Interest groups are people who work together to influence public policy or who gets what in society. Interest groups supplement the electoral system by creating more ways for people to participate in politics. By representing special interests, interest groups help to combat the power of majorities in the American system The costs of the benefits produced for interest groups are dispersed among the entire population. If allowed, however, to grow without restriction, well-organized and powerful interest groups can create a society with organization sclerosis where so many special benefits are created that the overall costs lower everyone's standard of living.

Origins of Interest Groups

James Madison noted that interest groups or factions were present at the founding of this nation because differing opinions and desires are a natural part of society. The most important source of factions is economic interests and the unequal distribution of property. Social movements such as civil rights, farm rights and unions have also played a prominent role in creating interest groups. Government actions and growth also spawn interest groups such as veterans groups after a war. The growth of the welfare state also spurred interest groups that sought to gain government benefits for their groups. Increases in government regulation also have led to the development of more interest groups whether they seek to increase regulation or protect themselves against new regulations.

The Organized Interests in Washington

The United States has more than 1 million nonprofit organizations, several thousand of which are registered in Washington as lobbyists. Most fall in one of the following categories:

1. Business and Trade Organizations. U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Business Roundtable, National Federation of Independent Businesses. This category predominates among interest groups and is probably the most powerful.
2. Professional Associations. American Bar Association, American Medical Association. This is the second most powerful lobby group.
3. Organized Labor. AFL-CIO, American Federation of Teachers. While labor unions have been on the decline, they have remained a powerful lobbying group and are most important among government workers today.
4. Farm Organizations. American Farm Bureau Association, National Cattlemen's Association, National Farmers Union. While farmers only comprise about 3 percent of the workforce, they remain a powerful and important lobbying force in Washington.
5. Women's Organizations. League of Women Voters, National Organization for Women. Women's organizations began as part of the anti-slavery movement but have successfully fought for women's rights such as suffrage.
6. Religious Groups. National Council of Churches, Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, Christian Coalition, American-Israel Public Affairs Committee. Religious organizations have played roles in forming American policy for many years from anti-slavery to anti-abortion.
7. Public Interest Groups. Common Cause, Public Citizen, Consumer Federation of America. These groups claim to represent broad classes of people or the public as a whole.
8. Single Issue Groups. National Abortion Rights Action League, National Rifle Association, Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Single issue groups are formed to support or oppose government action on a specific issue.
9. Ideological Groups. Americans for Democratic Action, American Constitutional Union. These groups pursue ideologically based agendas.
10. Government Lobbies. National Governors Association, National League of Cities, U.S. Conference of Mayors. Government lobbies pursue wide policy agendas and work to increase federal money transfers to lower levels of government.

Leaders and Followers

All groups have leaders but over their lifetime these leaders may develop a different viewpoint and agenda from their membership. Interest group entrepreneurs build the organization structure and the membership of groups while trying to overcome the increasing problem of free riders who benefit from the organization's work without contributing to the cost or effort. Entrepreneurs seek to offer tangible benefits or to appeal to a sense of obligation to attract contributing members. Tangible benefits to members include magazines, newsletters and discounts. The larger the interest group typically the more broad its interest and the more likely the leadership must offer tangible benefits to attract members. Small specialized groups tend to attract more ideologically motivated members. In most interest groups, small numbers of leaders actually run the organization and make decisions; thus, leaders' actions may not always reflect the desires of the members. Socioeconomic status plays the key role in active interest group membership as members are most likely professional, college-educated and high income individuals.

The Washington Lobbyists

There are more than 15,000 lobbyists in Washington. Lobbyists are persons working to influence government policies and actions. Most lobbyists are employed by interest groups to work on their behalf and for their causes. There are private lobbyists who work secretively for their clients. Many lobbyists are former members of Congress, White House aides and staff members who have the personnel connections that allow them access to top ranked officials. The right to lobby is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution, which cites the right "to petition the government for a redress of grievances." However, government can regulate lobbying. The Regulation of Lobbying Act requires lobbyists to register and to report what they spend. Law also forbids nonprofit groups from lobbying on pain of losing tax-exempt status, but education on issues is legal and there is a very thin line. Think tanks like the conservative Heritage Foundation do not lobby directly but are very active in congressional hearings and other forums for making policy recommendations.

The Fine Art of Lobbying

Lobbyists employ a variety of techniques to achieve their goals:

1. Public Relations. Lobbyists seek to build goodwill with the general public, sometimes saturating the media with expensive ads from oil companies, teachers' unions, or other groups seeking a favorable image.
2. Access. Throwing dinners, providing travel, and socialization in general is an important part of lobbying because it provides a chance to make one's argument. Schmoozing or building personal relationships is a key to the success of many lobbyists.
3. Information. The provision of knowledge and information to friendly members of Congress is usually one of the most important lobbying strategies. Members, overwhelmed by the number of bills on which they must vote, often rely heavily on this information for decision making and when preparing for committee or floor debate.
4. Grass-roots mobilization. When feasible, interest groups may mobilize voters in the districts of members of Congress. They then may use grassroots organizations to mobilize letter-writing campaigns, lobby in person as individuals, write the press, or to get out the vote.
5. Protests and demonstrations. Sometimes, but rarely, interest groups may employ protests and demonstrations, as when cattle raisers once drove steers down the Washington Mall. These tactics are used primarily when an interest group is frustrated or when they want to intensify pressure on public officials.
6. Coalition building. Groups often form affiliations with each other in order to increase their influence. The National Organization for Women, the League of Women Voters, and the National Abortion Rights Action League have formed such a coalition, for instance.
7. Campaign support. Lobbyists seldom can deliver enough votes to affect an election, but members of Congress are increasingly dependent on the campaign contributions of organized interests. Instead of threats or bribery, which are rare, interest groups rely on contributing to incumbent members of long periods of time, leaving it to the member to figure out how to retain support.

PAC Power

Interest groups channel their money through political action committees to distribute their money. By contributing money in large lump sums PACs hope to gain more influence with decision makers in the government. Corporate, professional, and trade association PACs give overwhelmingly to incumbents, though ideological and issue-oriented PACs are more likely to contribute to challengers. Labor PACs give almost exclusively to Democrats. After the 1994 elections gave control of Congress to the Republicans, PAC giving to the Democrats declined sharply. Nonetheless, the single largest PAC contributor to political candidates in 1996 was Emily's List, which supports Democratic women candidates. Proportionately, House members rely more on PAC money than members of the Senate.

PACs hope that their money buys access to legislators. Studies do show a correlation between the campaign contribution patterns of major industries and the pattern of congressional voting on key issues.

Lobbying the Bureaucracy

Lobbying continues after legislation has been passed since implementation of the law is also important. Thus, lobbyists spend a considerable amount of time lobbying the regulatory agencies and government bureaucracies that actually implement or oversee policy. Interest groups seek to influence the membership of regulatory agencies as well as the amount of their budgets. What has developed is a powerful relationship referred to as "iron triangles". In these triangles interest groups, congressional committees and administrative agencies depend on each other to implement public policies. Sometimes administrative agencies are caught between competing but powerful interest groups. In some cases interest groups develop policy networks where there is a common policy area among lobbyists, elected officials, staff personnel, bureaucrats, journalists, and private sector experts. Because of the competition and potential money involved, many individuals move between government positions and to the private sector in what is referred to as a revolving door. The Ethics in Government Act requires former members of Congress to wait one year before moving into lobbying jobs. Former government employees are not permitted to lobby their former agencies for one year and not allowed to lobby their agency for two years on any matter over which they had responsibility while employed by the government.

Lobbying the Courts

Interest groups bring many of the key cases before the federal courts and initiate litigation to challenge new government laws. Interest groups provide lawyers in key cases, bring suits on behalf of classes of citizens, and by filing amicus curia (friend of the court) briefs on cases in which they have an interest. The most active group in the legal arena has long been the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Lobbyists are much more limited in their ability to directly contact judges, but they may lobby Congress and the President over judicial appointments.

Politics as Interest Group Conflict

How one views the role of interest groups is connected with how one views the American political system as a whole. Pluralist theory holds that democracy is preserved in a large, complex society like the United States because overlapping group memberships in a wide diversity of interest groups leads to competition, bargaining, and compromise in most political arenas. While formal democratic theory is not an accurate description of politics (voters only take interest in a few issues, they are often uninformed, often only a minority vote, representatives aren't obliged to follow voter opinion, etc.), democratic outcomes nonetheless result by virtue of interest groups as a second method of representation beyond electoral representation. Pluralists see public policy outcomes as a result of the equilibrium of interest groups in the marketplace of ideas and politics.

Critics of pluralist theory charge that in many policy arenas, interest groups are far from countervailing. Often public interests are underrepresented. Although many Americans belong to interest groups such as the AARP, AAA, or labor unions, or work for corporations which have PACs, interest groups are often run by a small elite of organizational officers with great discretion. Overall, producer interests usually dominate less well-organized consumer groups and non-economic issue groups. Special interests with a vested stake in public policies often carry the day over less organized, more diffuse interests of taxpayers or the public at large. Critics also charge that the attempt to placate diverse interests often leads to gridlock and paralysis, in which no effective national policy can be passed and implemented in a given policy arena.

Chapter Objectives

After mastering the concepts in this chapter, you will be able to

• Define interest groups.
• Explain how interest groups are a check on majoritarianism.
• Interpret Madison's views of factions in terms of modern-day interest groups.
• List, with examples, factors which lead to interest group formation and activity.
• List, with at least one example, the major types of interest groups.
• Explain the free rider problem faced by interest groups.
• Explain why some interest group leaders have more discretion than others vis-a-vis interest group members' opinions.
• Cite the constitutional basis for interest-group lobbying.
• Name several of the most important interest groups in American politics.
• Outline the seven general strategies of interest groups.
• Give a very brief history of the rise of political action committees.
• Describe the main trends in the distribution of PAC money by party and by incumbency.
• Define and differentiate iron triangles and issue networks.
• Describe the three major strategies by which interest groups seek to influence the judicial branch.
• Summarize the pluralist theory of interest groups.
• Summarize major criticisms of pluralist theory.