1. Interest Groups and Political Parties
Chapter 9
CHAPTER 9: INTEREST GROUPS AND POLITICAL PARTIES

2. In this chapter, you will:
Learn what interest groups do—and how they do it.
Investigate why people identify with one party (or why they don’t)
Analyze a paradox: Americans like their parties and don’t like partisanship
Reflect on whether the U.S. has grown too partisan—and whether interest groups and lobbyists wield too much power
CHAPTER 9: INTEREST GROUPS AND POLITICAL PARTIES

3. The Many Roles Interest Groups Play
Interest groups, or organizations that seek to influence government, employ lobbyists to pursue benefits for their clients or membership.
Groups serve their members by communicating political information to them, analyzing and relating members’ views to policymakers, and mobilizing people to act politically.
A long debate continues among pluralist, hyperpluralist, and power elite theorists about whether the collective public is well represented by interest groups.
Interest groups come in several types: economic groups such as businesses or labor unions, citizens or public interest groups, and intergovernmental organizations.
CHAPTER 9: INTEREST GROUPS AND POLITICAL PARTIES

4. Interest Groups and The Federal Government
Lobbyists perform a wide range of roles, from researchers to social butterflies.
Lobbyists working in some traditional areas still form “iron triangles” with congressional staff and executive branch officials.
More fluid “issue networks” featuring lobbyists as central players increasingly characterize today’s complex policymaking environment.
Successful lobbyists master information, do in-depth analysis (which allies can use), engage in political campaigns, and form close ties with one of the two major parties.
Interest groups also lobby the judicial branch by funding confirmation battles, filing amicus curiae briefs, and financing litigation.
CHAPTER 9: INTEREST GROUPS AND POLITICAL PARTIES

5. Interest Groups and Power
Because of the difficulty of directly measuring interest-group influence in government, researchers turn to metrics such as the number of lobbyists and the monies they spend on lobbying.
Beginning in the mid-1960s, an advocacy explosion saw lobbyist numbers climb dramatically. Resources devoted to lobbying also rose sharply beginning in this period. And lobbying spread to state and even local governments.
Despite their extensive presence and spending, lobbyists are not likely to change congressional minds on high-profile votes; their role is more akin to supporting the members already on their side. Votes on more obscure or highly technical topics are easier for lobbyists to sway.
CHAPTER 9: INTEREST GROUPS AND POLITICAL PARTIES

6. Political Parties and U.S. Government
Political parties perform five major functions: they champion ideas, select candidates, mobilize voters, organize government action, and integrate new groups into the political process.
America’s two-party style has endured for more than two hundred years. Since 1866, Democrats face off against Republicans. Election rules help explain this dominance. Third parties challenge but none has ever managed to break through.
We count six party systems since the founding of the United States. The latest, which began in 1972, is marked by very close elections.
CHAPTER 9: INTEREST GROUPS AND POLITICAL PARTIES

7. Who Joins? Party Identification
Most Americans identify strongly with Republicans or Democrats, though the number of independents has been rising.
Strong party identification is a result of many factors, including parental influence, political context, and even personality type.
Party identification shape voting the ways we filter political information, and our bedrock ideas.
Each party features multiple factions.
CHAPTER 9: INTEREST GROUPS AND POLITICAL PARTIES

8. Party Organization
Parties include three groups: the party organization, the party in government, and the party in electorate.
Both major parties in the U.S. adopt a “big tent” approach, relaxing ideological purity in order to attract a broad range of supporters.
CHAPTER 9: INTEREST GROUPS AND POLITICAL PARTIES

9. Party Competition... And Partisanship
The political parties are thriving—and highly competitive. Recent national elections have featured narrow margins of victory in presidential races and frequent shifts in party control.
This competition has helped fuel a rise in partisan differences, evident among both national policymakers and the U.S. public.
Most Americans—and many social scientists—believe that partisanship is affecting the quality of American government. The intensity of the conflict, they believe, will weaken our institutions.
CHAPTER 9: INTEREST GROUPS AND POLITICAL PARTIES

10. Chapter Summary
Interest-group lobbying has long been a vital feature of U.S. government and politics. Interest groups are deeply engaged in all parts of our policymaking system, and groups have sprung up to represent virtually every imaginable professional, personal, and identity-based interest, providing their members with information about federal policies and conveying those members’ concerns to Washington.
Public anxiety centers on interest groups’ reputed power to affect policymaking. Groups spend billions of dollars each year to advance their views, and they swarm over Washington (and, increasingly, state capitals) in large numbers. Interest groups are active in all three branches of government; in each, they both seek and provide information—the currency of politics. They also work on (and help finance) political campaigns and are closely intertwined with leadership of both Republican and Democratic parties.
CHAPTER 9: INTEREST GROUPS AND POLITICAL PARTIES

11. Chapter Summary
The United States’ two-party style has endured for over two hundred years, with Democrats and Republicans its main standard-bearers since 1856.
The foundational American ideas and the organization of our elections help explain the dominance of the two parties. Third parties arise periodically, but none has ever managed to break through and seriously challenge two party rule.
The system of two parties—and the contest between them—regularly shifts as new party systems arise. Each change in party system means a different coalition of voters making up each party and in the ideas that inspire those voters.
CHAPTER 9: INTEREST GROUPS AND POLITICAL PARTIES

12. Chapter Summary
A substantial majority of voting-age citizens identifies strongly with one of the two major parties, though a growing number declare themselves independents. The powerful sense of party identification is a result of many factors, including parental influence, political context, and even personality type.
Party identification in turn helps shape our voting patterns, the way we filter political information, and our bedrock ideas about politics and government.
CHAPTER 9: INTEREST GROUPS AND POLITICAL PARTIES

13. Chapter Summary
Each major party works to unite under one “big tent” their key figures and followers. These include the party in government (elected politicians, their staffs, and affiliated political professionals); the party organization (party chairs, the national committees, and the state party leaders); and the party in the electorate (the millions of people who identify with the party).
Most U.S. citizens—and many social scientists—believe that partisanship and interest-group proliferation are both affecting the quality of the U.S. government. The intensity of the conflict, they warn, will weaken our institutions.
CHAPTER 9: INTEREST GROUPS AND POLITICAL PARTIES