Scope and Pressure System PDF

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Scope and Pressure System - Schattschneider, E. E. - Summary...

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Schattschneider, E. E. (1990). The scope and bias of the pressure system. Classic Readings in American Politics, 241-254. Notes Authors look to distinguish:  Public and special interest groups o Public Interest Groups  Anyone can join  The benefit is not exclusive and often not felt by members, at all  Want what is perceived to be positive, for everyone or universally o Special Interest Groups  Interests shared by a few  Exclude others and may be adverse to them o All discussions of interests, special as well as general, refers to the motives, desires, and intentions of the people and therefore, are subjective by their nature  Organized and unorganized groups o Organized Groups – The United States Army o Unorganized Groups – a few workmen who stop at the corner saloon for a beer Once defined, we can understand the scope and limits as four pieces of a PIE At the corner of Special and Organized Groups we find the Pressure Groups Pressure groups  Small in number and size  Largely coming from business  Higher socioeconomic status  bias of the system  Eclusivity is its superpower  only a few percent can be involved (defies pluralism)  Prefer to resolve conflict outside of the political system (or privately) o More involvement (such as government), dilutes their inherent power o Keeping a small scope helps in this process Force of the majority does not account for pressure groups Everything changes, once it enters the political arena  This is when a wider public is involved by lose r and the socialization of conflict happens  

Losers in private conflict go to the political arena to gain power Power ratio of pressure groups is diluted in the political arena

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A vigorously competitive party system offers the semi-sovereign people their best chance fora role in the decision-making process, while one party politics tends to vest political power in the hands of those people who already have economic power. ‘American politics provides the raw materials for testing the organizational assumptions of two contrasting kinds of politics, pressure groups and party politics’ o Pressure groups are small-scale organizations o Political parties are large-scale organizations. Pressure groups are not universal

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The outcome of political games depends on the scale that it is played o When conflicts are played out in narrow scope, most of the people are not represented.  Business groups dominate this pressure system  leading to an upper-class bias. The struggle is no longer over the right to vote but about the organization of politics. The most important thing about any democratic regime is the way in which it uses and exploits popular sovereignty. o The people are powerless if the political enterprise is not competitive. The ability to change the SCOPE of a conflict dramatically alters the conflict itself. o Any particular conflict is defined by the line of cleavage upon which it is drawn. The role of people in the political system is determined largely by the conflict system o conflict that involves the people in politics and the nature of conflict determines the nature of public involvement. o The people are powerless if the political enterprise is not competitive. Democracy is a competitive political system in which competing leaders and organizations define the alternatives of public policy in such a way that the public can participate in the decision-making process...