1. Interest Groups: Organizing for Influence
Chapter 9

2. The Interest-Group System
Economic groups
Business groups
Labor groups
Farm groups
Professional groups
© 2014, McGraw-Hill Education. All Rights Reserved.

3. The Interest-Group System
Citizens’ groups
Purposive incentives
Groups based on social groupings
Single-issue groups
Ideological groups
Citizens’ groups difficult to classify
© 2014, McGraw-Hill Education. All Rights Reserved.

4. The Interest-Group System
The organizational edge: economic groups versus citizens’ groups
Unequal access to resources
Private goods versus collective goods
The free rider problem
The advantages and disadvantages of size
The size factor: business groups smaller and more efficient
AARP and strength in numbers
© 2014, McGraw-Hill Education. All Rights Reserved.

5. © 2014, McGraw-Hill Education. All Rights Reserved.
Insert Table 9-1 Advantages and Disadvantages Held by Economic and Citizens’ Groups
© 2014, McGraw-Hill Education. All Rights Reserved.

6. Insert Table 9-2 The Fifteen Top-Spending Lobbying Groups, 2011
© 2014, McGraw-Hill Education. All Rights Reserved.

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
© 2014, McGraw-Hill Education. All Rights Reserved.

8. Inside Lobbying: Seeking Influence through Official Contacts
Acquiring access to officials
Lobbying Congress
Lobbying the executive
Lobbying the courts
© 2014, McGraw-Hill Education. All Rights Reserved.

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
© 2014, McGraw-Hill Education. All Rights Reserved.

10. Insert Figure 9-1 How an Iron Triangle Benefits Its Participants
© 2014, McGraw-Hill Education. All Rights Reserved.

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
© 2014, McGraw-Hill Education. All Rights Reserved.

12. Insert Table 9-3 Tactics used in Inside and Outside Lobbying Efforts
© 2014, McGraw-Hill Education. All Rights Reserved.

13. 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
© 2014, McGraw-Hill Education. All Rights Reserved.

14. Insert Figure 9-2 Percentage of PACs by Category
© 2014, McGraw-Hill Education. All Rights Reserved.

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
© 2014, McGraw-Hill Education. All Rights Reserved.

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
© 2014, McGraw-Hill Education. All Rights Reserved.

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
© 2014, McGraw-Hill Education. All Rights Reserved.