2301+Spring+2009+Week+Fourteen

--under reconstruction**
 * Interest Groups


 * What is an Interest Group?**

The term [|interest group] is used to refer to any group of individuals organized to support or oppose a particular policy.


 * Recalling Factions.**

When we discussed Federalist #10, we introduced the concept of an interest group, though we called it by a different name: faction. Madison stated: "By a faction, I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or a minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adversed to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community."

If you recall, popular governments we said to have suffered and collapsed due to the violence unleashed by factions, especially majority factions. Madison discussed this in terms of a dilemma. The basic principle on which American government rests is individual freedom, but that freedom also can unleash the forces that can eradicate freedom. This was the natural course of history from their point of view. Tyrannical majorities create despotic governments that undermine freedom and stability, the inevitable chaos leads to the establishment of a tyrannical autocracy.

The task of the constitutional order was to allow for individual freedom, but not allow that freedom to destroy the republic. His insight was that the problem was not the existence of factions so much as the development of a permanent, stable, unstable majority faction that could dominate governmental institutions and use them as a vehicle through which their interests could be served. Minority groups could not do that, though they could "clog the administration and convulse the society." The advantage of the U.S. Constitution was that it created a representative system over a large territory that would break apart majority factions.

Why? Because our nature is such that we will inevitably form into groups. The circumstances of civil society will create the interests that will condition the types of groups that will exist. A large republic will allow for the development of a large number of interests which will make it difficult, if not impossible, for majority groups to form and effectively convert their interests into policy.

He pointed out the various factions that existed in society at that time: "Those who hold and those who are without property have ever formed distinct interests in society. Those who are creditors, and those who are debtors, fall under a like discrimination. A landed interest, a manufacturing interest, a mercantile interest, a moneyed interest ...

Since then, as the country has grown and increased in size, the number of interests has increased.

A Modern Concern

More recently, concerns about interest groups

 The Modern Interest Group problem with interest groups - demosclerosis - issue networks and the iron triangle - interests become intertwined with the structure of government - examples

Two advantages of interest groups - allows for common interests to be addressed - allows for coordinated governmental activity

 In the United States at the State Level - Texas at the local level - Alvin - Manvel - Houston Constitutional Issues - the right to assemble - the right to petition for a redress of grievances - the right to contribute money to political campaigns

Organizing Interests - groups do not spontaneously form - free rider problem - the collective action problem

- political entrepreneur - selective benefits: material, purposive, solidary - membership, dues, etc…

 The Modern Interest Group In the United States at the State Level - Texas at the local level - Alvin - Manvel - Houston

What Types Exist? - Business Groups - Workers Groups - Professional Groups - Ethnic Groups - Public Interest Groups - Governmental Employees

 How do Interest Groups Influence Policy? Insider strategies

- Lobbying - Electioneering - Public Relations

Outsider strategies - Protest - Litigation - Going Public - Electioneering