Interest Groups

1
Interest Groups

• Chapter 9

2
Interest Groups

• A lot of differences among Americans has led the
  proliferation of interest groups
• Long history of them,
• Huge variety of issues including abolition,
  prohibition, gun rights, farm issues, religious
  associations, environmental groups, political
  reform, balanced budget, businesses, unions, even
  older Americans
• Remember PACs and interest groups are
  interchangeable

3
Definition

• An interest group is defined as any organization
  that seeks to influence public policy through
  LOBBYING
• Two types institutional and membership
• Institutional - deals with individuals or
  organizations representing other organizations
  such as business firms and unions
• Membership deals with social, business,
  veteran, charitable, religious issues
• Americans join groups more than Europeans and
  this may be due to a sense of civic duty

4
Why join an interest group?

• Feel a part of the political process, pleasure,
  companionship (NAACP, League of Women Voters,
  PTO, American Legion)
• Material incentives - money, things, services
  (farm organizations, AARP)
• Common goals passion about an issue, common
  ideology, public interest, protection (ACLU, NRA)

5
Social movement and funding

• Interest groups have long been involved in a
  variety of social movements such as abolition,
  the environment, feminism, and unions
• Funding for interest groups comes from 3 sources
• Foundation grants
• Federal grants and contracts not for lobbying
  but for projects
• Direct mail but expensive

6
What else do they do?

• Well, interest groups can be biased
• People of wealth more likely to join them and
  influence them
• Business/professional groups have more than
  those representing minorities or consumers
• How about the info they provide?
• Interest groups are there to provide information
  to members as well as legislators
• They target (or lobby) those undecided
  legislators or other government officials

7
Money and PACs

• Money is the least effective way of influencing
  politicians
• Still, incumbents get the most PAC money
• Labor PACs give to Democrats
• Business PACs tend to split their money
• PAC money may influence politics in different
  ways like access to a candidate or committee
  action also may become more influential on
  certain issues (called client politics)

8
The Revolving Door

• Heres an interesting phenomenon?? Many people
  leave public office, get hired by a PAC and then
  return to Washington to lobby. It can happen
  over and over again (Donald Rumsfeld for
  example). This can lead to a conflict of
  interest and an unfair manipulation of government
  agencies (FDA)

9
Last slide

• PACs have certain protections including the First
  Amendment
• Some regulations define lobbying and control
  the money flow
• Tax codes modified to stop some non-profits
  from lobbying or risk losing their status
• And, finally, new campaign finance laws limit the
  amount of a person can give to a PAC