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According to Tour Readings What Are 3 Critisms of Interwst Groups

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, yous will be able to:

  • Clarify how interest groups provide a means for political participation
  • Discuss recent changes to involvement groups and the mode they operate in the U.s.a.
  • Explain why lower socioeconomic condition citizens are not well represented by involvement groups
  • Identify the barriers to involvement grouping participation in the Usa

Interest groups offer individuals an important avenue for political participation. Tea Political party protests, for case, gave individuals all over the country the opportunity to vocalization their opposition to authorities actions and command. Likewise, the Blackness Lives Matter move also gave a voice to individuals and communities frustrated with unequal handling from police force officers. Individually, the protestors would likely have received picayune notice, but by joining with others, they drew substantial attention in the media and from lawmakers (Figure 10.8). While the Tea Political party movement might not come across the definition of involvement groups presented earlier, its aims have been promoted by established interest groups. Other opportunities for participation that involvement groups offer or encourage include voting, candidature, contacting lawmakers, and informing the public about causes.

An image of the back a person wearing a jacket. A patch on the jacket reads

Effigy 10.8 In 2011, an Occupy Wall Street protestor highlights that the concerns of private citizens are not always heard by those in the seats of power. (credit: Timothy Krause)

Group PARTICIPATION AS CIVIC Appointment

Joining interest groups tin can help facilitate civic appointment, which allows people to feel more connected to the political and social community. Some interest groups develop every bit grassroots move s, which frequently begin from the bottom up amid a small number of people at the local level. Involvement groups can amplify the voices of such individuals through proper organisation and allow them to participate in ways that would be less effective or even impossible alone or in pocket-size numbers. The Tea Political party is an example of a so-called astroturf movement, because it is not, strictly speaking, a grassroots movement. Many trace the party's origins to groups that champion the interests of the wealthy such equally Americans for Prosperity and Citizens for a Sound Economic system. Although many ordinary citizens support the Tea Political party considering of its opposition to revenue enhancement increases, it attracts a not bad deal of support from elite and wealthy sponsors, some of whom are active in lobbying. The FreedomWorks political action committee (PAC), for example, is a bourgeois advocacy grouping that has supported the Tea Party movement. FreedomWorks is an offshoot of the interest group Citizens for a Sound Economic system, which was founded by billionaire industrialists David H. and Charles Thou. Koch in 1984.

Co-ordinate to political scientists Jeffrey Berry and Clyde Wilcox, involvement groups provide a ways of representing people and serve every bit a link betwixt them and authorities.33 Interest groups also allow people to actively work on an consequence in an endeavour to influence public policy. Another function of interest groups is to aid educate the public. Someone concerned about the surroundings may not demand to know what an acceptable level of sulfur dioxide is in the air, only by joining an ecology involvement grouping, they can remain informed when air quality is poor or threatened by legislative action. A number of teaching-related interests accept been very active following cuts to education spending in many states, including North Carolina, Mississippi, and Wisconsin, to proper noun a few.

Interest groups also assistance frame issues, usually in a way that best benefits their cause. Abortion rights advocates ofttimes use the term "pro-choice" to frame abortion as an individual'due south private choice to be made free of government interference, while an anti-abortion group might use the term "pro-life" to frame its position as protecting the life of the unborn. "Pro-life" groups oftentimes label their opponents as "pro-abortion," rather than "pro-selection," a distinction that tin can touch on the style the public perceives the issue. Similarly, scientists and others who believe that homo activity has had a negative effect on the earth's temperature and weather patterns attribute such phenomena as the increasing frequency and severity of storms to "climate change." Industrialists and their supporters refer to alterations in the earth's climate as "global warming." Those who dispute that such a alter is taking place can thus point to blizzards and depression temperatures every bit bear witness that the earth is not becoming warmer.

Interest groups also try to get issues on the authorities agenda and to monitor a variety of regime programs. Post-obit the passage of the ACA, numerous interest groups have been monitoring the implementation of the law, hoping to use successes and failures to justify their positions for and against the legislation. Those opposed accept utilized the court organisation to try to modify or eliminate the law, or have lobbied executive agencies or departments that have a function in the law'due south implementation. Similarly, teachers' unions, parent-teacher organizations, and other education-related interests monitored initial implementation and on-going operations of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) promoted and signed into law by President George West. Bush in 2002. That law was replaced in 2015 with the Every Educatee Succeeds Act, due in function to continual lobbying past teacher unions who tired of the stronger federal role that NCLB necessitated.34 Interest groups have increasingly utilized digital means to have attention paid to their causes. Perchance near piercing in issue over recent years is the use of then-called hashtag activism. The hashtag is a visible part of life on Twitter and key hashtags accept induced press coverage and press taglines. The most visible such use was likely the #MeToo movement, which snowballed quickly as famous woman afterward famous adult female confirmed that they, too, had faced harrassment.35

Milestone

Interest Groups as a Response to Riots

The LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer [or questioning].) motion owes a great deal to the gay rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s, and in particular to the 1969 riots at the Stonewall Inn in New York'due south Greenwich Village. These were a series of confrontational responses to a police raid on the bar and regular police harassment, humiliation, and corruption of LGBTQ people. The riots culminated in a number of arrests but also raised awareness of the struggles faced by members of the LGBTQ customs.36 The events are likewise recognized as a turning bespeak in LGTBQ identity, when many people began moving from a life of secrecy to a more public one, leading to increased cultural acceptance and securing of rights. The Stonewall Inn has recently been granted landmark status by New York City'south Landmarks Preservation Committee (Figure ten.ix).

An image of a group of people standing in front of a brick building. A sign in the window of the building reads

Figure 10.9 The Stonewall Inn in New York City's Greenwich Village was the site of arrests and riots in 1969 that, like the building itself, became an of import landmark in the LGBTQ motility. (credit: Steven Damron)

The Castro district in San Francisco, California, was also home to a pregnant LGBTQ community during the same time period. In 1978, the community was shocked when Harvey Milk, a gay local activist and sitting member of San Francisco's Lath of Supervisors, was assassinated by a erstwhile city supervisor due to political differences.37 This resulted in protests in San Francisco and other cities across the country and the mobilization of interests concerned nearly gay and lesbian rights.

Today, advocacy interest organizations like the Man Rights Campaign are at the forefront in supporting members of the LGBTQ community and popularizing a number of relevant issues. They played an active role in the effort to legalize same-sex spousal relationship in private states and later on nationwide. Now that same-sex spousal relationship is legal, these organizations and others are dealing with problems related to continuing discrimination against members of this community. One current debate centers around whether an private's religious freedom allows that individual to deny services to members of the LGBTQ customs. This question reached a fever pitch over discussions about restroom facilities for transgender individuals. The Department of Labor's Occupational Safe and Health Assistants (OSHA) recommends all-time practices for restroom access for transgender workers indicating that all employees should have access to bathroom facilities that stand for to their gender identity.38

What do you experience are lingering issues for the LGBTQ community? What approaches could you accept to assistance increase attention and back up for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender rights? Practise you lot remember someone's religious beliefs should allow them the freedom to discriminate against members of the LGBTQ customs? Why or why not?

TRENDS IN PUBLIC INTEREST GROUP Formation AND Activity

A number of changes in involvement groups have taken identify over the last iii or iv decades in the Us. The most meaning change is the tremendous increase in both the number and type of groups.39 Political scientists often examine the variety of registered groups, in part to determine how well they reflect the diverseness of interests in society. Some areas may be dominated by certain industries, while others may reflect a multitude of interests. Some interests appear to take increased at greater rates than others. For example, the number of institutions and corporate interests has increased both in Washington and in the states. Telecommunication companies similar Verizon and AT&T will lobby Congress for laws beneficial to their businesses, only they also target the states because state legislatures make laws that tin can benefit or harm their activities. There has also been an increase in the number of public involvement groups that represent the public equally opposed to economic interests. U.Due south. PIRG is a public interest group that represents the public on issues including public wellness, the environment, and consumer protection.forty

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Public Interest Research Groups

Public interest inquiry groups (PIRGs) take increased in recent years, and many at present exist nationally and at the land level. PIRGs stand for the public in a multitude of issue areas, ranging from consumer protection to the environment, and like other interests, they provide opportunities for people to make a deviation in the political process. PIRGs effort to promote the mutual or public good, and nigh issues they favor affect many or fifty-fifty all citizens. Pupil PIRGs focus on problems that are important to students, including tuition costs, textbook costs, new voter registration, sustainable universities, and homelessness. Consider the toll of a college education. You may want to research how instruction costs have increased over fourth dimension. Are cost increases similar beyond universities and colleges? Are they similar across states? What might explain similarities and differences in tuition costs? What solutions might help address the rising costs of college education?

How can you become involved in the bulldoze for affordable college teaching? Consider why students might go engaged in it and why they might not do and then. A number of countries take made tuition free or nearly gratis. 41 Is this feasible or desirable in the United States? Why or why non?

What are the reasons for the increase in the number of interest groups? In some cases, it merely reflects new interests in society. Forty years ago, stem cell inquiry was non an outcome on the government agenda, only equally scientific discipline and technology advanced, its techniques and possibilities became known to the media and the public, and a number of interests began lobbying for and against this type of research. Medical research firms and medical associations volition foyer in favor of greater spending and increased research on stem cell inquiry, while some religious organizations and anti-ballgame groups volition oppose it. As societal attitudes modify and new bug develop, and as the public becomes aware of them, we can expect to see the rise of interests addressing them.

The devolution of power as well explains some of the increment in the number and type of interests, at to the lowest degree at the state level. Equally power and responsibility shifted to state governments in the 1980s, united states of america began to handle responsibilities that had been under the jurisdiction of the federal government. A number of federal welfare programs, for case, are more often than not administered at the land level. This means interests might be better served targeting their lobbying efforts in Albany, Raleigh, Austin, or Sacramento, rather than merely in Washington, DC. As the states have become more active in more policy areas, they have become prime targets for interests wanting to influence policy in their favor.42

We have likewise seen increased specialization past some interests and fifty-fifty fragmentation of existing interests. While the American Medical Association may take a stand on stalk cell research, the issue is not critical to the everyday activities of many of its members. On the other hand, stem cell research is highly salient to members of the American Neurological Association, an involvement organization that represents bookish neurologists and neuroscientists. Appropriately, different interests stand for the more specialized needs of different specialties within the medical community, simply fragmentation can occur when a big interest like this has diverging needs. Such was too the case when several unions split up from the AFL-CIO (American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations), the nation's largest federation of unions, in 2005.43 Improved technology and the development of social media take made it easier for smaller groups to form and to attract and communicate with members. The use of the Cyberspace to enhance coin has also fabricated it possible for even small groups to receive funding.

None of this suggests that an unlimited number of interests can be in society. The size of the economy has a begetting on the number of interests, but just upwards to a certain point, after which the number increases at a declining charge per unit. Every bit we will come across below, the limit on the number of interests depends on the bachelor resources and levels of contest.

Over the final few decades, we have also witnessed an increment in professionalization in lobbying and in the sophistication of lobbying techniques. This was not always the example, considering lobbying was non considered a serious profession in the mid-twentieth century. Over the past three decades, there has been an increase in the number of contract lobbying firms. These firms are frequently effective because they bring significant resources to the table, their lobbyists are knowledgeable nigh the bug on which they lobby, and they may have existing relationships with lawmakers. In fact, relationships between lobbyists and legislators are oft ongoing, and these are critical if lobbyists want access to lawmakers. However, not every interest can afford to hire high-priced contract lobbyists to correspond information technology. As Tabular array ten.i suggests, a great deal of coin is spent on lobbying activities.

Top Lobbying Firms in 2020

Lobbying Firm Full Lobbying Annual Income
Akin, Gump et al. $49,870,000
Brownstein, Hyatt et al. $48,365,000
BGR Group $31,630,000
Cornerstone Regime Affairs $28,020,000
Holland & Knight $27,990,000
Ballard Partners $24,420,000
Squire Patton Boggs $24,215,000
Invariant LLC $21,140,000
Forbes Tate Partners $19,400,000
Capitol Counsel $xix,110,000
K&L Gates $18,330,000
Mehlman, Castagnetti et al $17,836,000
Peck Madigan Jones $17,150,000
Van Scoyoc Assoc $17,130,000
Crossroads Strategies $16,550,000
Cassidy & Assoc $16,430,000
Covington & Burling $16,340,000
American Continental Group $15,000,000
Alpine Group $14,600,000
Subject Matter $fourteen,550,000

Tabular array 10.1 This table lists the acme xx U.Due south. lobbying firms in 2020 as determined by total lobbying income.44

We take also seen greater limits on inside lobbying activities. In the past, many lobbyists were described as "expert ol' boys" who often provided gifts or other favors in substitution for political access or other considerations. Today, restrictions limit the types of gifts and benefits lobbyists can bestow on lawmakers. There are certainly fewer "adept ol' male child" lobbyists, and many lobbyists are now full-fourth dimension professionals. The regulation of lobbying is addressed in greater detail below.

HOW REPRESENTATIVE IS THE Involvement Grouping System?

Participation in the United States has never been equal; wealth and education, components of socioeconomic status, are strong predictors of political appointment.45 We already discussed how wealth can assist overcome collective activity problems, but lack of wealth too serves equally a barrier to participation more by and large. These types of barriers pose challenges, making information technology less likely for some groups than others to participate.46 Some institutions, including large corporations, are more probable to participate in the political process than others, simply because they take tremendous resource. And with these resources, they can write a check to a political campaign or rent a lobbyist to represent their system. Writing a bank check and hiring a lobbyist are unlikely options for a disadvantaged group (Effigy 10.ten).

An image of a crowd of people, one of whom holds a sign that reads

Effigy 10.10 A protestor at an Occupy Times Square rally in October 2011. (credit: Geoff Stearns)

Individually, people living in poverty may not have the same opportunities to join groups.47 They may piece of work ii jobs to brand ends meet and lack the free time necessary to participate in politics. Farther, in that location are often financial barriers to participation. For someone who punches a fourth dimension-clock, spending time with political groups may exist costly and paying dues may be a hardship. Certainly, the poor are unable to hire expensive lobbying firms to stand for them. Structural barriers like voter identification laws may also disproportionately impact people with low socioeconomic status, although the effects of these laws may non be fully understood for some fourth dimension.

The poor may likewise have low levels of efficacy, which refers to the conviction that you lot can make a difference or that regime cares about you and your views. People with depression levels of efficacy are less likely to participate in politics, including voting and joining involvement groups. Therefore, they are oftentimes underrepresented in the political arena.

People in certain racial and ethnic populations may as well participate less often than the majority population, although when nosotros control for wealth and education levels, we run into fewer differences in participation rates. Still, there is a bias in participation and representation, and this bias extends to interest groups besides. For example, when fast food workers beyond the The states went on strike to need an increment in their wages, they could do little more than take to the streets bearing signs, like the protestors shown in Effigy ten.11. Their opponents, the owners of restaurant chains and others who pay their employees minimum wage, could hire groups such as the Employment Policies Institute, which paid for billboard ads in Times Square in New York Urban center. The billboards implied that raising the minimum wage was an insult to people who worked hard and discouraged people from getting an education to meliorate their lives.48

An image of a group of people marching down a street, one of whom holds a sign that reads

Figure 10.11 Unlike their opponents, these minimum-wage workers in Minnesota have limited ways to make their interests known to government. Still, they were able to increment their political efficacy by joining fast food workers in a nationwide strike on April xv, 2015, to call for a $15 per hour minimum wage and improved working conditions. (credit: "Fibonacci Blueish"/Flickr)

Finally, people do not ofttimes participate because they lack the political skill to do and so or believe that information technology is impossible to influence government actions.49 They might likewise lack involvement or could be blah. Participation commonly requires some knowledge of the political organization, the candidates, or the bug. Younger people in particular are often cynical about government's response to the needs of non-elites.

How do these observations translate into the way different interests are represented in the political organization? Some pluralist scholars like David Truman suggest that people naturally bring together groups and that there will be a great deal of contest for access to determination-makers.50 Scholars who subscribe to this pluralist view assume this competition amongst diverse interests is good for democracy. Political theorist Robert Dahl argued that "all agile and legitimate groups had the potential to make themselves heard."51 In many ways, this is an optimistic assessment of representation in the United States.

However, non all scholars accept the premise that mobilization is natural and that all groups have the potential for access to decision-makers. The elite critique suggests that certain interests, typically businesses and the wealthy, are advantaged and that policies more often reflect their wishes than anyone else's. Political scientist E. E. Schattschneider noted that "the flaw in the pluralist sky is that the heavenly chorus sings with a potent upperclass accent."52 A number of scholars have suggested that businesses and other wealthy interests are oft overrepresented before government, and that poorer interests are at a comparative disadvantage.53 For example, as we've seen, wealthy corporate interests have the means to hire in-house lobbyists or loftier-priced contract lobbyists to correspond them. They tin also beget to make financial contributions to politicians, which at least may grant them access. The ability to overcome collective action problems is not as distributed across groups; as Mancur Olson noted, small groups and those with economic advantages were better off in this regard.54 Disadvantaged interests face many challenges including shortages of resources, time, and skills.

A study of about eighteen hundred policy decisions fabricated over a twenty-year period revealed that the interests of the wealthy have much greater influence on the government than those of average citizens. The blessing or disapproval of proposed policy changes past average voters had relatively little upshot on whether the changes took place. When wealthy voters disapproved of a particular policy, it almost never was enacted. When wealthy voters favored a particular policy, the odds of the policy proposal'south passing increased to more 50 percent.55 Indeed, the preferences of those in the elevation 10 percent of the population in terms of income had an bear upon fifteen times greater than those of boilerplate income. In terms of the effect of interest groups on policy, Gilens and Page found that business interest groups had twice the influence of public interest groups.56

Figure 10.12 shows contributions by interests from a variety of different sectors. Nosotros tin can draw a few notable observations from the tabular array. First, big sums of money are spent past different interests. Second, many of these interests are business organization sectors, including the real estate sector, the insurance industry, businesses, and law firms.

An image of a table titled

Figure 10.12 The chart above shows the dollar amounts contributed from the business organization sector to Democratic (blueish) and Republican (red) federal candidates and political parties during the 2019-2020 election bicycle, every bit reported to the Federal Election Commission.

Interest group politics are often characterized by whether the groups have admission to decision-makers and can participate in the policy-making process. The fe triangle is a hypothetical organisation among iii elements (the corners of the triangle): an interest group, a congressional committee member or chair, and an bureau within the bureaucracy.57 Each element has a symbiotic relationship with the other two, and information technology is hard for those outside the triangle to break into it. The congressional committee members, including the chair, rely on the involvement group for campaign contributions and policy data, while the involvement grouping needs the committee to consider laws favorable to its view. The interest group and the committee need the agency to implement the law, while the bureau needs the interest group for data and the committee for funding and autonomy in implementing the law.58

An alternate caption of the arrangement of duties carried out in a given policy area past interest groups, legislators, and agency bureaucrats is that these actors are the experts in that given policy surface area. Hence, perhaps they are the ones most qualified to procedure policy in the given surface area. Some view the iron triangle thought equally outdated. Hugh Heclo of George Mason University has sketched a more than open pattern he calls an event network that includes a number of different interests and political actors that work together in support of a single result or policy.59

Some involvement group scholars have studied the human relationship among a multitude of interest groups and political actors, including former elected officials, the way some interests form coalitions with other interests, and the way they compete for access to conclusion-makers.sixty Some coalitions are long-standing, while others are temporary. Joining coalitions does come with a toll, because it can dilute preferences and split potential benefits that the groups attempt to accrue. Some interest groups will even align themselves with opposing interests if the alliance will reach their goals. For example, left-leaning groups might oppose a land lottery system because it disproportionately hurts the poor (who participate in this form of gambling at college rates), while correct-leaning groups might oppose information technology because they view gambling every bit a sinful activity. These opposing groups might actually bring together forces in an endeavour to defeat the lottery.

While near scholars agree that some interests do have advantages, others have questioned the overwhelming authority of certain interests. Additionally, neopluralist scholars argue that certainly some interests are in a privileged position, but these interests do not e'er get what they want.61 Instead, their influence depends on a number of factors in the political environs such as public opinion, political civilization, contest for access, and the relevance of the outcome. Fifty-fifty wealthy interests practice not e'er win if their position is at odds with the wish of an attentive public. And if the public cares about the issue, politicians may exist reluctant to defy their constituents. If a prominent manufacturing house wants fewer regulations on environmental pollutants, and environmental protection is a salient consequence to the public, the manufacturing business firm may not win in every exchange, despite its resource advantage. We likewise know that when interests mobilize, opposing interests ofttimes counter-mobilize, which tin can reduce advantages of some interests. Thus, the conclusion that businesses, the wealthy, and elites win in every situation is overstated.62

A proficient instance is the recent dispute betwixt fast food bondage and their employees. During the spring of 2015, workers at McDonald's restaurants across the land went on strike and marched in protest of the low wages the fast nutrient giant paid its employees. Despite the opposition of restaurant bondage and claims by the National Eating place Association that increasing the minimum wage would consequence in the loss of jobs, in September 2015, the state of New York raised the minimum wage for fast nutrient employees to $15 per hour, an amount to exist phased in over time. Buoyed by this success, fast food workers in other cities continued to entrada for a pay increment, and many depression-paid workers have promised to vote for politicians who programme to heave the federal minimum wage.63 While the goal of a nationwide $xv minimum wage has non nevertheless been realized, 2 developments demonstrate pregnant progress in that management. First, since 2014, twenty-eight states and the Commune of Columbia have raised their state-level minimum wage to a higher place the federal level, as have forty-five cities. Second, in Apr 2021, President Biden issued an executive social club to raise the minimum wage of federal contractors to $15 per hour.64

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Source: https://openstax.org/books/american-government-3e/pages/10-3-interest-groups-as-political-participation

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