PLSC 111 Ch 11 Interest Groups and Social Movements PDF

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3/17/18 PLSC 111 The American Political System- Chapter 11: Interest Groups and Social Movements What are Interest Groups, and What Do They Do? -

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These groupings of people are more organized in pressing their claim on the government Interest group- Any group other than a political party that is organized to influence the government Such groups are represented by formal organizations Interest group politics occur primarily as interactions between organized groups (often represented by lobbyists working for those organizations) and people in the government Parties are oriented toward gaining positions of power within the government Interest groups do not seek positions in government, but rather try to influence those who are in government Labor unions, corporations, trade associations, nonprofit organizations, and foundations can all act as interest groups, even though their day-to-day work focuses on something else Lobbying- An attempt to influence public officials by speaking to them directly or by pressuring them through their constituents Lobbying in the U.S is mostly directed at Congress or the White House. Lobbyists can attempt to use the courts to promote their cause by lawsuits or court briefings Interest groups can either have their own staff lobbyists or hire lobbyists who work for professional lobbying firms, much like hiring a lawyer or an accountant Most of the interest groups in the U.S. represent business corporations, business trade associations, and professional organizations. Ex: Microsoft, American Petroleum Association, American Medical Association A smaller but still important portion of the interest group world is populated by labor unions and by what are called public interest groups. Public interest groups are defined as organizations that “seek a collective good, the achievement of which will not selectively or materially benefit the membership of activists of the organization.” Ex: The Child Welfare League of America Business groups are more active than any other kinds of groups. Many of the largest organizations are not business associations. For example, AARP is by far the largest voluntary interest group with dues-paying members in the country, dwarfing any specific business association A sizable majority of paid lobbyists and the bulk of campaign contributions from interest groups are oriented toward the promotion of business interests. When those interests are united for or against a specific policy, it is hard for major political parties or Congress to ignore them Most of the time, industry lobbyists compete because various business interest groups find themselves on opposite sides of policy issues

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Susan McCabe, one of the most influential lobbyists in California, is regularly hired by home-building companies to lobby the California Coastal Commission, state environmental agencies, and the EPA, seeking approval for new building developments. People and business with existing developments along the coast lobby against new developments because they do not want crowding and they want to enjoy the existing tranquility There is typically no unified “business interest” with respect to a policy issue that is being debated and voted on at the local level or in Congress and discussed within presidential administrations. Instead, different industry groups usually compete for the attention of lawmakers

Inside and Outside Lobbying -

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Lobbying occurs at all levels of government. Lobbying groups devote substantial resources to state-level efforts as well as to federal. Inside lobbying- Activities by lobbyists and interest group leaders that involve direct contact with policy makers- speaking in person, testifying at committee hearings, or giving money to policy makers Outside lobbying- Activities by interest group leaders that seek to mobilize constituents and others outside the policy making community to contact or pressure policy makers. Examples include letter-writing or email campaigns, running advertisements on a policy issue, and leading protests or demonstrations Both inside and outside lobbying are used in trying to influence Congress and the White House, and certainly groups often use inside lobbying in their interactions with bureaucratic agencies Groups unhappy with the decisions and actions of an agency complain to Congress, and this can get agency leaders in hot water with the people who fund the agency Groups representing firms and organizations regulated by agencies can have productive and cooperative relationships with those agencies simply by staying in touch and keeping the lines of communication open with regulators, an important purpose of inside lobbying Groups often want to have their leaders and members comment on potential regulatory or rules changes proposed by agencies Agencies are required to post potential rules and regulation changes and invite commentary from the public When targeting bureaucratic agencies, outside lobbying is less effective and used less often by groups, because the leverage from outside lobbying comes from convincing elected officials that their constituents might care enough about the issue to alter their voting decisions in the next election. Bureaucrats do not face reelection. Any outside lobbying directed at bureaucratic agencies would also usually have Congress or the White House as intended targets Interest groups often use the courts to promote an agenda. They advocate for or against the confirmation of nominees for federal judgeships based on how they believe those nominees would rule on questions to support them

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Interest groups file amicus curiae, or “friend of the court,” briefs in Supreme Court cases to allow individuals or organizations that are not party to a case, but who care about its outcome, to provide the Court with information that can aid its decision making- research suggests that these types of filings do not affect the Court’s opinions The first federal law regulating lobbying activities was the Federal Regulation of Lobbying Act of 1946 Groups and individuals who lobby state and local governments are regulated by state and local laws

Campaign Financing -

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One straightforward way of trying to influence a politician is to give money in support of his or her election or reelection. Bribery is illegal though. Suppose a politician who receives a contribution from an interest group soon thereafter makes policy decisions unduly favorable to that group and suppose someone (an accuser in court) can establish a direct cause-and-effect link between the contribution and policy decisions. This is a bribe. Interest groups in the U.S. give billions of dollars a year to federal candidates, and they do not give that money for charitable reasons. They intend to spend their money in a way that will further the cause of their group interest In fund raising situations, party leaders or candidates often come close to suggesting that large contributions to a campaign can result in favorable treatment by the government. There is a “holdup” potential by members of Congress, meaning that since they can influence the fortunes of any company or organization, they can virtually force an interest group to make campaign contributions, much as a robber can force a victim to hand over his or her money. Although such behavior may be unseemly at times, it is not illegal In most industrialized democracies, money is funneled more or less secretly to candidates and political parties; the public knows little about where the money comes from and how much is raised. In the U.S., campaign money for candidates and parties mostly comes from wealthy individuals and interest groups. Contributions on behalf of candidates and certain issues are less regulated; thus, there remains much we do not know about a large portion of money coming from interest groups directed at politics when it is not given directly to candidates Washington lobbyists often complain about having to attend so many fund-raisers. Many believe that their contributions will have little effect on an upcoming election Why don’t lobbyists save their money and free ride off the efforts of others who are willing to contribute? One answer is that campaign contributions, unlike many other types of collective action problems, are noticed by candidates, parties, and politicians. Candidates pay attention to who gives and who does not give money. The recipients often try to give the contributing group more access and perhaps more attention when considering policy decisions Prisoner’s dilemma: If a member of Congress running for reelection receives money from only one group, then that member is more likely to invite that interest group in to talk about the issue, testify at hearings, and use that group’s assistance in crafting legislation.

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Thus, contribution-contribution is akin to a defect-defect outcome in a classic prisoner’s dilemma situation. Each group is worse off if ti doesn’t contribute when the other group does. Citizens United v. FEC (2010): wealthy interest groups and wealthy people, including corporations, are permitted under the law to give unlimited contributions to groups that advocate on behalf of political ideas, ideologies, issues, and in support of candidates and parties PACS cannot give directly to candidates and parties, but they can advertise, mobilize, inform, and organize groups of citizens to promote political causes- that is, they can engage in forms of outside lobbying

Collective Dilemmas and Interest Group Politics -

The study of collective dilemmas in political science originated among scholars of interest groups who sought to explain why some groups gained organizational strength while others failed to spawn an organizational base

Overcoming Collective Action Problems -

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Groups facing common problems or seeking common goals constantly face collective action problems. The process of forming an interest group requires solving such problems and convincing people to contribute to a common cause despite the incentives to free ride Latent interest- A concern shared by a group of people on which they have not yet chosen to act collectively Groups are more likely to succeed in organizing on behalf of shared political interests if they exist primarily for reasons other than to influence politics By-product- A political activity conducted by groups whose principal organizational purpose is the pursuit of some nonpolitical goal. They do not have to solve collective action problems in order to come together on behalf of shared political interests, because they are already organized for some other purpose Organizations that exist primarily for the purpose of political advocacy and that rely on the voluntary contributions of members are more likely to organize successfully if they have figured out a systematic method for overcoming people’s incentives to free ride off others Voluntary membership groups can overcome this kind of collective action problems through selective incentives, special donors, or entrepreneurs Selective incentive- A benefit that a group can offer to potential members in exchange for participation as a way to encourage that involvement. Offers a private good Special donors- A potential participant in a group for whom the cost of participating is very low and/or the benefits of participating are very high Entrepreneurs- A leading group participant who is so committed to the group’s goals and/or so skilled in the pursuit of those goals that he or she does not need selective incentives. They are not (as) tempted to free ride because they see the benefits as extremely compelling. Ex: risk-taking entrepreneur, Martin Luther King Jr

Coordination Problems -

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The collective action problem poses the main dilemma for latent groups with common interests in pressuring the government. Groups also face coordination problems Political action is most effective when groups can pressure the government in coordinated fashion, but different people or different groups might have different views of the best way to coordinate It would be better for two groups to coordinate on a common message to achieve their shared goals of killing the bill Coordination means organizing action to focus lobbying on the same key people in the government. It would better for groups to decide jointly on lobbying targets Coordination means organizing strategies to avoid overlapping too much or missing opportunities. Two interest groups trying to influence Congress might divide tasks Coordination problems are acute across interest groups. Interest group leaders sometimes want to go it alone and lobby as they see fit, but often enough they join forces with other interest group leaders to create broader coalitions

Determining Interest Group Influence -

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Interest groups and the people mobilized by them create much of the buzz of Washington Do groups really influence the decisions of policy makers? Government officials draw upon any of the following in making their decisions: personal beliefs on the issue, constituents’ opinions, pressure from party leaders, pressure from other officials, or lobbyists’ activities Lobbyists tend to lobby legislators or agency bureaucrats who agree with them It is difficult to draw definitive conclusions about the impact of campaign contributions. Scholars have generally found limited effects of campaign contributions on legislators’ voting behavior Robert Dahl- American government at its various levels was pluralist- no one group dominated decision making; rather, within different policy area certain groups were influential, but these groups did not all contain the same people Other pluralist scholars described American politics as an arena in which many groups were active, but none was dominant. The concept of pluralism is not as widely accepted among scholars of interest groups as it once was Interest groups are vital sources of information for policy makers as they try to predict the consequences of policy changes on industries, companies, communities, and groups in the population. Of course, groups can give biased information When policy makers are subjected to “cross pressure” from various interest groups on opposite sides of an issue, those policy makers tend to decide consistently with public opinion in their district or with their political party leaders White House officials grant more direct access to groups that contribute to the president’s campaign

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If two groups seek a meeting with a policy maker and only one of them contributed money to that policy maker’s campaign and represents constituents, that group is more likely to get the meeting

Social Movements -

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Social Movements- A loose coalition of groups and organizations with common goals that are oriented toward using mass action to influence the government Social movements are more difficult to define than interest groups, mostly because they lack clear boundaries Interest groups can be part of a social movement, and new interest groups may be spawned by the activities of a broader social movement. But interest groups are formal organizations, while social movements are coalitions of many groups and individuals A major challenge for leaders of social movements is to coordinate the actions of disparate and sometimes competing organizations, all of which might agree on large philosophical goals and work toward common policy goals The civil rights movement was an example of a social movement. The movement produced monumental policy successes as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 The Black Lives Matter movement is another example of a social movement. The Black Lives Matter movement advocates for police reform to address the disproportionate killing of unarmed African Americans relative to the killing of unarmed white Americans by police Likewise, the transgender rights movement has classic elements of a social movement. It advocates for reform on a number of issues affecting transgender persons, including extending antidiscrimination policies to apply to them, making available affordable health care options for switching genders, promoting visibility of transgender persons, and highlighting the problem of violence against them Prominent social movements such as the suffrage movement for women’s right to vote, the civil rights movement, the consumer rights movement, and the Christian conservative movement have played major roles in American history The consumer rights movement had several identifiable leaders, such as Ralph Nader, but it relied less on protest and disruption than on publications, demonstrations of product dangers for mass media consumption, and more traditional forms of lobbying One common feature of social movements is that they arise among groups of people who feel excluded, or have deliberately excluded themselves, from the mainstream political process Many scholars define a social movement as a form of resistance by disadvantaged segments of society The leftist tendency of social movements occurs because groups that are part of social movements tend to use strategies and tactics outside the mainstream, since those who feel excluded from the centers of power regard those tools as the only ones available Exceptional rightist social movements- for example, Christian conservatives or Prohibitionists- arise and sustain themselves for the same reason as leftist groups. The

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Tea Party movement helped coordinate the action of numerous local groups to pressure for policy changes, including balanced budgets, lower taxes, and traditional interpretations of the Bill of Rights. The Team Party movement morphed into a faction of the Republican party Protest from the right is commonly associated with the issues of abortion, health care reform, immigration, and government spending A movement can succeed in mobilization by encouraging people to participate, by raising the profile of a cause, and by placing a specific set of policy changes on the agenda. It can also succeed by changing the government policy and achieving most of its desired reforms

Deeper Analysis of Social Movements -

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We have defined a social movement as a loose coalition of groups and organizations with common goals, oriented towards mass action and popular participation “Failed” social movements are usually hard to study because we do not hear about them, and they are not in our history books because they never got off the ground. Let’s consider two approaches to the study of social movements that may help us understand why some succeed and some fail. Explaining why some groups in society are able to organize for mass action and form successful social movements is analogous to explaining why some latent groups are able to overcome their collective action problems A second approach draws on what is sometimes called a resource mobilization perspective, a set of ideas borrowed from sociology. This perspective takes lessons from the study of collective dilemmas, but it also incorporates knowledge of the organizations that predate the social movement itself From the resource mobilization perspective, social movements succeed or fail depending on the existence of established, organized groups that can be knit together to form a broader movement Building on the ideas of resource mobilization theories, Michael Heaney and Fabio Rojas argue that some social movements, when connected to a specific political party, can become what they call the...