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Interest Groups

Interest Groups. POSC 121 Braunwarth. Interest Groups. A group of people with similar policy goals who enter the political process to achieve these goals Madison Federalist #10 Two roles: One, Lobbying to influence the development and implementation of legislation

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Interest Groups

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  1. Interest Groups POSC 121 Braunwarth

  2. Interest Groups • A group of people with similar policy goals who enter the political process to achieve these goals • Madison Federalist #10 • Two roles: • One, Lobbying to influence the development and implementation of legislation • Inside Lobbying: provide information, etc. • Outside Lobbying: Encouraging contact from constituents (astroturf lobbying when it is “faked”) • Two, donating money to influence who wins a political race

  3. Interest Groups v. Parties • Similar but different than parties • Pursue policy goals rather than put candidates in office • More narrowly focused, Smaller membership • Means less need to compromise • Tendency to polarize or divide the legislative process instead of building coalitions

  4. Interest Group Participation • Participation in elections has declined since the 1960s • What about participation in interest groups? • Both the number of groups and group memberships have increased • Why do you think this is? • People may be cynical about politicians and parties but they still want things done • Rise of single-issue politics, etc.

  5. Increasing Importance of Interest Groups • But participation is a good thing, right? • Well, what happens when you have more narrowly focused groups who are less willing to compromise? • Not much gets done on big legislative issues • We call this “Hyperpluralism” • But don’t narrowly focused groups often win? • On less visible issues, yes and we all pick up the tab

  6. Increasing Importance of Interest Groups • On the plus side, interest groups serve valuable roles: • Important conduit of information between legislators and constituents • Organize a coalition of voices that speak louder as a group • We just don’t have the time or the power to influence policy on our own • “Special” interests are only bad if it’s someone else’s interests

  7. All Groups are not Created Equal • Who is likely to be more successful? • Gun manufacturers or gunshot victims? • Business or Consumers? • Defense Contractors or Taxpayers? • Why? • Mancur Olson’s “Logic of Collective Action” says that: the smaller the group, the more concentrated the benefits of organization, the more likely organization will occur

  8. Group: Potential Membership Nat’l Consumer League 311,600,000 Af’n Am’n: NAACP 37,500,000 Nat’l Taxpayers Union 180,000,000 Physicians: AMA 775,000 U.S. League of S&Ls 3,782 Governors (Nat’l Gov. Inst) 55 Tobacco Institute 11 Actual Membership 8,000 500,000 200,000 250,000 2,500 55 11 Potential v. Actual Membership of Various Groups

  9. Interest Group influence is dominated by for-profit groups at the expense of those that are less easily organized Organizations having Washington representation (%): Corporations 45.7 Trade/other business 17.9 Foreign Commerce/corporations 6.5 Professional Associations 6.9 Unions 1.7 Citizen’s Groups 4.1 Civil Rights/Minority 1.3 Social Welfare/Poor 0.6

  10. Iron or “Cozy” Triangle • James Madison, in Federalist #10, first warned of the “mischiefs of faction” • But felt this mischief would be attenuated by the sheer number of interests in a large republic • But what about groups that receive concentrated benefits from participation and operate outside the view of or with the support of the public?

  11. Iron/Cozy Triangle • A close relationship among special interests, congressional committees, and the bureaucracy • This community can have very extensive collective power if all 3 sides of the triangle want the same thing • Are relatively impervious to interference from Congress as a whole, the White House, or the Public

  12. The Corn Iron Triangle • Corn has become a victim or its own success. Yields have become very high. What would you expect to happen to price? • The market price is less than the cost of growing the corn. What would you then expect to happen to supply? • Wrong. In order to support the flow of cheap corn, the government gives direct cash subsidies to farmers for the difference between their cost and the market price. How would you expect farmers to respond? • Increase production. • Why does the government do this? • Very strong relationship (Iron Triangle) between Congressional Agriculture Committees, Corn Processors (mainly Archer Daniels Midland and Cargill), and the Department of Agriculture

  13. The Corn Iron Triangle • Who benefits from this Iron Triangle? • Food production is a low profit, small growth business because here are a lot of competitors and limits on how much we can eat. • But processed food solves those problems. • Corn can be processed into a variety of products (i.e. high-fructose corn syrup) which add a lot of value to food processors • Because corn is so cheap these products are very inexpensive on a cost/calorie basis so can be offered in very large sizes (supersizes). • Who suffers from this Iron Triangle? • Unfortunately, this also great increases our obesity and adds to the malnutrition of countless others in the world whose own agriculture cannot compete with cheap U.S. corn.

  14. Military-Industrial Complex • What are the three poles of Eisenhower’s Military-Industrial-Complex Iron Triangle? • Defense committees, interest groups (military contractors), and the bureaucracy (the military) • What’s the danger of the MIC? • Tradeoff between military spending and domestic social spending

  15. Military-Industrial Complex • President Eisenhower warned: • “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone; it is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children”

  16. Military-Industrial Complex • Greater danger is that we must have some justification for military spending • Operates best in a climate of fear • Encourages rather than discourages military intervention • Why was the Cold War an ideal context for the Military-Industrial Complex? • Have we found a replacement for Communism as a perpetual enemy? • What about terrorism?

  17. U.S. Imperialism and Militarism • Imperialism: 725 military bases in 130 countries (out of 189 countries) • Militarism: Vested interests ensure survival of military-industrial complex • Militarism depends on imperialist need for standing armies • Does this protect us or create more enemies? • Some argue that this will create only more insecurity, resentment, and militarization

  18. National Security State • Constitution leaves decision to go to war with Congress, why? • So that we as a nation would make sure this was something we really wanted to do • Now, decisions to use force have become almost painless and automatic • What can we do to bring war back under citizen control?

  19. National Security State • Wars are expensive, we should pay for them as they happen • Get rid of the secret military. Drones, etc. should be accountable to the military • Let the State Department and elected officials rather than the military make decisions • Let the National Guard be citizens first • Wind back contractor privatization of war • Subordinate Executive power to Congress

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