1. Interest Groups

2. Interest Groups Definition Vs. Social Movement
Why does America have so many?
Constitution
Veto Points

3. Why is a particular group powerful?
Size
Resources
Leadership
Cohesiveness
Logic of Collective Action

4. Roles of Interest Groups
Representation
Participation
Education
Agenda Building
Program monitoring

5. Types of Interest Groups
Economic
Business / Trade Association
Agricultural
Labor
Public Employees
Professional Associations
Environmental
Public Interest (no economic self-interest in the issue)
Single Issue
Foreign Governments

6. Strategies Direct: Lobbying Publishing Ratings of Legislators
Building Alliances with Other Groups on Particular Bills (Coalition building)
Campaign Assistance (workers, endorsements)
Indirect:
Generate Public Pressure (advertising)
Ask Constituents to Contact Their Legislators

7. Raiding the Public Purse
Historian of Athens Alexander Tyler (1787): “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by dictatorship.”
In other words, the risk is the capture of public resources for private use.

8. Corporate Welfare 1. Direct Grants to Businesses
2. Programs That Provide Research and Other Services for Industries
3. Programs That Provide Subsidized Loans or Insurance to Businesses
4. Tax Relief to Particular Firms and/or Industries

9. Business Objections to Welfare
Even the pro-business CATO Institute opposes corporate welfare.
1. The federal government has a disappointing record of picking industrial winners and losers.
2. Corporate welfare is a huge drain on the federal treasury. Every year $75 billion of taxpayer money is spent on programs that subsidize businesses.
3. Corporate welfare creates an uneven playing field. By giving selected businesses and industries special advantages, corporate subsidies put businesses and industries that are less politically well connected at a disadvantage.
4. Corporate welfare fosters an incestuous relationship between business and government.
5. Corporate welfare programs are anti-consumer.
6. Corporate welfare is anti-capitalist. Corporate welfare has led to the creation in America of the ``statist businessman,'' who has been converted from a capitalist into a lobbyist.
7. Corporate welfare is unconstitutional. Corporate subsidy programs lie outside Congress's limited spending authority under the Constitution.

10. Selected Corporate Tax Breaks
Accelerated Depreciation
Capital Gains Tax Breaks
Multinational Corporations
Industry-Specific Tax Subsidies