From 5b30719af9c2eb9afbc8d23a763856f7560db196 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Holden Rohrer <hr@hrhr.dev>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2020 14:20:25 -0500
Subject: watched interest groups and remembered DNA Club stuff

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+Interest Groups are the organizing unit of political collective action.
+
+Interest Groups
+- "Everything from fruits to nuts is organized"
+- No matter what interest you have, there is a group for you. Ex:
+    - International Studies Organization
+    - American History Organization
+    - Golf
+    - Doctors Without Borders, donating to Georgia Tech
+- So what is a political interest group?
+    - Organizations that try to achieve their goals with some level of
+      government assistance
+    - But what role do they play and should they play?
+    - AARP, AAA are interest groups; they lobby the government for
+      support
+        - Political parties don't look for support but control
+- Federalist #10 "Madison's Model"
+    - "Mischief of factions [interest groups]"
+    - The founders were largely concerned with over-concentrated power,
+      tyranny
+    - Tyranny of a majority's "common passions" were warned against.
+    - Size helps
+        - Country size
+        - Voting count
+    - These cannot be eliminated because people organize.
+        - "Can't beat 'em, join 'em"
+        - Multiple access points for state, local, federal.
+        - Develop a huge diversity of interests
+    - Interest groups check each other so none become too influential
+
+Why join an interest group?
+- Mancur Olsen's "The Logic of Collective Action"
+- Collective Goods, like environment, protection of retired people, etc
+- Size of Group Matters
+    - Accountability
+    - Responsibility
+    - Disproportionate Distribution of Benefits, moreso with larger
+      groups
+- Example
+    - Sororities, group projects have free-riders
+    - The Sierra Club keeps water, air clean for the rest of us.
+        - The entire country is the group size
+- The Free-Rider Problem
+- Ultimately, joining these collective activities aren't perfectly
+  rational
+
+What incentives make people join?
+- Once formed, interest groups recruit, but why should Americans join?
+1) Solidary incentives: social relations
+    - Ex: Sierra Club hikes, fraternities
+2) Material Incentives
+    - Ex: Nike sponsors sports teams
+3) Purposive Incentives
+    - Ex: The GT mission
+- Orgs/individual reasons can be one or any combination
+- Still probably costs more to be a member in terms of activity
+
+Inexhaustive list of types of interest groups
+- National, State, and Local interest groups
+1) Business interest groups
+    - NAM - 60+ employee businesses; focused more on labor, taxation
+    - Chamber of Commerce - Small, local businesses
+2) Agricultural - Agree on export, subsidy stuff
+    - AFBF - Big Farms
+    - National Farmers Union - Smaller Farms
+3) Labor
+    - Protect corporations from making profits by squeezing labor
+    - AFL-CIO
+        - Teamsters, a truck driver union
+    - Public employees
+        - Teachers Union
+        - FD, Public Safety, Police Unions
+    - Professional interest groups
+- Interest groups advocate for "who gets what, when, and how" because
+  they have power, and we will see that soon in modern politics.
+4) Environmental
+    - Their goal is preservation
+    - Each has their own strategy
+        - Greenpeace
+        - Sierra Club
+- Madison's Model is playing out because interest groups regulate each
+  other
+5) Public Interest Groups
+    - Consumer Pressure Groups
+        - Auto safety 
+        - Ford chose to settle lawsuits over exploding cars than do a
+          repair costing pennies.
+6) Special Interest Groups
+    - Single interest and focused
+    - Gun control, abortion
+    - Usually have two sides for pro- and anti-, but there are many
+      representing either side
+7) Foreign Governments
+    - Received more attention during 90s after Cold War ended
+    - Clinton made staffers promise not to work for/lobby for foreign
+      governments for a certain number of years
+    - Really powerful interest groups
+
+What makes an interest group powerful?
+1) Size and resources
+2) Leadership and strategy
+    - The invisible, mostly non-controversial lobbying decisions,
+      advertising, etc.
+3) Cohesiveness
+    - How strongly the members believe in the cause and want to work for
+      the issue
+- The most powerful interest group? AARP
-- 
cgit