Lecture 9-3

Economic Groups

• The various ways in which people gain their livelihood lead to great diversity in the array of groups that form

• Business and professional groups

• Labor groups

• Agricultural groups

Social Groups

• Birth, not choice, determines membership in some interest groups.

• Gender

• Race

• Ethnicity

Religious Groups

• Like other interest groups, religions maintain lobbying organizations in Washington.

• but church officials, even though they attempt to influence legislation, typically do not see themselves as lobbyists.

Ideological Groups

• These groups pursue and explicitly political agenda almost exclusively.

• They have in recent years become the centers of PAC activity.

Single-Issue groups

• These groups have narrower agendas and more limited political goals

• Critics charge that they threaten democratic government by rejecting consensus and compromise

Public Interest Groups

• These groups have formed to represent broad-based notions of the public’s interests.

• Examples include Common Cause and various organization founded by Ralph Nader.

Interest Groups as the Foundation of Democracy

• Some see interest groups acting for citizens and thee fore making democracy work

• Interest groups moderate conflict because most Americans belong to several groups

• Political disputes seldom run along the same lines from year to year.

Interest Groups as the Foundation of Democracy

• Some see interest groups acting for citizens and therefore making democracy work

• Interest groups moderate conflict because most Americans belong to several groups

• Political disputes seldom run along the same lines from year to year

Interest Group Elitism

• Some people do not belong to any interest group, and group leaders do not always represent the views of their members

• Pluralist democracy thus turns out to be interest group elitism, with group leaders pursuing their own interests

Interest Groups Versus the Public Interest

• Interest groups are most widely reviled when they are seen as using the political process to achieve selfish objectives.

• Groups therefore attempt to define the public interest in terms of their own interests

Interest Group Gridlock

• Too many groups can lead to a gridlock, or decision making paralysis

• Another view maintains that interest groups focus only on what is good for them and so interfere with the pursuit of the common good