Transcript Unit 4-Interest Groups

Unit 4: Interest Groups
I. What are Interest Groups?
A. An organized group that tries to influence
public policy. The change in policy is aimed at
helping the members of the group
II. Types and Examples
A. Economic Interest Groups
1. Business
a. GM, Microsoft
2. Trade and other Associations
a. National Realtors Association
3. Labor
a. AFL-CIO
4. Professional Associations
a. American Bar Association
B. Single Issue vs. Multi Issue Interest
Groups
1. National Right to Life Committee
2. NAACP
C. Public Interest Groups
1. American Heart Association
D. Foreign Policy Interest Groups
1. AIPAC
E. Public Sector Interest Groups
1. National League of Cities
a. earmarks
III. How Effective are Interest Groups
A. Factors
1. Overlapping memberships/
Crisscrossing memberships
2. Cohesion
a. formal leaders
b. activists
c. Members in name only
d. Free riders
3. money
4. issues-- mass member single issue
groups, N.R.A
IV. What do Interest Groups Do?
A. Techniques
1. Lobbying-- The activities of a group
or organization that seeks to influence
legislation and persuade political leaders to
support the group’s position
a. 23 ways for lobbyists and
organizations to lobby on the state and national
level
2. Persuasion—propaganda
3. Litigation—amicus curiae briefs
4. Rule making—attempting to sway
the regulations that regulatory agencies make
and enforce
5. Election Activities
a. Candidate Recruitment and
Endorsement
b. Getting out the Vote
c. Rating the Candidate or Office
Holders
d. Political Action Committees
6. Testify at legislative hearings
7. Help draft legislation
V. Lobbying Congress
A. Members of Congress targets of
lobbyists
B. Many lobbyists former members
1. Former Senators Bob Dole (R-KS)
and Robert Mitchell (D-ME) earn well over
a million dollars a year as Washington
lobbyists
VI. Lobbying the Executive Branch
•
As the scope of federal government has
expanded, so has lobbying of the executive
branch
–
–
–
Many potential access points
Lobbyist seek influence at formation and
implementation stages.
An especially strong link exists between
interest groups and regulatory agencies.
VII. Lobbying the Courts
•
Can take two forms
–
–
Direct sponsorship
Filing amicus curiae briefs
•
•
Brief that informs the court of the group’s policy
preferences, generally in guise of legal arguments
Interest groups also attempt to influence
who is nominated and placed on the bench.
VIII. Grassroots Lobbying
A. A form of pressure-group activity that
attempts to involve individuals who contact
their representatives directly in an effort to
influence policy
B. Persuading ordinary voters to act as the
group’s advocates
What the Top Lobby Spent,
1998–2012
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All rights reserved.
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IX. Criticisms of Interest Groups
A. The main concern is whether interest
groups are putting their group interest over
that of the country
B. All interest groups claim to speak for the
benefit of the entire country while just
speaking for themselves
C. Is the power of the individual vote being
manipulated by the power of special
interests?
D. Pluralist systems could violate
majoritarianism
1. Interest groups could be more
important than a majority of individual
voters
E. The poor don't generally belong to
interest groups and don't have money to
influence policy makers
X.
Reforms?
A. Public financing of Congressional
elections
B. Further limitations on contributions
C. Subsidizing political advertising (the
reason modern campaigns are so
expensive)
D. Lobbying Disclosure Act, 1995
1. Employs a strict definition of
lobbyist
2. Requires lobbyists to:
a. Register with the clerk of the
House and the secretary of the
Senate
b. Report their clients and
issues and the agency or
house they lobbied
c. Estimate the amount they are paid
by each client
3. Makes it easier for watchdog groups to
track the lobbying activity
E. Ethics in Government Act 1978
1. Former employees of executive
branch agencies may not:
a. Represent anyone before an
agency for two years after leaving government
service on matters that came within the former
employees' sphere or responsibility, even if the
employees were not personally involved with the
matter
d. Represent anyone on any
matter before their former
agency for one year after leaving
it, even if the former employees
had no connection with the
matter while in the government
2. Members of the upper levels of the
executive branch (including the
President, Vice President, and other
high-ranking officials) must file annual
public financial disclosure reports
XI. Political Action Committee (PAC)
A. a private group, regardless of size, organized to elect
or defeat government officials or to promote legislation
B. Created by Buckley v. Valeo
C. The # of PAC’s grew exponentially and so did their
campaign contributions
D. PAC monies are concentrated on incumbents
E. at most PAC’s can give $5,000 per candidate per
election.
F. at most PAC’s can give $15,000 per political party per
year.
G. at most individuals can give $5,000 per PAC per year.
H. Under federal law, PACs are not limited
in their ability to spend money
independently of a candidate campaign (known
as independent expenditures)
I. Candidates claim this special interest money
should be done away with--obviously they don't
want to because we still have it
J. Most PAC money goes to the chairmen of
Congressional Committees
K. Challengers are sometimes funded by PAC's if
the incumbent is an enemy, or the PAC isn't sure
who will win
Political Action Committees
(PACs)
*Can be formed by: Where the money goes:
Business firms
Business PACs give slightly more to
Republicans than Democrats
Labor unions
Labor unions give more than 90
percent to Democrats
Trade associations
various
Ideological organizations
Ideological PACs give to Democrats
and Republicans in about equal
amounts
*Each PAC must have at least 50 individual members.
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All rights reserved.
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