GOVT

1. GOVT Chapter 6 Interest Groups

2. Learning Objectives

3. Interest Groups and American Government

4. How Interest Groups Form • An interest group is an organization of people sharing common objectives who actively attempt to influence government policymakers through direct and indirect methods. • Interest groups may form in response to change – a political or economic change, a shift in population or technology, or a change in social values.

5. Interest Groups: Financing • An interest group must have patrons – people or organizations willing to finance the group. • Groups usually collect fees or donations from members, but few can survive without large grants and donations.

6. Interest Groups • Surveys show that at least 85% of Americans belong to at least one group. • The existence of persons who benefit but do not contribute is called the free rider problem. • If an interest group is successful in lobbying for laws that will improve air quality, everyone will benefit whether they paid for the lobbying effort or not.

7. How Interest Groups Function in American Government • Interest groups serve several purposes in American politics: • Help to bridge the gap between citizens and government. • Help raise public awareness and inspire action. • Often provide public officials with specialized and detailed information that might be difficult to obtain otherwise. • Serve as another check on public officials to make sure that they are carrying out their duties responsibly.

8. Interest Groups in American Government • According to the pluralist theory, politics is a contest among various interest groups. • Pluralists maintain that the influence of interest groups on government is not undemocratic because individual interests are indirectly represented in the policymaking process through these groups.

9. How Do Interest Groups Differ from Political Parties?

10. Interest Groups v. Political Parties Interest Groups Political Parties • Are often policy specialists. They have only a handful of key policies to push. • Are usually more tightly organized than political parties and financed through contributions or dues-paying memberships. • Try to influence the outcome of elections but do not compete for public office. • Policy generalists. They are broad-based organizations that must attract the support of many opposing groups and consider a large number of issues. • Are more loosely organized than interest groups. • Main sphere of influence is the electoral system; parties run candidates for political office.

11. Different Types of Interest Groups

12. Business Interest Groups • Two umbrella organizations that include large and small corporations and businesses are the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers. • Hundreds of trade organizations are less visible, but are also important in seeking policies that assist their members. • Trade organizations usually support policies that benefit specific industries. • Business interest groups have been viewed as staunch supporters of the Republican Party because Republicans are more likely to promote a “hands-off” government policy toward business.

13. Labor Interest Groups • Interest groups representing labor have been some of the most influential groups in our country’s history. • The largest and most powerful labor interest group today is the AFL-CIO (the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations), a confederation of fifty-six national and international labor unions representing 11 million members. • Unions not affiliated with the AFL-CIO also represent millions of members.

14. Labor Interest Groups • Although unions were highly influential in the 1930’s through the 1950’s, their strength and political power have waned in the last several decades. • Today, members of organized labor make up only 12.4% of the labor force – all of the people over the age of sixteen who are working.

15. Agricultural Interest Groups • Three broad-based agricultural groups represent millions of American farmers. • The American Farm Bureau Federation (Farm Bureau) • The National Grange • The National Farmers Union • The Farm Bureau is the largest, representing more than 5.5 million families. Founded in 1919, it achieved one of its greatest early successes when it helped to obtain government guarantees of “fair” prices during the Great Depression of the 1930’s.

16. Consumer Interest Groups • Groups organized for the protection of consumer rights were very active in the 1960’s and 1970’s. • Consumer groups deal with such problems as poor housing, discrimination against minorities and women, discrimination in the granting of credit, and business inaction on consumer complaints.

17. Senior Citizen Interest Groups • While the population of the nation as a whole has tripled since 1900, the number of elderly persons has increased eightfold. • Persons over the age of sixty-five now account for 13% of the population, and many of these people have united to call attention to their special needs and concerns. • These interest groups have been very outspoken and persuasive.

18. Environmental Interest Groups • Environmental interest groups are becoming some of the most powerful in Washington, D.C. • Environmental groups have organized to support pollution controls, wilderness protection, and clean-air legislation. • They have opposed strip-mining, nuclear power plants, logging, chemical waste dumps, and many other potential hazards.

19. Environmental Interest Groups • Environmental groups are greatly concerned about global warming and have supported recent attempts to control pollutants that may contribute to the problem. • The issue of carbon taxes on imports has united environmentalists with U.S. industries that worry about foreign competition.

20. Professional Interest Groups • Most professions that require advanced education or specialized training have organizations to protect and promote their interests. • These groups are concerned mainly with the standards of their professions, but also work to influence government policy. Some also function as labor unions. • Four major professional groups are: • The American Medical Association • The American Bar Association • The National Education Association • The American Federation of Teachers

21. Single-Issue Interest Groups • Numerous interest groups focus on a single issue. • Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) lobbies for stiffer penalties for drunk-driving convictions. • The abortion debate has created various single-issue groups such as the Right to Life Organization and NARAL Pro-Choice America. • Other examples are the NRA and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

22. Government Interest Groups • Efforts by state and local governments to lobby the federal government have escalated in recent years. • The federal government has sometimes lobbied in individual states, too. • For example, during the 2004 elections, the U.S. Attorney General’s office lobbied against medical marijuana use in states that were considering ballot measures on the issue.

23. How Interest Groups Shape Policy

24. Direct Techniques • Lobbying and providing election support are two important direct techniques used by interest groups to influence government policy.

25. Direct Techniques: Lobbying • Lobbying refers to all of the attempts by organizations or individuals to influence legislation or the administrative decisions of government. It is one of the most widely used and effective ways to influence legislative activity. • A lobbyist is an individual who handles a particular interest group’s lobbying efforts. • Lobbying can be directed at the legislative branch, at administrative agencies, and even at the courts.

26. Direct Techniques: Providing Election Support • Interest groups often become directly involved in the election process. They provide campaign support for legislators who favor their policies and urge their members to vote for candidates who support the views of the group. • They can also threaten candidates with the withdrawal of votes. • Since the 1970s, federal laws governing campaign financing have allowed corporations, labor unions, and special interest groups to raise funds and make campaign contributions through political action committees (PACs).

27. Indirect Techniques • Interest groups also try to influence public policy through third parties or the general public. • These indirect techniques can be particularly effective because public officials are often more impressed by contacts from voters than from lobbyists. • Indirect techniques include: • Shaping public opinion • Issuing ads • Mobilizing constituents • Going to court • Demonstrating

28. Indirect Techniques: Shaping Public Opinion • To cultivate public opinion, efforts may include television publicity, newspaper and magazine advertisements, online campaigns, mass mailings, and the use of public relations techniques. • Some interest groups use rating systems, rating legislators according to the percentage of times they vote favorably on select issues. • One of the most powerful indirect techniques used by interest groups is the “issue ad” – a TV or radio ad taking a position on a particular issue.

29. Indirect Techniques: Mobilizing Constituents • Interest groups sometimes urge members and other constituents to contact government officials to show their support for or opposition to a certain policy. • The NRA has successfully used this tactic to fight strict federal gun control legislation by delivering half a million letters to Congress within a few weeks.

30. Indirect Techniques: Going to Court • Civil rights groups paved the way for interest group litigation in the 1950s and 1960s with major victories concerning equal housing, school desegregation, etc. • Interest groups can also influence the outcome of litigation without being a party to a lawsuit. • Frequently, an interest group files an amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) brief in an appellate court. • Often, interest groups have statistics and research that support their position on a certain issue, and this research can have influence on the justices deciding the case.

31. Indirect Techniques: Demonstration • Some interest groups stage protests to make a statement in a dramatic way. The Boston Tea Party of 1773 is testimony to how long this tactic has been around. • Over the years, many groups have organized protest marches and rallies to support or oppose issues. • Not all demonstration techniques are peaceful.

32. Today’s Lobbying Establishment

33. Why Do Interest Groups Get Bad Press? • Despite their importance to democratic government, interest groups are often criticized by both the public and the press. • Congress has tried to impose stricter regulations on lobbyists. The most important legislation regulating lobbyists was passed in 1946 and was revised in 1995 and again in 2007. • The problem with stricter regulation is that it could abridge First Amendment rights.

34. The Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 • This act reformed the 1946 act: • Defined a lobbyist as anyone who either spends at least 20% of his or her time lobbying members of Congress, their staffs, or executive-branch officials, or is paid more than $5000 in a six-month period for such work. • Lobbyists must report their clients, the issues on which they lobbied, and the agency or chamber of Congress they contacted.

35. Lobbying Scandals in the 2000s • In 2005, a number of lobbying scandals in Washington, D.C. came to light. A major figure in the scandals was Jack Abramoff, an influential lobbyist who had ties to many Republicans (and a few Democrats) in Congress and to various officials in the Bush administration. • Eventually, Abramoff pleaded guilty to charges of fraud, tax evasion, and conspiracy to bribe public officials. Abramoff received a prison sentence in 2006. • The following year, Congressman Robert Ney (R., Ohio) and former Bush administration official Steven Griles also received prison sentences for their part in the scandal.

36. Lobbying Reform Efforts in 2007 • Following the 2006 midterm elections, the new Democratic majority in the Senate and the House undertook a lobbying reform effort. The goal was to force lobbyists to disclose their expenditures on House and Senate election campaigns above and beyond straight campaign contributions. • Bundled campaign contributions, in which a lobbyist arranges for contributions from a variety of sources, would have to be reported. • Expenditures on the sometimes lavish parties to benefit candidates would have to be reported as well. The new rules covered PACs as well as registered lobbyists. • President Bush signed the resulting Honest Leadership and Open Government Act in September 2007.

37. Lobbyists and the Obama Administration • During his campaign for the presidency, Barack Obama pledged that “lobbyists won’t find a job in my White House.” • That pledge turned out to be unenforceable. Out of 267 senior administration officials appointed by May 2009, 30 had served as lobbyists within the past five years. • Appointees signed a pledge not to work on issues for which they lobbied in the previous two years, but given the positions that many of these appointees filled, such a pledge was probably unworkable as well.

38. Lobbyists and the Obama Administration • Other restrictions imposed included a rule that all communications with lobbyists over economic stimulus projects had to be in writing. • When Obama spoke at a congressional fund-raiser in June 2009, lobbyists were banned from attending. • Many old hands in Washington considered Obama’s policies toward lobbyists absurd and predicted that they would not last.

39. Politics on the Web www.ipl.org/div/aon www.nra.org www.aarp.org www.nea.org www.nrdc.org www.4ltrpress.cengage.com/govt