POLS 3410 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Elite, Amicus Curiae
03/12/3018 Lecture 11: Interest Groups
Interest Group Roles in American Politics
• An interest group is an organization whose goal is to influence government
• Interest groups inform their members about political developments
• Iterest groups ouiate their eers’ ies to puli offiials, ofte through a lobbyist
(a person who contacts government officials on behalf of a particular cause or issue)
• Mobilizing the public – interest groups mobilize the public by encouraging groups of people to
act politically; they develop TV ads, urgent direct-mail alerts, Facebook postings, and tweets, all
meant to provoke action
What Interest Groups Do for Democracy
• Pluralists – hold that as long as the American political process is open to a wide range of
different groups, government policies should roughly correspond to public desires
• Hyperpluralists – fear that there are so many interests and groups that the entire system is
bogged down in a stalemate
• Demosclerosis – is the collective effect of the vast number of Washington lobbyists in slowing
the process of American democratic policymaking
• Power elite theory – is the view that a small handful of wealthy, influential Americans exercises
extensive control over government decisions
Types of Interest Groups
• Economic groups – seek financial and other resource benefits for their members
o Business groups – promote the interests of corporations
o Labor groups – represent workers from nearly all large industries in the US
o Trade and professional associations – represent several (to hundreds) of companies or
professionals in a specific sector
• Citizen or public-interest groups – cover the political spectrum, and represent practically every
conceivable issue and group of people, even those at soiet’s argis
o Material benefits – incentives to sign up or stay a member
o Expressive benefits – values or deeply held beliefs that inspire individuals to join a public
interest group
o Solidarity benefits – feeling of shared commitment and purpose by individuals who join
a public interest group
Interest Groups Past and Present
• Intergovernmental and reverse lobbying
o 1960s advocacy explosion
▪ The permanent lobby developed – in previous eras, groups lobbied on a specific
topic and then receded until their issue came up again
▪ The authors lae the adoa eplosio o the 96s irease i politial
activism
Interest Group Lobbyists in Action
• Interest groups and the federal branches of government
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