Groups and Interests

I36005Soohyung Ahn

Week 7 American Politics and American Foreign Policy

Pluralism perspective vs. the others

Question• Founding Fathers of the US were sus-

picious of factions – this is one reason why most of them disliked the idea of political parties. But factions were em-inent where liberty thrived. Founding Fathers thought that the mischief of factions could be checked by the mul-tiplicity of factions and a system of representation based on varied con-stituencies. Were Founding Fathers right?

Contents•Founding Fathers' perspective•How interest groups influence American policy•Two examples showing the tyranny of the majority groups-Lawyers/ Law Firms-Retired•Were Founding Fathers right?

Perspective of the US Founding Fa-thers

• Founding Fathers of the US were suspi-cious of factions.

• However, factions are inevitable phenom-ena inherent in democracy.

-James Madison “Liberty is to faction what air is to fire.” (Dilemma)

• Their solution to this dilemma Pluralism

-Liberty, the source of factions, can also limit the mischief of factions.

How interest groups influence American policy

• An interest group is an organized group of people that makes policy-related-appeals to government.

• Interest group activity is a central feature of American politics and public policy.

• Interest groups are sometimes referred to as “lobbies” and political action commit-tees(PACs).

Media

Interest Group

Other Members of Congress

Targeted Members of Congress

Congressional Staff

Constituents

Release of favor-able re-search findings

Activate Con-stituents

Lobby-ing

New sto-ries favor-able to in-terest group

PAC funds, cam-paigns

Alliances, logrolls

Letters, faxes, and work in elec-tions

Advice

Two examples showing the tyranny of the majority group

Upper-Class Bias

• Well-educated, upper-income business and professional people, organizing and wielding substantial economic, social, and institu-tional resources predominate.

• Interest group politics tends to have upper-class bias.

• In other words, the interests by interest groups are the interests of society’s “haves.”

Top Interest Groups Giving to Members of Congress, 2014 Cycle

Lawyers/ Law Firms

•The top contributor -“heavy hitter” •Main political priority is fighting Tort Reform•In the past 20 years, AAJ has donated 31.6 million, 91 % per-cent of which has gone to Democrats•AAJ has more than 56,000 members worldwide, and a net-work of state

Retired•The top contributor -“heavy hitter”• Main political priority is maintaining the integ-rity of Social Security and improving Medi-care and other health care for seniors.•Supporter of Obama and congressional Democrats' plan for health care reform

< Conclusion >Were Founding Fathers right?

• “No” , I think Founding Fathers the-ory failed.

• A few interest groups dominate. -” tyranny of the majority”• No matter how varied constituencies

are, they are influenced by the pow-erful interests group.