1. Aim: What is an interest group and why do people join
Aim: What is an interest group and why do people join? Do Now: Examine the list of interest groups. Which ones best represent your interests?
Center for Reproductive Rights
Friends of Tobacco
MADD
NAACP
American Medical Association
National Rifle Association
Defenders of Wildlife
Union of Concerned Scientists
American Life League
American Cheese Society
Americans for Better Immigration
Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers
American Civil Liberties Union
Criminal Justice Policy Foundation

2. Sierra Club

3. United Auto Workers (UAW)

4. American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)

5. American Association of Retired People (AARP)

6. National Association of the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

7. National Rifle Association

9. Interest Groups in Govt.
Interest Group: Any organization that seeks to influence public policy. They are a linkage institution: They help link citizens to government
Represent cleavages in our society
Federalist #10
They have many access points to government
Where parties are weak, they operate in the government
Where parties are strong, they work through the party

10. Types of Interest Groups:
Institutional: Individuals or organizations representing other organizations. (General Motors, American Cotton Manufacturers Institute, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Nat. Association of Counties) - They tend to focus on “bread-and-butter” issues (economic issues that impact everyone) Membership: Individuals or organizations representing individual people of a particular interest (NAACP, Sierra Club, NRA)

11. Types of Interest Groups
Economic – Labor unions, agricultural, Business, Professional
Consumer – public interest, environmental
Equality and Justice – racial issues, gender issues, minority issues

12. Types of Interest Groups:
501 (c) (3): nonprofit group that may legally address political matters but may not lobby or campaign; donations to it are tax deductible
501 (c) (4): Nonprofit group that is permitted to lobby and campaign; donations to it are not tax deductible

13. Why people join: Incentives:
Material: money or things valued in monetary terms (AARP)
Solidary: social rewards, companionship, sense of belonging (NAACP, LWV)
Purposive: benefit from serving a cause or principle. (Ideological groups - ACLU)
Public Interest Lobby: when the purpose of an organization will benefit nonmembers
Free Rider Problem – when people don’t join because they will benefit from the group’s efforts either way
Try to remain in the public eye
Do best when current administration is hostile to their cause

14. Factors which Impact the Formation of Interest Groups
1. Broad economic developments create new interests and redefine old ones 2. Increasing government policy and programs need to be monitored 3. Social Movement – a widely shared demand for change in some aspect of the social or political order, e.g. Civil Rights Movement, Environmental Movement 4. Groups are organized because they are impacted by government activities, e.g. Labor Unions, social program group supporters

15. Public Interest Law Firms:
American Civil Liberties Union
Asian American Legal Defense Fund
Atlantic Legal Foundation
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights
Mexican American Legal Defense Fund
Washington Legal Foundation
Pacific Legal Foundation
Mountain States legal Foundation
Women’s Legal Defense Fund
The Center for Individual Rights
Criminal Justice Legal Foundation
Natural Resources Defense Council
Landmark Legal Foundation
NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund

16. Liberal Conservative American Civil Liberties Union
Asian American Legal Defense Fund
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights
Mexican American Legal Defense Fund
Women’s Legal Defense Fund
Natural Resources Defense Council
NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund
Atlantic Legal Foundation
Washington Legal Foundation
Pacific Legal Foundation
Mountain States legal Foundation
The Center for Individual Rights
Criminal Justice Legal Foundation
Landmark Legal Foundation