POL 106 Chapter Notes - Chapter 12: American Israel Public Affairs Committee, National Governors Association, Direct Lobbying In The United States
30 Jun 2018
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●Social movements and interest groups
○Origins and development
■Interest groups
●Groups and organizations that try to shape government policy
without actually running for government
●Organizations that possess an overriding concern with the political
process and policy outcomes
○Tend to form in waves
■Usually in response to key events often related to
political/economic instability
●Examples throughout history
○Large numbers of interest groups formed
■1930s
●Response to great depression
■1940s/early 1950s
●Response to WWII and Cold War
■Late 1960s/1970s
●Vietnam war
●Influence of “negative events”
○Activate people who were previously politically passive
■Social movements
●Periods of political instability also facilitate social movements
○The mobilization of broad-based private groups, usually
around shared concerns or grievances related to public
policy on a specific issue and a desire to alter the policy
through mass pressure
●Grassroots mobilization
●Most tend to form when people perceive that the status quo is not
acceptable
●Examples
○BLM
○March for our lives
○Women’s suffrage
●Short lived
○People forget about it
○You lose people, you lose interest, you lose coverage
○We get distracted with other issues
○America is apathetic
○Resources can run out
○If they get what they want, social movement ends
○The status quo gets changed
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●Social movements usually...
○Are in opposition to the status quo
○Involve thousands/millions of people
○Involve large number of interest groups
■Old and new
○Change how people think of a specific issue
■Change in attitude remains after social movement
○Life cycles
■Social movements and groups tend to go through life cycles
●Social movements tend to have short lived life spans
●Start as highly visible/potentially influential BUT wither away as
the issue dies
○Due to success or failure
■Where social movements go wrong
●No better way to get the general public is not worth it because of
violence
●Takes away the perception of legitimacy
●Perception is everything
■Surviving interest groups experience a longer life cycle
●Groups in their formative stage tend to be
○Informally structured and non-bureaucratic
■The longer an interest group is around the more
structured it tends to be
●If they accomplished the goal, now what?
●Modify or change and see what else they
want to change
●They become less specific
●Lose strength of former convictions
○Challenging groups
■New interest groups
■Groups wherein leaders and followers are unhappy
with things as they are
■As a result, they are changed oriented, challenging
some aspect of the status quo
■Over time, interest groups tend to become more formal and less purposive
●Established (often older) groups tend to be more bureaucratic and
institutionalized
○Those that are perceived as accepted
■American group politics tends to go through phases of political stability
and instability
●Periods of stability
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Groups and organizations that try to shape government policy without actually running for government. Organizations that possess an overriding concern with the political process and policy outcomes. Usually in response to key events often related to political/economic instability. Activate people who were previously politically passive. Periods of political instability also facilitate social movements. The mobilization of broad-based private groups, usually around shared concerns or grievances related to public policy on a specific issue and a desire to alter the policy through mass pressure. Most tend to form when people perceive that the status quo is not acceptable. You lose people, you lose interest, you lose coverage. If they get what they want, social movement ends. Are in opposition to the status quo. Change how people think of a specific issue. Change in attitude remains after social movement. Social movements and groups tend to go through life cycles. Social movements tend to have short lived life spans.
