WEEK 8 ASSIGNMENT Interest Groups Professor Karina Arzumanova U.S. Goverment

An Interests Group is defined as an organization of people or a letterhead organization, sharing a common interest or goal that seeks to influence the making of public policy. In the American political system, there are a wide variety of interest groups that are organized for the sole purpose of exerting influence on the political and legal systems. These groups play a central role in deciding who gets what, when, where and how in legislative and budget processes. They also play a significant role in deciding which values will be promoted and enforced by the government. When individuals have common interests, it often makes sense for them to join together in pursuit of those interests. When this happens, a special interest group is formed. These groups then compete for a share of the limited resources distributed through the political process. While many groups are formed to compete for economic resources, others are formed to support their positions on issues like abortion and gun control. The limited resource these groups compete for is not money or real estate but rather the use of governmental power to enforce a particular set of values.
At the group level, it makes sense for groups to form and do the things they do. However, at the individual level, there are powerful incentives to be a free rider. If a group is pursuing your interests even though you, as an individual, are not contributing your time or your money to the group, what incentive do you have to contribute time or money to the group's efforts? Some people join groups because they are strongly motivated by the group's goals or, perhaps, they believe they can exercise power within the group that they would not otherwise have. Groups also entice people to join them by offering group benefits or even by punishing those who do not join.
Examples of group benefits include travel and insurance discounts, such as those available to members of the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP). Other groups, like the Sierra Club, send members calendars or other inexpensive but attractive rewards for group membership. The most common form of "punishment" is to deny those who do not join a group the ability to work in a particular profession. Unions accomplish this by supporting"closed shops" that only employ union members. Professional associations, such as the American Bar Association (ABA), license their members to practice their professions. Membership is a prerequisite to working in these professions. While there are thousands and thousands of groups in the American political system, not all groups are created equal. In fact, groups vary widely in their size, goals, unity, resources and influence. These differences are often interrelated. A group's size and resources depend on how attractive the group's goals are to potential group members and contributors. Group unity depends on how strongly and uniformly group members feel about the group's goals. A group's influence, in turn, depends on its size, unity and resources. A relatively large, highly unified group with ample resources, such as the American Medical Association (AMA), can exert a significant amount of influence on the policy process. A less unified but larger group, also with significant resources, such as the AARP can also be influential. In contrast, groups that are small, those with fewer resources and those that lack unity are less likely to be effective in the political process.
There are several different kinds of interest groups in the American political system. Some of the most common types include: Economic Groups are groups with a primarily economic focus include business and trade associations such as the National Florists Association, the National Association of Home Builders, the National Beer Wholesalers Association and professional associations for doctors, dentists and lawyers. Some economic "groups" consist of a single member, generally a large corporation such as Union Pacific or General Motors (and, presumably, its employees).Social Policy or Ideologically Based Groups Some groups are organized to support and promote a set of core ideological or political beliefs and ideals. Such groups include the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Landmark Legal Foundation. Some of these groups are narrowly focussed on a single issue, such as abortion--with the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL) on one side and the National Right to Life Committee on the other--or gun control--with the National Rifle Association (NRA) on one side and groups like Brady Campaign To Prevent Gun Violence on the other. Public Interest Groups Some groups exist for the express purpose of pursuing public interests that would not otherwise be pursued. Examples of such groups include Common Cause, which seeks campaign finance reform, and Public Citizen, a broad consumer advocacy group. Labor Unions Unions are generally formed to provide laborers with the power of collective bargaining against the strength of businesses and corporations. Unions also tend to be heavily involved in the political process. Prominent, politically active labor unions include the AFL-CIO and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
At the time the Constitution was ratified in 1789, parties and interest groups did not exist in the United States in a form that we would recognize today (Hofstadter 1969). Americans were aware of parties and other factional groupings from their experience with the British system. Rather than embracing parties and groups, however, they sought to stymie these entities. Indeed, as James Madison (1982, 45) argued in The Federalist, No. 10, the Constitution itself was designed to root out the mischiefs of faction. In Madison’s day, factions were loosely formed groupings of citizens, business leaders, politicians, and others, but not the well-organized machines that we encounter today (Yoho 1995). As a result, Americans were left to invent a system of parties and groups over time as political situations demanded them. Interest groups are policy maximizers, while political parties are focused on maximizing the number of seats they win in Congress. These competing goals have important implications for the relationship between interest groups and parties. In this study I develop and test a theory concerning the patterns of hard money contributions from Political Action Committees (PACs) to candidates for the U.S. Congress. I argue that interest groups have preferences as to which party controls a majority of seats in Congress, which leads them to direct “sincere” and electorally useful money to this party (i.e., labor groups prefer Democrats, corporate groups prefer Republicans). When interest groups donate funds to the “other” party, the donations are designed to have as minimal electoral impact as possible. Interest groups accomplish this by giving “strategic” donations to this party in the following way: donate less money almost exclusively to incumbents (who typically do not need the money in order to be reelected). Thus, while many PACs do give money to both Democrats and Republicans, which indicates the importance of access, it is evident from the overall pattern of donations that these groups clearly favor either one party or the other.

Interest groups attempt to influence public policy in a variety of ways. They try to influence the membership of Congress and who becomes President by giving money to political candidates. Interest groups cannot give money directly to candidates in federal elections--they must form political action committees or PACs. When an interest group's PAC gives money to a candidate, they hope to help elect someone who is favorable to their cause. After the election, they hope to be able to have access to and work effectively with the people they supported. (Because PAC contributions are limited to $5,000 and congressional campaigns generally cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, it is inaccurate to suggest that any one campaign contribution "buys" a vote.) Interest groups also organize lobbying efforts to persuade members of Congress to support or oppose particular pieces of legislation. They also organize group members and mobilize them to influence the Congress. Group members will often try to "flood" Capitol Hill with letters, phone calls, or e-mail messages from their members. Interest groups also use the courts to influence policy. They bring lawsuits and they often submit amicus curiae briefs to courts in an attempt to present their views on an issue and persuade the court’s ruling on the case in question. Interest groups also use grassroots lobbying to mobilize the public and thereby influence policymakers on a particular issue. This may include public demonstrations, letter writing, phone calls, faxes, and emails. Finally, contributing financial support to political campaigns remains one of the most influential roles of interest groups. Interest groups are funded through corporate budgets, membership dues, donations, investments, endowments, and grants. Interest groups are also known to sell magazines and conduct conferences, seminars, and training sessions to raise money. Lobbyists and interest groups and advocates of all kinds are increasingly influential in American elections and participate in the campaigns in a variety of ways, whether banned or not. They have an impact on the quality of campaigns and elections and on governing after candidates are elected. They fundamentally influence the way issues and problems are framed and ultimately the way policy is made in Washington. They promote candidates and issues, raise money, sway voters, and continue their influence through major issue campaigns after an election. They provide critical campaign services such as issue advocacy advertising, polling, advice about media strategy, organizing get-out-the-vote (GOTV) strategies, general tactical guidance for candidates, and many volunteers. These services continue during major issue battles in the policy process. Interest Groups & Advocacy will engage broadly with the politics of interests. It will record and analyze how advocacy by groups, movements and lobbying professionals shapes policy, and it will address important debates about how such interests are mobilized and maintained. It will cast a wide net across politics and society to identify the forces, strategies, and tactics that determine policy change. Open to diverse methodologies, it welcomes studies that address theoretical issues, reports rigorous empirical work, and delivers insight on the range of change agents, and their behavior and impact. Interest groups are one important mechanism through which citizens in the United States make their ideas, needs, and views known to elected officials. Citizens can usually find an interest group that focuses on their concerns, no matter how specialized they may be. Directories of American voluntary associations reveal the incredible variety of reasons why citizens band together.
Both the formal structure and the informal traditions of American politics provide fertile ground for interest groups. One feature of the American system that enhances their influence is the relative weakness of U.S. political parties, which stems, in part, from the separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches. In a parliamentary system such as Great Britain, where the prime minister's hold on office depends on majority support in Parliament, parties exert considerable control over legislators and, as a consequence, over policy making. In contrast, elections of the U.S. president and Congress are politically separate events, even when held at the same time. Each legislator must construct a winning coalition in his or her state or district, and the nature of these coalitions is quite different from the majority coalition that the successful presidential candidate assembles. Clear evidence for this is the fact that Congress and the presidency have been in the control of opposing parties most of the time since World War II. As a consequence, neither Democrats nor Republicans are invariably bound to support the positions of their party's president or their party's electoral platform. Weak party loyalty enhances interest-group influence, both during elections, when their financial support can be critical, and afterwards, when groups that supported the winning candidate become closely involved in policy making.
A second feature of the system that encourages interest groups is the decentralization of political power to states and localities, known as the federal system, or "federalism." Citizen associations often get started at the state and local levels, later combining into national organizations. Decentralization thus encourages a greater variety of interest groups. It also further weakens the party system, because the social and economic diversity of the 50 states make strict party discipline difficult.
In addition, a strong, independent judiciary in the American system enhances the power of interest groups. U.S. courts often rule on issues that, in other democratic polities, would be under the control of the legislature or bureaucracy. Thus, interest groups can utilize litigation to achieve policy objectives that they cannot obtain through legislative action. For example, in the early 1950s, court victories by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) created the first cracks in American racial segregation, years before a Congress dominated by Southerners in key positions was willing to act.
Finally, the American tradition of unlimited freedom of speech, press, and assembly means that nearly any point of view expressed by an interest group, no matter how radical, is permitted a public airing. To be sure, the increasing centralization of the media since World War II has made it more difficult for groups with fringe views to gain a serious hearing. However, this centralizing trend has been partially counteracted by the open access granted to groups on the Internet. On the whole, the American free speech and free press traditions, which offer numerous opportunities to publicize societal problems and lay out positions on public policy, encourage group formation.

References www.usinfo.com www.ablongman.com www.prenhall.com www.msu.edu www.thenation.com American Government Ninth Edition www.ehow.com