Title: INTEREST GROUPS AND CORPORATIONS
1Chapter 7
- INTEREST GROUPS AND CORPORATIONS
2Lobbying For China
- The President makes a decision each year about
the most favored nation (MFN) status of a
particular nation, which Congress can override by
a two-thirds vote. - Certain nations must seek most favored status to
avoid extremely high tariffs and other
restrictions on their products. - While Presidential determination about Chinas
trade status prevailed for the past 16 years, the
debate in Congress has intensified.
3- President Clinton succeeded in the face of the
political coalition that developed in 1997 to
oppose granting MFN to China. - The determination of trade policy toward China is
similar to how many federal government policies
are determined. - The opening vignette in the text illustrates the
importance of interest groups and corporations in
shaping what government does in the United States.
4Interest Groups in a Democratic Society
- Roles of interest groups
- Interest groups are private organizations that
try to shape public policy. - Interest groups try to influence the behavior of
political decision makers.
5The Evils of Factions
- The American public has traditionally viewed
special-interest groups as narrowly
self-interested. - James Madison warned of the dangers and
divisiveness of factions (his term for interest
groups) in The Federalist, No. 10. - The theme of the evils of factions has recurred
throughout American history.
6Interest Group Democracy The Pluralist Argument
- Many political scientists believe that interest
groups serve as important instruments to attain
democracy and serve the public interest. - Pluralists believe the interest group system is
democratic because people are free to join or to
organize groups that reflect their own interests.
7Interest Group Formation
- Escalation in the number of interest groups
- Interest groups formation tied to the existence
of certain structural factors - When there are many interests
- When the political culture supports the pursuit
of private interests - Diversity of interests in the United States
8Rules of the political game in the United States
encourage the formation of interest groups.
- The First Amendment guarantees citizens basic
rights that are essential to the ability of
citizens to form organizations. - Government is organized in such a way that
decision makers are relatively accessible to
interest groups. - Because of federalism, checks and balances, and
the separation of powers, there is no dominant
center of decision making.
9Interest Group Formation and the Growth in
Government
- As government takes on more responsibilities, it
has a greater impact on facets of economic,
social, and personal life. - People, groups, and organizations are
increasingly affected by the actions of
government.
10Disturbance Theory of Interest Group Formation
- The proliferation of interests does not seem to
lead to the formation of groups unless these
interests are threatened in some way. - The disturbance theory is illustrated by the
success of the Christian Coalition which was
created at a time when many evangelical
Christians felt threatened by family breakdown,
an increase in the number of abortions, and the
sexual revolution.
11Incentives
- Some social scientists argue that people do not
form groups when their common interests are
threatened unless the group can give back some
selective, material benefit to them. - A selective, material benefit is a tangible
benefit that is available to members but not to
nonmembers.
12- If someone can get the benefit without joining
the group (known as a free-rider), then there may
be no purpose in joining. - The free-rider problem tends to occur when a
group is interested in some collective good that
benefits everyone and not just members. - There has been a proliferation of public interest
and ideological groups, which suggests purposes
or incentives other than material and selective
incentives.
13What Interests Are Represented
- Interest groups may be classified by the type of
interest they represent. - Public interests are interests that are connected
in one way or another to the general welfare of
the community. - Private interests are associated with benefits
for some fraction of the community.
14Private Interest Groups
- Business
- The Professions
- Labor
15Public Interest Groups
- Public interest groups are sometimes called
citizens groups. - They try to get government to do things that will
benefit the general public rather than the direct
material interests of their own members. - There has been substantial growth in the number
and influence of public interest groups since the
late 1960s. - Public-interest groups generally do not use
material incentives.
16What Interest Groups Do
- Interest groups are composed of people with
common goals or interests who try to convey the
views of some sector of society and to influence
government on their behalf. - There are two basic types of interest group
activity the inside game and the outside game.
17The Inside Game
- The inside game involves direct contact of the
interest group representative and government
officials. - The politics of insiders, of the old-boy network,
of one-on-one persuasion in which a skilled
lobbyist tries to persuade a decision maker to
accept the point of view of the interest group - Lobbying Congress
- Lobbying the executive branch
- Lobbying the courts
18The Outside Game
- The outside game is an indirect form of influence
that involves interest group efforts to mobilize
public opinion, voters, and important
contributors. - Evidence of increased importance compared to
inside lobbying (though inside lobbying still
tends to be more directly effective) - Mobilizing membership
- Organizing the district
- Shaping public opinion
- Involvement in campaigns and elections
19Possible Flaws in the Pluralist Heaven
- Representational inequalities
- Resource inequalities
- Political action committees (PACs)
- soft money
- independent expenditures
- Access inequality
- Capture
- Interest group liberalism
- Iron triangles, or subgovernments
- Issue networks
20The Special Place of Corporations
- Scholars have found that corporations dominate
other interest groups in the policy process - number of interest organizations
- number of lobbyists
- level of resources
- shaping public perceptions
- traditionally held in high regard, and viewed as
linked to healthy economy - mobility
- nonetheless, corporate power waxes and wanes
within its overall privileged position
21Curing the Mischief of Factions
- James Madison was thinking primarily about the
tyranny of majority factions when he referred to
the mischief of factions. - We now know that the politics of faction is
usually the province of narrow and privileged
interests rather than majorities. - This creates problems with respect to democracy.
22- Tools used to solve some of the problems of
factions - Disclosure
- Regulation
- Ethics in Government Act (1978)
- Control
- McCain Feingold bill (2002)
23Interest Groups, Corporations, and Democracy
- Many worry that these reforms do not get to the
heart of the problem. - Some political scientists have suggested that we
focus our efforts on strengthening institutions
of majoritarian democracy such as political
parties, the Presidency, and Congress. - Efforts to reform the interest group system may
be frustrated by the inescapable fact that highly
unequal resources eventually will find their way
into our political life.