1. Homework: Assignment 9 for tomorrow
Agree or disagree: “Those special interest groups in Washington DC are too powerful, and are destroying America.”
Homework: Assignment 9 for tomorrow

2. Interest Groups: Origins and Purposes
Unit 3a: AP Government and Politics

3. “Who are these ‘special interests’ that are ruining America?”
“Yes , ladies and gentlemen, we are the special interests. All of us. You may not raise Angora goats; you may not grow corn. But you are part of some group – probably many of them – that has unique interests: a profession, an ethnic group, a demographic group, a neighborhood, an industry, a part of the country.
It is facile (effortless) to declare that politicians should just do the right thing. The hoary old cliché about tough decisions is true. Doing the right thing – making a decision that generates more benefits for the nation than costs – will not cause people to stand up and cheer.
It is far more likely that the many people you have made better off will hardly notice while the small group you have harmed will pelt your car with tomatoes.”
Charles Wheelan, Naked Economics

4. Why do interest groups exist?
First, the more divisions in society, the more variety of interests that will exist.
We have many different lines along which we divide ourselves, and these make for a variety of interests and opinions.
It is inevitable; Madison said, “the latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man.”
Second, due to the separation of powers, plenty of places exist to plead one’s cause.
“Access points”
And with more chances/places to influence policy, more organizations will seek to exercise that influence.
Third, weakness of political parties
Where parties are weak, interests operate directly on the government; where they are strong, interests work within the parties.

5. Theories of Interest Group Formation
15.1
Theories of Interest Group Formation
Pluralist Theory
Political power distributed among groups; many groups who vie for power; “hyperpluralism”
Disturbance Theory
Groups form in response to change; as new laws emerge or issue rise, groups form to address them
Transactions Theory
Public policy results from transactions among political players; the “elites”, who have lower “transaction cost” because they have more time and money
There is no shortage of theories to explain how interest groups form and influence public policy. The pluralist theory, for example, argues that political power is divided among a wide range of competing interest groups.
Taken one step further, this becomes disturbance theory, which claims that interest groups form in response to changes in the political system.
In turn, groups that are opposed to the first group’s interests will form as well, thus ensuring that a wide range of voices are active in the political system. Ironically, this is evident in the establishment of transactions theory, which arose out of criticism of the pluralist and disturbance approaches.
Transactions theorists suggest that policies are actually the result of narrowly defined exchanges or transactions among political actors. The transactions are narrow because the elite classes have more time and money available to mobilize into interest groups. Therefore, according to transactions theorists, the voices heard most often in the political system belong to the elites.

6. Kinds of Interest Groups
15.1
Public Interest Groups
Seek a collective good; don’t benefit directly from their actions
Economic Interest Groups
Promote the economic interests of their members
Includes labor groups like the AFL-CIO
Ideological, Single-Issue Groups
Members have common values, or value one issue
Governmental Units
State and local governments lobby, too
**Political Action Committees
Officially registered fundraising organizations that represent interest groups
Interest groups can take may forms, as we’ve already said. Public interest groups, for example, seek a collective good for a larger group of people. Both the Civil Rights movement and the Progressive Era’s push for better working and living conditions for immigrants fall under this category.
Economic interest groups, on the other hand, exist to promote the economic interests of their members. These include trade and professional organizations such as the American Medical Association and labor groups such as the AFL-CIO.
Next we have governmental units. In the increasingly complex world of federal policy and bureaucracy, state and local governments have found themselves needing to lobby for their interests as well.
Finally, we have Political Action Committees, which are officially registered fundraising organizations that represent interest groups in the political process.

7. Most powerful*
How do we measure power in an interest group? Is it money? Membership? Consistent voter turnout? NRA is likely most powerful in many of those respects.

8. What are the Characteristics of Selected Interest Groups?
Let’s take a quick look at Table 15.1, which shows us the membership levels and fundraising characteristics of some of the major interest groups. As you can see, the AARP tops the membership list with 40 million members, followed by the AFL-CIO, which we mentioned in the last slide, with 11.5 million members, and MoveOn.org, which has 5 million members. Of those three, only AARP does not also have a Political Action Committee.

9. The Problem with Interest Groups
What was “Madison’s Dilemma”, as outlined in the Federalist 10?
Why does Madison say that factions are detrimental to the public good?
Why is removing the causes of factions not possible, according to Madison?
**What are the liberties that give rise to factions?
What “remedy” does Madison propose to cure the effects of factions?
Explain Madison’s argument with regard to this remedy.
In your opinion, do factions (parties, interest groups) have a positive or negative effect on our democracy? Why or why not?

10. How are political parties and interest groups similar and different?
Membership?
Internal differences?
Focus?
Number of issues?
Goals?
How do they achieve these?