Interest Groups

What are Interest Groups?

  • Organization of people with shared policy goals entering policy process at one of several points

How is it different from a Political Party?

  • Political Parties run candidates to win control of Government Offices

  • Interest Groups seek to influence officials to adopt their policy preferences

  • Interest Groups may endorse candidates, but do not run their own people

Types of Interest Groups

Membership Interest Groups

  • Social or Civil advocacy groups

  • Usually made up of groups of motivated citizens

  • Have high levels of sympathetic supporters, most do not actually join or pay dues

    • support the group but do not participate

Corporate/Industry Interest Groups

  • Corporations contribute dues to be members of these groups

  • These lawyers and PR specialists make up the core of special interest lobbying groups

  • Members are companies, not citizens

  • Groups hire lawyers and politicians to lobby on company behalfs

Why Do Interest Groups Have a Bad Reputation?

  • Writers of the Constitution disliked organized factions - Federalist 10

  • Dishonest lobbyists get more press than honest ones

  • “Lobbying” in general has negative connotations

Theory Connection - Pluralism

  • Many centers of power and many diverse, competing groups

  • No group wins or loses all the time

  • Interest groups are a linkage institution between people and government

Theory Connection - Elitism

  • Societies are divided along class lines and the upper-class elite will rule

  • Power is not equally divided among groups, some have much more.

  • Lobbying is a problem because it benefits few at the expense of many

Characteristics of Successful Interest Groups

A successful Interest Group immensely grows when it first starts, then comes to a plateau and maintains this

  • Leadership Accountability

    • Transparency

    • Membership Feedback

  • Stability

    • Large or small, they attract and keep members over time

      • Selective Benefits

      • Solidarity Benefits

      • Expressive Benefits

The Challenge of Large Groups

Free-Rider problem: people that benefit from a group’s activities without officially joining.

  • The bigger group, large the free-rider problem

  • Large groups are difficult to keep organized

    • Small break-away groups can give the large group a bad reputation

Ways Groups Influence Policy

Lobbying

Educating government decisions makers on your policy in hopes of influencing them.

Pro: can help legislatures craft effective laws

Con: can also act as a barrier to entry for average voters

Electioneering

  • Direct group involvement in election process

  • Forming PACs, 527s, and Super PACs

  • Groups may give to both sides

Political Cues and Ratings

  • Interest Groups promote parties and candidates that benefit them

  • They rate candidates for their membership to promote officials that are friendly to their cause

    • Will rate candidates on their site on how friendly they are, how in align with their groups’ interest(s) they are, etc

Litigation

litigation = sue

  • Interest groups can file amicus curiae briefs in court cases to support position

  • Class Action Lawsuits on behalf of citizens/members/voters

    • they go to court on your behalf, you sign that they can speak on your behalf and you can be compensated

Going Public

public marketing campaign about their issue to influence normal citizens to possibly join the group but mostly call congress about the issue

  • Groups use marketing strategies to influence public opinion of group and its issues

  • Use advertising to motivate the public about an issue

  • Grassroots lobbying to get members to advocate on behalf of their interest

“Astroturfing”

  • Corporate interest group created “grassroots” movements

  • Usually contain regular citizens, but all organization and funding come from corporate/industry sources

  • Can use very sophisticated online and “IRL” organization to spread their message

Iron Triangles

  • Strong relationship between an interest group

  • A Congressional committee,

  • and bureaucratic Agency

Issue Networks

  • Complex interactions between interest groups,

  • multiple committees,

  • and bureaucratic agencies