POLI SCI 104 : Interest Group Formation and Maintenance
30 Oct 2014
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Document Summary
Interest group- any organization that seeks to influence public policy. Common interest translated into group organization and collective action- social disturbance leads to group formation. Bottom line: assumption is that groups will form and compete and that some sort of collective good will result. (federalist no. Empirical finding- groups form & political resources- $, prestige, expertise, organization, & access to media- not evenly distributed, but every group has something. Olson, in the logic of collective action, questions whether or not groups will form. Any average activist could not have any significant impact on the outcome of the movement, yet he/she would be eligible to share in any of the benefits that resulted from its efforts. Formation and maintenance of groups are the central problem in the study of politics. The larger the group, the greater the problem & the more abstract the issue is, the greater the problem.
