Chapter+11+Notes

=Role of Interest Groups= According to many political scientists, interest groups are a staple of American Democracy.
 * //**Interest groups**// are organizations of people with shared policy goals entering the policy processes at several points to try to achieve those goals.
 * The right to achieve these goals are protected by the Constitution, which guarantees people the right to peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
 * These goals can range from outlawing abortion to regulating tax loopholes. Additionally, every branch of government, every level of government can be used to achieve these goals.
 * Ways Political Parties and Interest Groups Differ: **
 * While political parties use the electoral process to follow their goals, interest groups may support candidates for office, but they do not run their own candidates.
 * Interest groups are often **//policy specialist//s**, whereas parties are //**policy generalists**//. This means that most interest groups only focus on a handful key policies that they will push.
 * For example, a farm group will not care about the status of urban transit, and an environmental group will not care about the minimum wage.
 * On the other hand, political groups have to take into account multiple views and needs and will therefore care about all the issues concerning the citizenry. Therefore, interest groups do not face the constraints imposed by trying to appeal to everyone.

(Bogdan Bordieanu, November 13th) (Revised By Chelsea Frasier, November 16)

An abridged version of the above information: **__Role of Interest Groups:__**
 * Background information
 * The right to organize groups is protected by the Constitution, which guarantees people the right "peaceable to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
 * Definition of Interest Groups
 * An organization of people with shared policy goals entering the policy process at several points to try to achieve those goals. Interest groups pursue their goals in every level of government.
 * NOTE: They are different from political parties.
 * How?
 * They support candidates for office but do not run their own slate of candidates.
 * They are policy specialists and do not have to feel the constraint of political parties of trying to appeal to everyone.
 * So...What is their role?
 * They allow for Americans to get involved in the government.
 * They let citizens express their opinions and have their interests represented. Politicians are more likely to listen to people's concerns if the people are joined together in an interest group.
 * They can educate policymakers.

(Kimberly Varadi - November 15, 2011)

=Pluralism: Benefits and drawbacks=

In **//Pluralist theory//**, groups with shared interests influence public policy through organized efforts. They may become lobbyists, and even if their purpose is not fulfilled, they still made a difference by making the issue well known. According to this theory, groups accomplish many different purposes: To Pluralists, government is essentially a mediator in the game of politics, where the many, many interest groups are the players.
 * 1) They provide a means for the people to influence government. People who are passionate about a particular issue can join an interest group to make their claim heard with less trouble than it would take to use other means.
 * 2) It is a vehicle for government officials to hear those people who have a concern intense enough to seek change.
 * 3) And Pluralist theory is good because no one group is too powerful so as to control and block the rest of the groups. And the system is, according to Pluralists, good enough to restore order when one group becomes too powerful. When a group gets too far ahead, Pluralists claim, that group's opponents are more likely to become stronger and eventually make the competition more fair.

There are some //drawbacks// to this theory also:
 * Groups cannot all be as powerful, so inevitably some groups will gain more than others, and not all issues will gain equal hearing.
 * The rest of the drawbacks are the reason why other theories have gained popularity.
 * Elitists, for example, claim that the aforementioned imbalance of power is so large that power is not really in the hands of all the groups. Instead, only a few groups hold real power to make change happen.
 * Another criticism, carried out by Hyperpluralists, is that there are so many groups that government is ineffective and stagnant. Many groups are at odds with each other, and while Pluralist theory claims that government acts as a mediator, **//Hyperpluralist theory//** claims that government ends up doing nothing in its futile attempt to please all of the different groups.

(Diego Farias, November 10th) (Revised by Chelsea Frasier, November 16)

__**Benefits:**__ (Note: When you think of pluralism...think **OPTIMISTIC**!)
 * Groups will win some and lose some but no one group will always win or always lose
 * Groups provide a key link between people and government
 * The interest group system is inclusive, so very few are excluded. ("Everyone's voice will be heard!")
 * __Drawbacks:__ **
 * Groups may be inclusive, but they are not always effective.
 * This theory may be too unrealistic. Groups are not always going to have friendly competition, in which they play by the "rules of the game."
 * According to proponents of the Elite Theory, this theory is of little significance because real power is in the hands of the upper class/elite members of society.
 * The relevance of the Pluralist Theory is on the decline.
 * Robert Putnam argues that many of the problems of American democracy stem from a //decline// in group-based participation. In other words, he believes that there are less people participating in groups.

(Kimberly Varadi - November 14, 2011)

=Elites: Why do they hate pluralism= = = Elitists claim that the political landscape has too many groups that achieve nothing because of poor organization, etc. According to them, these groups being too numerous don't truly reflect a democratic system because only a few groups have the power to get ahead. In reality, they claim, most interest groups do not help their own cause because those groups are insignificant in the grand scheme of government, being small and lacking funds or any source of power. Real power rests in the hands of those few groups that have the advantage. These groups are mostly large Corporations which, through interlocking directorates, create a "fortified system" where all the main groups work in unison. And even though small groups may challenge and sometimes even win small battles against these groups, it is the Corporations that will ultimately prevail. Even though many groups are "making themselves heard," the results will end up benefiting the Elite, not those smaller groups that would initially appear to make this system so democratic. Elitists criticize Pluralism because of the aforementioned insignificance of the plethora of groups this theory champions. These small groups don't achieve anything, and are largely insignificant to the nation as a whole.The idea that all groups, no matter how small, can make a difference is Utopian and impossible to achieve.

(Diego Farias, November 10th)

REMEMBER: Proponents of the Pluralist Theory are **OPTIMISTIC** about interest groups and in their belief that group activity brings representation to all. SO....Why do elites hate pluralism? The answer is obvious. Critics of pluralism believe that it paints too rosy a picture of American political life. By arguing that almost every group can get a piece of the pie, they say that pluralists miss the larger question of how the pie is distributed. The poor may get food stamps, but, in their eyes, businesses get massive tax deductions worth far more. What is the eli te and class theory? It contends that our society is divided among class lines and that an upper-class elite pulls the strings of government. Basically, it looks down upon the Pluralist theory as ultimately insignificant. Elites argue that major policy battles are won by the elites because they hold the most power in government. Who actually holds office in Washington is of marginal consequence to elitists; the corporate giants always have the power.

(Kimberly Varadi - November 14, 2011)

=Hyperpluralism: What is interest group liberalism?=

Hyperpluralists criticize Pluralism on the grounds of apparent excess. There are so many small groups in the nation that, Hyperpluralists claim, nothing gets done, as the government cannot advance the interests of all of these groups. These groups are populated with rational people who are interested in their own well-being, and whose only reason to join said interest groups is to advance and defend the issues that matter to them. Government is populated with subgovernments which ultimately make the nation stagnate. Not only are there interest groups whose only purpose is to change policy in a particular way, but also there are government officials with those same interests. The problem with Pluralism arises when two such subgovernments seek different changes, and in the end nothing may get done or whatever gets done may end up being innocuous and ineffective. Thus, tough choices are never made in a government such as this one, since the government has the opposing sides too firmly entrenched. One example of this is the government wishing to help Environmentalists, who want to impose regulation on large businesses that create pollution, and moneyed interests and businesses, who want those regulations reduced because they are too expensive. In short, Hyperpluralists claim that government has become too friendly with too many groups, resulting in ineffective policy and GRIDLOCK.

One specific critique of Pluralism is called Interest group liberalism, a term coined by Theodore Lowi. He claims in "//The End of Liberalism//" that all interest groups are given too much attention because they are not judged based on the nature of their assertion, or how much their assertion could help improve society as a whole. Instead, they are judged based on the political resources resources they bring.

(Diego Farias, November 10th)

An abridged version of the above information: __**Hyperpluralism:**__
 * Definition
 * A theory of government and politics stating that groups are so strong that government is weakened. It is an extreme, exaggerated, or perverted form of pluralism.
 * What results from hyperpluralism?
 * Interest group liberalism
 * This refers to the idea that the government feels a need to be extremely deferential to groups. All pressure group demands are legitimate, and the government tries to advance them all.
 * Interest group liberalism can cause - the budget to skyrocket, agencies to proliferate, and programs to multiply.
 * This is promoted by the network of subgovernments in the American political system, in which there are "iron triangles," composed of key interest group leaders interested in a policy, the governmental agency in charge of administering the policy, and the members of congressional committees and subcommittees who handle the policy.
 * Policy gridlock
 * In the government's effort to please everyone, it ends up creating contradictory and confusing policy.
 * What's next?
 * The recent interest group explosion is seen by scholars as weakening the power of subgovernments. With so many more interest groups to satisfy, and with many of them competing against each other, a cozy relationship between groups and the government is more difficult to sustain.

(Kimberly Varadi - November 15, 2011)

=Olson's law of large group= As shown in //Fortune's// "Power 25", a yearly list of the 25 most powerful interest groups in politics, most successful interest groups are small. This interest fact is explained by Olson's law of large groups which states that "The larger the group, the further it will fall short of providing an optimal amount of a collective group." This is a result of the free-rider problem which is the problem faced by unions and other groups when people do not join because they can benefit from the group's activities without officially joining. Therefore, the bigger the group, the more serious the problem, since people think rationally and ask themselves "why should I join a group, pay dues, and work hard for a goal when others will do this which will benefit me?". Small groups thus have an organizational advantage over larger ones. In a small group, member's shares of the collective good may be great enough that they will try to secure it. In largest groups, however, each member can expect to get only a tiny share of the policy gains. By thinking rationally, they realize that the small benefits do not outweigh the costs of participation. Olson's law of large groups explains why consumer groups have a hard time achieving their goals, since there are so many consumers, and their gains will be divided among too large of a population. In contrast, the lobbying costs and benefits for business are concentrated, which makes business interest groups successful.

(Bogdan Bordieanu, November 13th)

An abridged version of the above information: __**Olson's Law of Large Groups:**__
 * Background information
 * Interest groups, according to Mancur Olson, are in the business of providing a collective good. A collective good is something of value that cannot be withheld from a potential group member. Therefore, if people are able to get the benefits of a collective good without doing any work, they feel little incentive to actively participate in an interest group. A rational response is to sit back and let other people do all of the hard work. This is known as the free-rider problem.
 * Definition
 * This law, advanced by Mancur Olson, states that "the larger the group, the further it will fall short of providing an optimal amount of a collective good."
 * IN OTHER WORDS - The bigger the group, the more serious the free-rider problem.
 * Helps explain
 * The success of small groups
 * The power of business in politics is due to more than just money. Since they are generally small, they have an easier time organizing themselves for political action than larger potential groups.
 * You CAN overcome this law!
 * How?
 * Groups can give selective benefits - goods that a group can restrict to those who pay their yearly dues, such as group insurance rates or travel discounts -- to give people more of an incentive to actively participate in a group.

(Kimberly Varadi - November 15, 2011)

=How interest groups shape policy= There are many ways through which interest groups can shape policy. Arguably the most popular way is lobbying.

Lobbying is a communication, by someone other than a citizen acting on his or her own behalf, directed to a governmental decision maker with the hope of influencing his or her decision. Lobbyists are political persuaders who represent organized groups. They can be regular paid employees of a corporation, union or association, or they may be available for hire on a temporary basis for groups that does not need the costs of a full-time lobbyist. Although lobbyists are primarily out to influence members of Congress, they can also help them in many ways. 1. They are an important source of information. 2. They can help politicians with political strategy for getting legislation through. 3. They can help formulate campaign strategy and get the group's members behind a politician's reelection campaign. 4. They are a source of ideas and innovations.

Lobbying can also be done in different ways. Some may choose to be heavy handed and threaten a legislator, implying that electoral defeat is inevitable if the interest group is not be helped. On the other hand, they can also assure legislators that they will get money if the interest groups are helped. Studies have shown that lobbying can sometimes be ineffective such as the influence of groups on foreign trade policy, where the lobbyists were too disorganized to be effective. Other studies have shown that lobbying can certainly be effective such as the lobbyists for the National Rifle Association which for years kept major gun control policies off the congressional agenda. Finally, lobbying clearly works best on people already committed to the lobbyist's policy position.

(Bogdan Bordieanu, November 13th)

=Types of interest groups= Interest groups can be divided into 4 main categories:

1. Economic Interests
 * Concerns: Wages, prices, and profits
 * Business, labor, and farmers all fret over the impact of government regulations, as well as import quotas, tariffs, and the soundness of the American dollar.
 * Goal: Seek to influence government because regulations, taxes, subsidies, and international economic policy all affect their economic livelihoods
 * Types:
 * Labor
 * Example:
 * AFL-CIO
 * Goal: Press for policies to ensure better working conditions and higher wages
 * Example:
 * Fight hard to establish the union shop
 * Business
 * Example --- National Association of Manufacturers (NAM)
 * Goal: Influence government to ensure that regulation emphasizes policies that maximize a business's profit and minimize its cost
 * (NOTE: Business interests are generally unified when it comes to promoting greater profits but are often fragmented when policy choices have to be made.)

2. Environmental Interests
 * Concerns: Strip-mining, supersonic aircraft, the Alaskan oil pipeline, offshore oil drilling, and nuclear power plants
 * Goals: Promote pollution-control policies, wilderness protection, and population control
 * Examples:
 * the Sierra Club
 * the Audubon Society

3. Equality Interests
 * Concerns: The level of equality for certain groups of individuals
 * Goals: Want to uphold the ideas behind the equal protection aspect of the Fourteenth Amendment for a specific group of individuals
 * Examples:
 * National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
 * National Organization for Women (NOW)

4. Consumers and Public Interest Lobbies
 * Concerns: Ensuring that the interests of all are looked out for
 * Goals: Want to champion various causes or ideas in the public interest
 * Example:
 * Ralph Nader formed the first major consumer group in Washington

(Kimberly Varadi - November 14, 2011)