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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
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