Govt 2306 Fall 2019 Professor Seymour Chapter 6 - Special Interests - Rottinghaus Text

1. Chapter 6 – Interest Groups

2. Chapter 6: Interest Groups
Learning Objectives
6.1 Explain the theories that describe the role of interest groups
in Texas
6.2 Assess the incentives for individuals to join interest groups
6.3 Identify the types of interest groups in Texas
6.4 Describe the types of activities interest groups engage in to
pursue their agendas
6.5 Explain what lobbying is and how lobbyists serve the interests
of those involved
6.6 Illustrate the role of scandals in shaping interest group politics
and reform efforts
6.7 Outline the ways the state oversees the interactions of
interest groups and state officials

3. Interest Groups and Lobbying
Dineen Majcher (right) was
frustrated with the emphasis her
daughter’s school placed on
standardized testing. She took
action by helping to create an
interest group and challenging
Texas’s education policies.

4. Dineen Majcher and Daughter on
Lobbying against StateTesting
4https://youtu.be/kL5Gw7mo3Cg

5. Chapter 6: Interest Groups
Interest Group Politics
Interest Group: any formal organization of individuals or groups
that seeks to influence government to promote their common
cause
• Since the birth of this country, the founders had a vision for the
role organized interests might play in the political process
• In Federalist # 10, Madison referred to the undue influence of
powerful interest groups as the “mischief of factions,” but argued
that multiple competing interests would reduce this mischief

6. What Exactly is an Interest Group?
6https://youtu.be/UAZXFELMd2w

7. What’s the Difference Between a
Political Party and an Interest Group?
7https://youtu.be/WOFu5vOqxpE

8. Interest Groups in the Political Process
Interest Group Politics
Pluralist Theory: competition keeps powerful interest groups in
check, and no single group dominates
• Scholars writing in the 1950s and 1960s developed pluralist
theory, which, similar to Madison’s vision, viewed competition
among many groups as keeping any one group from exercising too
much control over policy

9. Interest Groups in the Political Process
Interest Group Politics
Elite Theory: groups that have greater resources are in a better
position to accomplish their goals
• Not all scholars accept pluralist theory.
• Political scientist E.E. Schattschneider famously articulated that
“the flaw in the pluralist heaven is that the heavenly chorus sings
with a strong upper-class accent
• Suggested power elite is drawn from high-ranking government
officials and major corporate owners

10. Interest Groups in the Political Process
Interest Group Politics
Transactional Theory: public policy is bought and sold
like a commodity to the highest bidder
• An extension of the power elite theory is a transactional
theory

11. Why Join Interest Groups?
For democracy to move toward the pluralist
ideal envisioned by Madison and others,
individuals and groups must be motivated to
join interest groups

12. Why Interest Groups Matter
• Interest groups provide support for existing
policies
• They support legislators in their electoral
campaigns
• They articulate ideas from which policies can
be crafted and are mobilized to challenge the
ideas and interests of others
• Interest groups play an important role in
elections and the legislative process in Texas

13. Why Join Interest Groups?
Types of Interest Groups
Private Interest Groups: groups that advocate for the
benefit of their members
Public Interest Groups: groups that benefit the public in
general

14. Why Join Interest Groups?
Interest Groups
Free-Rider Problem: a situation in which individuals
benefit from a publicly provided good or service without
paying for it and actively supporting its acquisition
• Many interest groups work to solve collective action
problems
• Why join if work will get done without your help?
• Receive the benefit but do not pay the cost
• Interest groups provide incentives for participation and
help overcome free rider problem

15. What is the Free Rider Problem?
15
https://youtu.be/Uo51GDk8G1Q

16. Why Join Interest Groups?
Benefits
Selective Benefits: private goods made available to people who
organize for a collective good
• One way to solve the free-rider problem is by providing selective
benefits
• They can be material, solidary, or purposive
– Material: monetary
– Solidary: social status, social interactions
– Purposive: serve a cause

17. Types of Interest Groups
Business Groups
• Individual businesses and organizations representing
many businesses often advocate on behalf of their own
interests
• Business interest groups often battle each other
• Political scientists have found that business lobbies
prevail mainly on issues that are important only to a
single company or industry because these usually attract
little media coverage
– victories hidden from public view or ignored

18. Types of Interest Groups
Trade Associations and Professional
Organizations
• Trade associations serve the interests of an industry
• Professional organizations are groups that represent a specific
occupation
• Represent tens of thousands of professionals
• Millions of dollars in political contributions
• Frequently successful in the legislature

19. Types of Interest Groups
Labor Unions
• Organized labor first entered Texas state politics in
early 1900s
• After World War II emerged as a powerhouse
• Endorsement by labor unions meant funding and
“boots on the ground”
• Labor’s position has declined in last few decades
• Texas is a “right to work” state
– Employee can decide whether or not to join a union
• Union membership has tapered off

20. Types of Interest Groups

21. Types of Interest Groups
Identity Groups
• Identity groups represent the interests of specific groups
• These identity groups form in part because their
constituents have been ill-served by the two major
political parties or feel underrepresented by the electoral
system
• Can be influential in state politics
• Most success comes following victories of social
movement
– Lobbying
– Litigation
– Government monitoring

22. Types of Interest Groups
Other Groups
• Public Interest Groups: focus on providing
collective goods
• Single-Issue Groups: dedicated to one specific
issue, often ideological
• Government Interests: local, state, or even
national governments often seek the assistance of
other governments to advance their goals

23. What Interest Groups Do
Education
• Interest groups often reach out and educate
their members or the public at large
• They also develop policy and research
expertise that makes them useful partners in
understanding specific issues

24. What Interest Groups Do
Citizen Campaigns
Grassroots Lobbying: getting members of the general
public who are interested in an issue to contact elected
officials to persuade them on an issue
AstroTurf Lobbying: involves manufacturing public
support and making it appear as though it was inspired
organically by a swell of public opinion

25. Astroturfing – Laying Down Artificial
Grass Roots
25https://youtu.be/nXK3zRJRtFg

26. Another Look at Astroturfing
26https://youtu.be/Fmh4RdIwswE

27. What Interest Groups Do
Electioneering
Electioneering: advertising for or against issues or
candidates (radio, mail, Internet, or television), granting
endorsements, and raising funds
• Endorsements serve as a cue for voters

28. What Interest Groups Do

29. What Interest Groups Do
Lobbying the Courts, the Legislature, and the
Executive Branch
Amicus Curiae Briefs: a legal filing with relevant opinions or
information pertinent to a case that affects a group’s interests,
even if they are not directly part of the case
• Interest groups directly lobby all three branches of government,
including the courts, who are also part of the policymaking process.
• Interest groups also file amicus curiae briefs, literally “friend of the
court” briefs, when they have relevant opinions or information
pertinent to a case

30. What is Lobbying and Can it Be Good?
30
https://youtu.be/aTbtKRdYbYo

31. Lobbying: The Third House
Lobbying: direct communications with members of the legislative
or executive branch of government to influence legislation or
administrative action
• When Andrew Jackson, “the people’s president,” first took office,
Americans who were not allowed in the House or Senate chambers
poured into the lobby of the White House to ply the president with
their requests, hence the term lobbying
• Third House - other two are House and Senate

32. Lobbying: The Third House
The Role of Lobbyists
• As the Texas economy grows and lawmakers deal with increasingly
complicated and diverse issues, more and more lobbyists file into
Austin to meet with government agencies, state senators and
representatives, and their staff
• Individual lobbyists or organizations that employ lobbyists must file
reports specifying the type of lobbying that they engage in

33. Lobbying: The Third House

34. Lobbyists as Sources of Information
34
https://youtu.be/7fMxZ3fk8iA

35. Lobbying: The Third House
What Lobbyists Do
• Shape Legislation
– Bring issues and solutions to the attention of legislators
– Provide research, technical knowledge, legal expertise and ideas
• Testify at Hearings
– Way to advocate for or against an issue
– Rarely changes votes
– Attract media attention
– Transmit information to legislators
– Impress groups membership

36. Lobbying: The Third House
What Lobbyists Do
• Educate Members
– Knowledge of nitty-gritty details
– Experts in their fields
• Comment on Rulemaking
– Agencies required to publicly post proposed rule changes for public
comment
– Lobbyists can argue for or against

37. Lobbying: The Third House
What Lobbyists Do
• Build Coalitions
– Push mutual agendas forward
– Successful coalition building can overcome opposition by ruling party
• Monitor Programs
– Work with bureaucracy to monitor programs
– Time-consuming
– Requires technical skills

38. Texas Lobbyists
38
https://youtu.be/nG1E931xBqk

39. Lobbying: The Third House
Iron Triangles in Texas
Iron Triangle: the relationship that forms between interest
groups, the legislature, and executive agency regulators in the
policy formation and implementation process
Issue Network: a single-issue iron triangle
Revolving Door: when agency bureaucrats and legislators leave
their jobs to become lobbyists, or vice versa
Agency Capture: government agencies “controlled” by the
industries that the agency was designed to regulate

40. Scandals and Reforms

41. Jack Abramoff and the
Tigua Tribe
41
https://youtu.be/aRShui8Kb_o

42. News Coverage of Bo Pilgrim
in 1989
42https://youtu.be/UVr0mvLTufM

43. Scandals and Reforms
The 1991 Reforms
• Gift reporting law
• Restrictions on lobbying expenditures
• Establishment of the Texas Ethics Commission

44. Oversight of Interest Groups
Texas Ethics Commission
• Primary agency for regulating and enforcing laws
– Interest group lobbying
– Campaign disclosure
• Eight commissioners
– Appointed by governor, lieutenant governor and speaker of the Texas House
– Partisan balance required
• Collect and maintain records
• Register Lobbyist
– Receives more than $1,000 in salary
– Spends more than $500 for lobbying

45. Oversight of Interest Groups
Recusal
• Decide not to participate in legislative activity as an elected official
• Legislators recuse themselves from issues in which they have a
personal stake
• Not required
Disclosure
• Filing of a report that includes details about lawmakers’ personal
finances or business dealings