2. Interest Groups
• Any collection of people trying to
influence government
• Nonpublicly accountable
organizations that attempt to promote
shared private interests by
influencing public-policy outcomes
3. Interest Groups Differ
from Political Parties
• Goals
• Parties acquire power through elections
• Interest groups focus on specific issues rarely
represented in government
• Nature of memberships
• Parties seek broad support
• Interest groups have a narrower membership
• Numbers
• Rarely more than 10-12 parties
• No limit on number of interest groups
4. Who Belongs?
• Pluralist view
- Multiplicity of groups
- Varied interests
- Optimistic view
• Elite view
- Majority from middle- and upper-classes
- Domination by business-related interests
- No organization by lower classes
5. Interest Groups
and Government
• Interest groups presuppose an existing
government worth trying to influence.
• As government grows, so do interest groups.
• Some interest groups take on government
functions (corporatism).
• The bureaucracy has become one of the
biggest and most powerful interest groups of
all.
6. Big Money
• The single most important factor in interest
group success
• Danger: “the best Congress money can buy.”
• Corruption (public office for private gain)
• Soft Money
• Contributing to parties and interest groups not
directly working for a candidate’s election
campaign.
• “If you don’t give, you get no access.”
• U.S. campaigns lengthy and costly
7. Political Action
Committees
(PACs)
• Set up specifically to contribute money
to election campaigns
• Originally an idea of labor unions
• Biggest spending from business
• Bulk of contributions to incumbents
8. Interest Group Strategies
• Approaching lawmakers
• Approaching the administration
• Approaching the judiciary
• Appeals to the public
• Demonstrations
• Violent protest
“Violence is as American as cherry pie.”
-- Black radical H. “Rap” Brown
9. Finding a Balance
Good of all
vs.
Good of particular
groups
There must be no “particular wills” to muddy
and distort the “general will,” that which the
whole community wants.
-- Jean-Jacques Rousseau
11. Political Party
• Group seeking
to elect office-
holders under a
given label
Exist in almost all present-day
societies, democratic or not
Weak in U.S.
12. Functions
of Parties
• Bridge between
people and
government
• Aggregation of
interests
• Integration into the political system
• Political socialization
• Mobilization of voters
• Organization of government
13. Parties in
Democracies
• Centralization
• Degree of control
exercised by
national
headquarters
• Setting government policy
• Executive must work with legislative
• Party participation in government
• Financing the party
• Dependence on interest groups
14. Classifying
Parties
• Left (liberal)
• Center-left
• Centrist
• Center-right
• Right (conservative)
15. Party Systems
• One-party
• Totalitarian
• Dominant-party
• Opposition parties free to run, but rarely win
• Two-party
• Multiparty
• Two-plus party
• Fluid (or inchoate) party
• New and unstable democracies
16. Parties and
Electoral Systems
• Single-member
election districts
• Where a simple
plurality wins
– Tends to produce two-party or two-party plus
systems
Proportional representation
– Use multimember districts and assign
parliamentary seats in proportion to the
percentage of votes in that district
– Encourages parties to split
17. Types of Party
Competition
• Moderate pluralism
• Center-seeking
• Parties become
moderate, aiming for
large block of votes in
center of political
spectrum
Polarized pluralism
– Center-fleeing
– Parties become extremist, ignoring voters in center
– Can cause political unrest and civil war
18. Just because you don't take an interest in politics,
doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you!
Pericles - 430 BC (BCE)
"Regarding Government:
We call for the abolition
of damn near
everything;
We call for drastic
reductions in what's
left;
And we refuse to pay for
any of it!"
Platform synopsis by David Nolan, LP
Co-founder
20. Electoral
Systems
• Single-Member Districts
• Electoral system that elects one person per
district
• “First past the post” – FPTP
• Supports two-party system
• Advantages
• Inhibits the growth of extremism
• Gives clear parliamentary majority to one party
• Majoritarian system
• Disadvantages
• Losing parties get no representation
21. Electoral
Systems
• Proportional Representation
• Electoral systems based on multimember
districts
• Representatives elected by party’s percent of
vote
• Advantages
• Legislature accurately reflects public opinion and
party strength
• Disadvantages
• Often lead to multiparty systems
• Greater instability than two-party system
22. Voter Turnout
• Percent of those eligible
who vote
• U.S. peak in 1960 – 63%
• Sweden, Germany, Italy –
90%
U.S. turnout low historically
Lower in U.S. than in other democracies
23. U.S. Nonvoting:
The Debate
• Low electoral
participation
means that many
Americans are
turning away from
the political
system.
• Or, the decline
may mean that
Americans are
basically satisfied
with the system.
24. How Do
People Vote?
• Long-term variables
• Party identification
• Tendency to associate mentally with one party over
may years
• Easier to vote along party lines
• Important element in electoral stability
• Short-term variables
• Cause a person to vote one way for one
election, but not four years later.
• “Morality factor” awakened by Watergate scandal
• Economic conditions
26. What Wins
Elections?
• Modern elections
• Rational choice manipulated by factors of
personality and the mass media
• “Keep it general, keep it happy, don’t mention
parties, and smile a lot.”
• Charisma
• Retrospective voting
• Candidate strategies
27. “Democracy: The
substitution of election by
the incompetent many for
appointment by the
corrupt few.”
-- George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
