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POS - Exam 4 - Chapter 11
Terms in this set (42)
organization that tries to influence the government's programs and policies
Interest groups and the Founders (2)
- Founders held that people in a free society would always pursue their interests.
- Courts recognize interest group rights in terms of free speech, assembly, petition government, press.
- theory that citizens connect to the government through interest groups that compete in the public sphere
- Interest groups invigorate marketplace of ideas.
- The desired result is compromise, moderation, and understanding of a range of viable options.
Examples of interest groups
• Business and agriculture
- Industry organizations and specific companies
• Labor union groups
- AFL-CIO, pilots, teachers (some states)
• Professional groups
- AMA (doctors)
• Public interest groups
- Consumer protection,
- Religious, libertarian, conservative, liberal
• Public sector
- Universities, think tanks, research lobbies
Key features of interest group organization
- Office locations
Organizational component: Leadership
- Leadership usually starts with an entrepreneur
- Can be as simple as one leader or as complex as a national network
- Netroots groups have streamlined structure
Organizational component: Money
- Operating a large group is expensive
- Membership fees or dues
- Donations and contributions
- Paid for services (Research reports, presentations, exclusive data)
- Advertising in their publications and on their websites
Organizational component: Membership types
- Membership association: bottom-up structure (NOW, NRA)
- Staff organization: professional staff does most of the work
- Donor-based, professional researchers (example:
Children's Defense Fund)
Free Rider Dilemma: How to attract paid members when benefits are collective goods?
- Strong temptation for people to be free riders
- Example: Sesame Street viewers versus PBS donors
American Association of Retired Persons (AARP)
- Started as group to help retired teachers purchase affordable life insurance
- Now has 35 million members
- Benefits: Informational; Material; Solidary; Purposive
The number of interest groups has grown exponentially over the last few decades. Reasons why (3):
1. Expansion of government
2. New politics of interest groups
Expansion of government
groups coalesce around spending and political forces.
New Politics movement
generation that was active in protest politics in late 1960s and early 1970s related to anti-Vietnam War and civil rights movements
an attempt by a group to influence the policy process through persuasion of public officials.
Methods of direct lobbying (4)
- Meetings where information is shared
- Public relations campaigns (ads directed at members, the public, and elected officials)
- Fund-raising for candidates, parties, or issues
Effective lobbyists have two things
- Access to members of Congress (policymakers)
Lobbyists generate cooperative campaigns, multiplying their potential impact (2)
- Grassroots support, fund-raising, media efforts
- Lobbying members of Congress
Members of Congress often ask for favors (3)
- Campaign contributions
- Host fund-raisers for their campaign
- Mobilize members
How Interest Groups Influence the Executive Branch (3)
- Lobbyists do not need to reach the president directly, and rarely attempt to do so.
- They focus on reaching senior officials and the
president's trusted senior staffers.
- Recall that presidential appointees at top levels frequently come from industries they oversee.
Attempts to Make Lobbying Ethical (6)
- Obama administration bans all lobbyists from being hired by his administration for one year.
- Notable exceptions were made, though.
- All lobbyists must register as such.
- Businesses and trade associations cannot write off lobbying expenses.
- More disclosure rules
- No gifts over $50 in value
Mobilizing public opinion
- Campaign to gain mass public awareness and support on a given issue
- Institutional advertising: For example, ads highlighting doctors in favor of or opposition to the Affordable Health Care Act
- Organizing protests and demonstrations: For example, recent DREAM Act activists events
- Grassroots Mobilization: getting members to petition Congress directly
Interest groups try to get favorable legislators elected.
- Political Action Committees (PACs) can contribute $5,000 to a candidate's primary or general election fund.
- They can host as many fund-raisers as they wish, though, where others may contribute.
- Interest groups also advance or oppose many state ballot initiatives relevant to their interests.
Nonprofits cannot explicitly campaign or fund-raise for the election of a candidate, but they can do the following:
- Get Out The Vote (GOTV) mobilization campaigns - Report cards - Raising awareness among members
What happens to interests that do not engage in extensive lobbying?
They often find themselves "Microsofted."
________ once wrote that "America was a nation of joiners."
Alexis de Tocqueville
When a coalition of credit card companies form an interest group called the Partnership to Protect Consumer Credit, this indicates that
private interests are hiding behind the ideals of public interests
Interest groups most effectively serve ________.
the upper classes
James Madison called an interest group a ________.
A full-page, fully paid spread in the New York Times publicizing a major oil company is best described as ________.
In recent years, the religious right has had a great effect on American politics through ________.
If one enjoys the benefits of a group's collective efforts but did NOT contribute to those efforts, one is called a ________.
A loose, informal relationship of public officials, interest groups, and activists who are all concerned with the same policies is called ________.
an issue network
Public interest groups differ from other types of interest groups in that
they claim to serve the common good, not just their own particular interests.
Interest groups are permitted to spend as much money as they want on issue advocacy during a campaign season, as long as they
do not coordinate their efforts with a candidate's own campaign organization.
AARP has approximately ________ members today.
The best description of the ideal of pluralism is that
interests should be free to compete with each other for governmental influence
Which of the following statements is true?
a) Spending in U.S. elections is much higher than in any other country on earth.
b) Officials representing super PACs will likely spend more in 2016 than in 2012.
c) both a and b
d) Super PAC officials tend to spend more in midterm rather than presidential elections.
e) The Supreme Court justices determined that super PACs were unconstitutional.
Which of the following groups is most likely to belong to the New Politics movement?
upper-middle-class professionals, for whom the civil rights and antiwar movements of the 1960s were key experiences
One way that AARP has been effective at overcoming the free-rider problem is by providing ________ benefits to its members.
If citizens were motivated to join an environmental organization because they strongly believed in protecting the environment and supported the goals of the group, then we can conclude that they were motivated by ________.
What is the primary function of a political action committee (PAC)?
to raise and distribute money to election campaigns
Attempts to Make Lobbying Ethical
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