Having read the chapter, the students should be able to do each of the following:
Explain what an interest group is and how these groups differ from a political party.
Discuss the different types of interest groups and their constituencies, as well as compare and contrast the organizational advantages and disadvantages of economic and non-economic groups.
Define lobbying and explain its objective; list the tactics employed by interest groups in the lobbying process.
Compare and contrast the processes of inside and outside lobbying, their targets in the power structure, and the circumstances in which either are most effective.
Discuss the activities of political action committees and their influence on the election process.
Explain pluralist theory and interest group liberalism. Discuss the major weaknesses of the pluralist argument.
Discuss the conflict between the advocacy of self-interest as the basic prerequisite for a free society and the government's responsibility to protect and preserve the public interest (the Madisonian dilemma). Also, explain how James Madison's constitutional system of checks and balances gives special interests precedence over the common good.
A political interest group is a set of individuals organized to promote a shared political concern. Most interest groups owe their existence to factors other than politics. They form for economic reasons, such as the pursuit of profit, and maintain themselves by making profits (in the case of corporations) or by providing their members with private goods, such as jobs and wages. Such interest groups include corporations, trade associations, labor unions, farm organizations, and professional associations. Collectively, economic groups are by far the largest set of organized interests. The group system tends to benefit the economically and socially advantaged.
Citizen groups do not have the same organizational advantages. They depend on voluntary contributions from potential members who may lack interest and resources, or who recognize that they will get the collective good from a group's activity even if they do not participate (the free-rider problem). These citizen groups include public interest, single-issue, and ideological groups. Their numbers have increased dramatically since the 1960s despite their organizational problems.
Organized interests seek influence largely by lobbying public officials and contributing to election campaigns. Lobbying serves primarily to provide policy makers with information and to alert them to the views of interest group members. Using an inside strategy, lobbyists develop direct contacts with legislators, government bureaucrats, and members of the judiciary in order to persuade them to accept their group's perspective on policy. Groups also use an outside strategy, seeking to mobilize public support for their goals. This strategy relies in part on grassroots lobbying—encouraging group members and the public to communicate their policy views to officials. Outside lobbying also includes efforts to elect officeholders who will support group aims. Through political action committees (PACs), organized groups now provide nearly a third of all contributions received by congressional candidates.
Public policy has increasingly been decided through the activities of organized groups. The policies that emerge from the group system bring benefits to many of society's interests, and in some instances, these benefits also serve the general interest. The common good is not served, however, when groups can essentially dictate policies. A major challenge of democratic politics is to keep special interests in their proper place.
