1. Interest Groups: Organizing for Influence
Chapter 9
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2. The Interest-Group System
Economic groups
Business groups
Labor groups
Farm groups
Professional groups
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3. The Interest-Group System
Citizens’ groups
Purposive incentives
Groups based on social groupings
Single-issue groups
Ideological groups
Citizens’ groups difficult to classify
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4. The Interest-Group System
The organizational edge: economic groups versus citizens’ groups
Private goods versus collective goods
The free rider problem
The size factor: business groups smaller and more efficient
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7. Inside Lobbying: Seeking Influence through Official Contacts
Acquiring access to officials
“Revolving door”
Supply officials with information—policy support
Money is key element—amount contributed is staggering
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8. Inside Lobbying: Seeking Influence through Official Contacts
Acquiring access to officials
Lobbying Congress
Lobbying the executive
Lobbying the courts
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9. Inside Lobbying: Seeking Influence through Official Contacts
Webs of influence: groups in the policy process
Iron triangles
Bureaucrats, lobbyists, legislators
Small, informal, stable
Issue networks
Officials, lobbyists, and policy specialists
Temporary
More frequent than iron triangles
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11. Outside Lobbying: Seeking Influence through Public Pressure
Constituency advocacy: grassroots lobbying
Specialty of the AARP
Members of the public try to get lawmakers’ attention
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12. Outside Lobbying: Seeking Influence through Public Pressure
Electoral action: votes and money
PACs (political action committees)
Funneling a group’s election contributions
PAC contributions limited to $10,000 per candidate for each election
Most PACs associated with business
Give much more heavily to incumbents
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15. Outside Lobbying: Seeking Influence through Public Pressure
Electoral action: votes and money
Super PACs or independent-expenditure-only-committees (IEOCs)
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010)
Not allowed to contribute/coordinate directly to the party or candidate
Unrestricted fundraising and spending
Disclosure of donors not required
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16. The Group System: Indispensable but Biased
The contribution of groups to self-government: pluralism
Serving the “public interest”?
Flaws in pluralism
Interest-group liberalism
Not equally representative
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17. The Group System: Indispensable but Biased
A Madisonian dilemma
A free society must allow pursuit of self-interest
Checks and balances work to protect rights, but also exaggerate influence of minorities
Groups can wield too much influence over individual policies or agencies
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