Interest groups are organizations that represent shared policy goals and try to influence the policy process. They pursue their goals through lobbying, gaining access to decision makers, litigation, and going public to mobilize support. There are many theories that explain interest group influence, including pluralism, which argues groups compete democratically, and elite theory, which claims a powerful upper class rules. Successful interest groups are small to avoid free rider problems, focus on intense issues, and have financial resources to access politicians. They use propaganda techniques like plain folks, transfer, and bandwagon appeals to shape public opinion.

1. Interest Groups

2. The Role of Interest Groups
 Interest group: 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 many
arenas.
 Interest groups distinguishable from parties.
• Political parties fight election battles; interest
groups do not field candidates for office but may
choose sides.
• Interest groups are policy specialists; political
parties are policy generalists.

3. WHY ORGANIZE?
• Individuals form interest groups to increase
the chance that their views will be heard and
their interests treated favorably by the
government.
• Interest groups enhance political
participation.
• An enormous number of groups operate in
the United States.

4. WHAT GROUPS ARE
REPRESENTED?
• Business and Agricultural
• Labor
• Professional
• Public Interest
• Ideological
• Public Sector

5. WHY JOIN?
• Informational
benefits
• Material benefits
• Solidary benefits
• Purposive benefits

6. What Makes an Interest Group
Successful?

7. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF MEMBERS
• Group members
generally have higher
incomes, higher levels
of education, and work
in management or
professional positions.
• Group membership has
a very pronounced
upper-class bias.

8. THE EXPANSION OF GOVERNMENT
• Over the past twenty-five years, there has
been a tremendous growth in the number
of interest groups.
• This corresponds to the rapid expansion of
the federal government.

9. THEORIES OF INTEREST GROUP
POLITICS
• Suppose Madison's
decedents were
studying American
Government in order
to assess how well the
system controls the
power of special
interests. They could
draw different
conclusions
• Pluralist
• Elitist
• Hyper-pluralist

10. Theories of Interest Group
Politics
 Pluralist Theory
 Politics is mainly a competition among
groups, each one pressing for its own
preferred policies.
 Elite Theory
 Societies are divided along class lines and
an upper-class elite rules, regardless of the
formal niceties of governmental organization.
 Hyperpluralist Theory
 Groups are so varied and strong that
government is weakened. This is an
extreme, exaggerated form of pluralism.

11. Theories of Interest Group
Politics
 Pluralism and Group Theory
Groups provide a key link between the
people and the government.
Groups compete and no one group
will become too dominant.
Groups play by the “rules of the
game.”
Groups weak in one resource may
use another.
Lobbying is open to all so is not
problematical.

12.  AP60x Pluralism
 AP60X Buckley v Valeo

13. Theories of Interest Group
Politics
 Elites and the Denial of Pluralism
 Real power is held by the relatively few.
 The largest corporations hold the most
power.
 Other groups may win many minor policy
battles, but elites prevail when it comes to
big policy decisions.
 Lobbying is a problem because it benefits
the few at the expense of the many.

14. Theories of Interest Group
Politics
 Hyperpluralism and Interest Group
Liberalism
 Subgovernments consist of a network of
groups that exercise a great deal of control
over specific policy areas.
• Also known as iron triangles
• Consist of interest groups, government agency,
and congressional committees that handle
particular policies
 The hyperpluralist critique
• Groups have become too powerful as the
government tries to appease every interest.
• Trying to please every group results in weak
or contradictory policies.

15. Interest Groups
 Why are interest groups important in
the US Today?
 How might the activities of interest
groups not be in the best interest of
many Americans.

16. What Makes an Interest Group
Successful?
 The Surprising Ineffectiveness of
Large Groups
Potential group: all the people who
might be interest group members
because they share a common
interest
Actual group: the part of the potential
group consisting of members who
actually join
Collective good: something of value
that cannot be withheld from a group
member

17. What Makes an Interest
Group Successful?
Free-Rider problem: Some people
don’t join interest groups because
they benefit from the group’s activities
without officially joining.
• Bigger the group, larger the
problem
• Large groups are difficult to
organize

18. The Free Rider
 Group benefits may be available to the public
(a collective benefit).
 No reason to join the group
 Creates a “free rider” problem

19. Olson’s Law of Large
Groups
 The bigger the group the more serious
the free rider problem
 Overcome Olson’s law by providing
selective benefits:
 Goods that a group can restrict to those
who pay their annual dues
 AARP - One of the most powerful interest groups in Washington D.C., and
according to some, the strongest lobbying group in the U.S. It is certainly the nations
largest interest group, with a membership of about 36 million.

20. What Makes an Interest
Group Successful?
Small groups are better organized and
more focused on the group’s goals.
• Consumer groups have a difficult time
getting significant policy gains because
the benefits are spread over the entire
population.
• Public interest lobbies seek “a collective good,
the achievement of which will not selectively
and materially benefit the membership
activities of the organization.”

21. What Makes an Interest Group
Successful?
 Intensity
Single-Issue groups: groups that focus
on a narrow interest, dislike
compromise, and often draw
membership from people new to
politics
Intensity encourages non-
conventional means of participation.-
protests

22. What Makes an Interest
Group Successful?
 Financial Resources
Not all groups have equal amounts of
money.
Monetary donations usually translate
into access to the politicians, such as
a phone call, meeting, or support for
policy.
Wealthier groups have more
resources—and presumably more
access—but they do not always win
on policy.

23. The Interest Group Explosion

24. Strategies: The Quest for
Political Power
 Lobbying
 Gaining Access
 Using the Courts
 Going Public
 Using Electoral
Politics

25. Lobbying
 Lobbying is a
strategy by which
Interest groups
seek to influence
the passage of
legislation by
exerting pressure
on members of
the legislature.

26. How Groups Try to Shape
Policy
 Lobbying
“communication by someone other
than a citizen acting on his own
behalf, directed to a governmental
decision maker with the hope of
influencing his decision” (Lester
Milbrath)
Two basic types of lobbyists:
• Regular, paid employees of a group
• Temporary hires – Professional lobbyist

27. How Groups Try to Shape
Policy
 Lobbying
Lobbyists:
• are a source of information
• help politicians plan political strategies for
legislation
• help politicians plan political strategies for
reelection campaigns
• are a source of ideas and innovations
• American Medical Association

28. Gaining Access
 Groups must maintain
access to the decision
making process
through relationships
with Congress and
agencies.
— Iron triangle
— Issue network
— Influence peddling
American Tobacco
Association

29. Iron Triangle
Stress for the Test

30. Using the Courts
 Groups sometimes turn to litigation when they
lack access or when they are dissatisfied with
governmental decisions.
 They finance litigation, provide attorneys, or file
amicus curiae briefs in support of a particular
position.

31. How Groups Try to Shape
Policy
 Litigation
 If an interest group fails in one arena, the
courts may be able to provide a remedy.
 Interest groups can file amicus curiae briefs
to influence a court’s decision.
• amicus curiae: briefs submitted by a “friend of the
court” to raise additional points of view and
present information not contained in the briefs of
the formal parties
 Class Action lawsuits permit a small number
of people to sue on behalf of all other people
similar situated.
 NAACP

32. Going Public
 Going public is a strategy that attempts to
mobilize the public to support the groups
objective.
— Institutional advertising
— Social movements
— Grassroots mobilization

33. Going Public
 NRA

34. How Groups Try to Shape
Policy
 Going Public
Because public opinion makes its way
to policymakers, groups try to:
• cultivate a good public image to build a
reservoir of goodwill with the public
• use marketing strategies to influence
public opinion of the group and its issues
• advertise to motivate and inform the
public about an issue
• NRA

35. Propaganda
 Plain folks
 Transfer
 Bandwagon
 Name Calling
 Testimonial
 Card stacking
 Glittering generalities

36. Propaganda
 Plain Folks: Propagandists use this
approach to convince the audience
that the spokesperson is from humble
origins, someone they can trust and
who has their interests at heart.
 ordinary language and mannerisms

37. Propaganda
 Transfer: Transfer is a technique
used to carry over the authority and
approval of something we respect and
revere to something the propagandist
would have us accept.
symbols (e.g., waving the flag) to stir
our emotions and win our approval.

38. Propaganda
 Name Calling: Propagandists use
this technique to create fear and
arouse prejudice by using negative
words (bad names) to create an
unfavorable opinion or hatred against
a group, beliefs, ideas or institutions
they would have us denounce.

39. Propaganda
 Bandwagon: Propagandists use this
technique to persuade the audience to
follow the crowd.
 Impression of widespread support.
 It reinforces the human desire to be on the
winning side.
 It also plays on feelings of loneliness and
isolation.

40. Propaganda
 Testimonial: Propagandists use this
technique to associate a respected
person or someone with experience to
endorse a product or cause by giving
it their stamp of approval hoping that
the intended audience will follow their
example.

41. Propaganda
 Card Stacking: Propagandist uses this
technique to make the best case possible for
his side and the worst for the opposing
viewpoint by carefully using only those facts
that support his or her side of the argument.
 Stacks the cards against the truth. Card
stacking is the most difficult technique to
detect because it does not provide all of the
information necessary for the audience to
make an informed decision.
Norristown Track!!! Unbeatable at
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Save the world for only .50 a day!!

42. Propaganda
 Glittering Generalities: Propagandists employ vague,
sweeping statements (often slogans or simple
catchphrases)
 They appeal to such notions as honor, glory, love of
country, desire for peace, freedom, and family values.
 The words and phrases are vague and suggest
different things to different people but the implication
is always favorable.
 It cannot be proved true or false because it really
says little or nothing at all.
A Vote for Ian Morris is a Vote
for a New Tomorrow!!!!

43. Using Electoral Politics
 Many groups engage
in electoral politics to
ensure the election of
politicians sympathetic
to the groups
interests.
— Campaign
contributions through
political action
committees (PAC’s)
— Campaign activism

44. Greenpeace Video

45. How Groups Try to Shape
Policy
 Electioneering
 Direct group involvement in the election
process
• Groups can help fund campaigns, provide
testimony, and get members to work for
candidates; some form PACs.
 Political Action Committee (PAC): Political
funding vehicles created by 1974 campaign
finance reforms, PACs are used by interest
groups to donate money to candidates.
• PACs help pay the bill for increasing campaign
costs.
• Most PAC money goes to incumbents.

46. Political Action Committees
 Political action
committees
(PACs) are
regulated by the
Federal Election
Commission.
 Contributions are
limited to $5,000
per election.

47. What Makes an Interest Group Successful?

48. Interest Groups a Summary
 What do I
remember?
 ?????

49. Goals of Interest Groups
 Influence public opinion
 Influence parties and elections, often by the
use of PACs or lobbying
 Supply the public with information that
supports groups’ interests
 Build a positive image for the group
 Create public attitudes by using propaganda
 Promote a particular public policy
NRA –
National Rifle
Association
NAACP –
National
Association for
the Advancement
NEA –
National
Education
Association
AARP –
American
Association of
Retired Persons
PETA – People for the
Ethical Treatment of
Animals

50. Types of Interest Groups
 Economic Interests
Labor
Agriculture
Business
 Environmental Interests
 Equality Interests
 Consumer and Public Interest Lobbies
.

51. Understanding Interest
Groups
 Interest Groups and Democracy
 Pluralists believe that the public interest
would prevail from this competition.
 Elite theorists point to the proliferation of
business PACs as evidence of interest group
corruption.
 Hyperpluralists maintain that group influence
has led to policy gridlock.

52. Understanding Interest
Groups
 Interest Groups and the Scope of
Government
Interest groups seek to maintain
policies and programs that benefit
them.
Interest groups continue to pressure
government to do more things.
As the government does more, does
this cause the formation of more
groups?

53. Summary
 A number of factors influence a
group’s success. Size, intensity, $
 Interest groups affect policy process
through lobbying, electioneering,
litigation, and going public.