clause )

• No state can make/enforce discriminatory laws (2nd clause)

• Due process and equal protection for all citizens(3rd clause)

15th amendment

• 1870

• Right to vote, many states got around this

• Cannot deny right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude

• Limited rights to men

Reconstruction Act of 1867

• Placed former confederate states under us military control

• States had to ratify the 14th amendment to join the Union

Civil Rights Act of 1866

• First law to define citizenship

• Attempts to make black codes unconstitutional

• Basic rights to freed men

• Affirms all citizens are protected by law

• Misdemeanor if not abided

Jim Crow Era

• 1877 - 1960

• Laws adapted in south to institute segregation

• Disenfranchised black Americans (poll taxes, literacy tests, etc)

• Based on white supremacy

• Never explicitly say race but implement based on racial discrimination

Plessy vs. Ferguson

Supreme Court declared Jim Crow + systematic segregation constitutional in 1896 (separate but equal)

Homer Plessy

• 1/8th black, rode in a whites only train car in Louisiana

Plessy v. Ferguson Decision

• State law of separation was Constitutional

• Accommodations are “separate but equal”, as long as facilities are equal, segregation is okay

• Separation does not imply superiority / inferiority

Plessy v. Ferguson Question

Is Louisiana’s law mandating racial segregation a violation of the 13th and 14th amendment?

Justice Harlan

• Argued equal accommodations are racist and ridiculous

• Separate is NOT equal

Segregation in the North

De facto segregation: happens by fact, not by law (houses, bank lending, employment, etc)

Segregation in the South

De jure segregation: by law (black codes)

Housing Discrimination

• Great Migration - black people move to the North to escape South violence

• social tensions heightened, economic shock in Great Depression

• Red lining determines where black people live

• Federally sanctioned racial discrimination put black citizens in worst housing and lowest paying jobs, concentrating poverty

Redlining

Racial discrimination of any kind in housing, but it comes from government maps that outlined areas where Black residents lived and were therefore deemed risky investments.

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka

• Overturns “separate but equal” in terms of education

• Consolidation of 5 cases and deals w/public schools

• Used social science in the case

Brown v. Board Question

Does segregation deprive students of educational opportunities?

Brown v. Board Decision

Earl Warren delivers unanimous ruling that separate is not equal, and ruled segregation in schools unconstitutional

Thurgood Marshall

• Head of NAACP, eventual Supreme Court Justice

• Ruled segregation has a detrimental effect on minority children

Civil Rights Act of 1964

• Prohibited major forms of discrimination in society

• Removed blatant discriminations and segregation from schools, public accommodations, employment, etc.

• Enforce through revoking public contract if discrimination is present - had to show deliberate discrimination (burden of proof on individual)

• Federal funding can be cut if discriminatory practices upheld

• Required voting rules and procedures to be applied equally

• Defined literacy as a 6th grade education

• Does not cover housing

1968 Fair Housing Act

Extended protections and authorizes the government to provide damage awards

Failures of the 1968 Housing Act

• Not enough to prevent predatory lending

• Government enforced idea that value dropped if black people lived there

Predatory Lending

• Targets minority groups

• Unfair lending practices

• Balloon payments / teaser rates for mortgages

Case for Reparations

• Ta-Nehisi Coates

• Focuses on redlining and housing discrimination through the eyes of people who have experienced it and the devastating effects it has had on the African-American community.

Reparations Asked For in Case for Reparations

• Coates suggests incorporating the $34 billion racial income difference into a reparations program

• H.R. 40 is touted as a starting point for a national discussion on reparations and increased research on the topic.

• A revolution of the American consciousness, a reconciling of our self-image as the great democratizer with the facts of our history

• Suggests instead job training and public works to disenfranchised and impoverished individuals of all races

Terms in Case for Reparations

• Buy on contract - someone else owns house, you rent. miss a payment, could lose the house.

• Blockbusting - white residents buy homes at lower rates, sell for much higher rates to black citizens

• HR-40 - bill that researched into reparations, introduced many times, calls to study reparations

19th Amendment

Right to vote for women, 1920

Civil Rights Act of 1957

• US commission for civil rights

• Federal crime to prevent person for voting

• Public/private intereference

Civil Rights Act of 1960

• Provisions for federal inspection of local voter polls

• Preventing voting/registration - crime

• Defines a vote as casting a ballot

Impetus for 1965 Voting Rights Act

• Freedom summer murders

• Selma to Montgomery marches

Voting Rights Act of 1965

• Directly addresses qualifications beyond citizenship

• Prohibits vote denial and dilution

• Directed Attorney General to challenge the use of poll taxes

• Established coverage formula, determining which states need preclearance

• Preclearance needed from the federal government before voting laws can change for covered jurisdictions

• Bail out provision

General Provisions

Nationwide

Special Provisions

Statewide/local

Shelby v. Holder

• Shelby County, Alabama, filed suit in district court and sought both a declaratory judgment that Section 5 and Section 4(b) are unconstitutional and a permanent injunction against their enforcement.

Shelby v. Holder Decision

Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act is unconstitutional

Shelby v Holder Question

Does the renewal of Section 5 of the Voter Rights Act under the constraints of Section 4(b) exceed Congress' authority under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, and therefore violate the Tenth Amendment and Article Four of the Constitution?

RBG on Shelby v. Holder

• Congress doesn’t have unlimited authority, but has the authority to reauthorize

Justice Roberts on Shelby v. Holder

• The Court held that Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act imposes current burdens that are no longer responsive to the current conditions in the voting districts in question.

• “Times have changed”

Effects of Shelby v. Holder

• Opens door for discriminatory voting legislation

• Bama implements voter ID law

• NC has a strict voter ID requirement