1. Interest Groups: Where Do They Come From?

2. Madison, Federalist #10
“By a faction I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community.”

3. What is an “interest group”?
“Organized group of people that makes policy-related appeals to government”
Focus is on policy, not personnel
Interest Group v. Political Party

4. Examples of Interest Groups
American Civil Liberties Union
National Right to Life
Amnesty International
United Auto Workers
National Council of Churches
General Motors
University of North Texas (ahem)
How many of you belong to interest groups?
Those of you who didn’t raise your hands, how many of you have AAA? How many belong to a union? How many belong to a church organization?

5. Effect of Interest Groups on Democratic Process
Pluralism
Groups distill and organize political discourse
Groups are reflection of the electorate, just refined
Alternatives to pluralism
Elitism: some interests not represented, especially the poor
Hyperpluralism: interest groups get in the way
Polarizing effect
Always under foot

6. Analogy Pluralism: Interest group voices are a symphony
Elitism: Our symphony is all woodwinds
Hyperpluralism: The instruments in our symphony are not playing the same piece of music, so we have noise rather than music

7. What does an interest group need to operate?
Leadership / Decision-making structure
Financial structure
Membership dues
Voluntary contributions
Sales of goods/services
People

8. Impediments to Interest Group Formation
Collective Action Problem
Free Rider Problem
Collective Action: someone has to actually expend the resources to form the group … generally, they don’t just form themselves, but they require someone to have the idea, to publicize the idea, to organize meetings, to have an agenda, to bake muffins, etc. etc. And each person’s expected benefit from the enterprise is probably too little to justify that major commitment of resources
Free Rider: the ends most interest groups seek to achieve are, by definition, public: they are trying to change public policy and the law. And when they achieve those benefits, those benefits will be there for everyone to enjoy. When the Sierra Club gets an area of wilderness turned into a preserve or park that their members can enjoy, the problem is that other people get to enjoy it, too. This means that people outside the group, who have not contributed to the group at all, get to “free ride” on the group’s activities. And wouldn’t you rather be the person who rides for free than the person who pays?

9. So How Do Interest Groups Form?
Political entrepreneurs
Small group, high stakes
Some groups form and survive because of political entrepreneurs … a few people who have stakes that are disproportionate to everyone else’s and who have material resources … and they’re willing to spend the resources to organize a group and provide no- or low-cost membership simply so that they can have a lot of bodies to their name … so that they can have sheer numbers on their side as well. This isn’t necessarily a cold, calculating endeavor. Indeed, the examples that come to mind are of groups that form to get certain crime-control legislation passed and they are formed because the “entrepreneur” is a victim of a crime or the parent/spouse/child of a victim
Well, some form simply because they are small and the potential members have a very strong stake in the group’s efforts, they are representing such a narrow interest that the costs of organizing are fairly low and it is harder to be an anonymous free-rider so people will feel shamed into participating and the benefits to be had outweigh the costs of organizing

10. How Do Groups Attract Members?
Coercion – make membership mandatory
Selective benefits
Informational benefits
Material benefits
Solidary benefits
Purposive benefits
Informational benefits – publications, research, legal help (think of organizations focused on particular medical conditions, or the AARP helping old people avoid identity theft)
Material benefits – think of AAA w/ towing and low-cost insurance and discounts on hotels
Solidary benefits – the benefits of getting together with other people – groups that have meetings or list-serves
Purposive benefits – sense of doing something good, of participating (think of bumperstickers and Sierra club window decals, bolstering self-identity)

11. Who joins? Similar to demographics of “who votes” Why? Wealth
Education
Social status (white collar jobs)
Why?
Resources
Social capital
Pre-existing networks
Skill in seeking out groups

12. How Do Interest Groups Operate?
What strategies do interest groups employ to influence government policies?
General categories:
Lobbying
Cultivating Access
Mobilization
Electioneering
Litigation

13. Lobbying Power of persuasion
Public affairs firms and professional “lobbyists”
Forms of lobbying:
Door-to-door lobbying and “junkets”
Drafting model legislation
Testifying before Congress/agencies
Public Affairs firms hire many former political bigwigs, people who know people.
Canadian Steel Manufacturers – Durenberger
NRA model legislation on conceal and carry
Citizens for a Free Kuwait

14. Cultivating Access
Part of the lobbying process – gaining and maintaining the trust of decision-makers
Methods for gaining access
Hiring insiders
Junkets / travel expenses
“Repeat players”
Patterns of access
Iron triangles
Issue networks
Difference between asking for a job and networking – the networking has more long-term benefits
Hiring insiders – revolving door
Junkets – limits on gifts to Congressmen, but you can pay travel expenses (including hotel and meals) for travel related to congressional business (Turkey)
One reason smaller organizations hire firms is to take advantage of repeat player status
Iron triangles – House Energy and Commerce Committee, FDA, pharmaceutical companies
Issue networks, less structured, but can reach across committees

15. Mobilization
“Going public” – building public support of your position and demonstrating that support to decision-makers
Methods:
Institutional advertising
Public education
Grassroots mobilization (letter-writing, etc.)
Direct action / “social movements”
Institutional advertising, building good will among public (sort of like the idea of cultivating access)
Education – letting people know how issues will affect them so they can vote – remember that these are linkage institutions, providing information to citizens
BUT, education not just aimed at members. Some educational initiatives are aimed at raising awareness of issues with the public as a whole (think of all the ads you’ve seen telling you about certain medical conditions, like autism, and juvenile diabetes, and spinal cord injuries … these are often part of deliberate campaigns by interest groups to get their issues on the radar screen of the public, so that the public pays attention to legislative action (or inaction) on the issue.
Direct Action :this is another term for protests … everything from peaceful protests to violent riots, sit-ins to ecoterrorism … but it is something more than talk. It is action intended to make a point and change policy. And it can be quite effective … in part because it’s generally so high-profile. Although the destructive criminal acts of some activists can actually turn the public and politicians against the activists’ causes, other more peaceful forms of protest tend to capture media attention and can display a passion for a cause that can move people more than mere words (think of the nuns who protested against the School of the Americas … you gotta figure that when a group of 60 and 70-something nuns are willing to go to prison over an issue, it must be pretty important)

16. Electioneering Affecting policy by affecting elections Methods:
Ballot initiatives
Mobilizing voters
Endorsing candidates
Political action committees
“Issue advocacy” (the dreaded 527 organization)
Endorsing candidates – think of how important it is for candidates to win endorsement from the Fraternal Order of Police, the National Organization for Women, or the Teacher’s union
Much electioneering takes the form of direct support for candidates – particularly MONEY!

17. Litigation
Using the courts to interpret laws in favorable ways or to have laws declared unconstitutional
Methods:
Being a direct party
Providing legal representation to someone else
Writing an “amicus curiae brief”
You will often hear that the NAACP Legal Defense Fund or the Lambda Legal Defense Fund (which represents the GLBT community) or the American Family Association (which is a conservative Christian group) are providing legal services for someone or another.
 And this isn’t just a matter of being someone’s attorney for them. One of the cases my judge had a couple of years ago involved a high school student who was suspended for wearing a “Straight Pride” shirt … now chances are good that the ACLU would have defended him because his free speech rights were involved, but instead he contacted the AFA who defended him, and their defense focused in large part on what they considered to be the improper endorsement of homosexuality by the school. So it wasn’t just straightforward legal representation they provided, it was legal representation with a political agenda.
Amicus brief – one shot, not the long commitment of litigation.

18. What do you think???
Pluralism
Hyperpluralism
Elitism