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