320-326 Interest Groups

AP government

By: LILIA PIEDADE AND JOHNECE DIGGS

Chapter 11 pages 320-360 Interest Groups Notes Kleins’ quick notes: Interest groups: Organization of people with shared policy goals. Participation in I.G.’s increased since 1960. “Saved the Spotted Owls” is an interest group. Theories of interest group politics: PLURALIST: interest groups compete with each other to accomplish goals which cause gridlock. ELITE: divided along class lines; upper class rules. HYPERPLURALIST: groups are so strong government is weakened. Exaggerated form of pluralism. All Americans have some interest they want represent. The right to organize groups is protected by the constitution, which guarantees people the right “peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances”. This is an important first Amendment right as freedom of speech and press. Interest groups differ from parties in many aspects like: Interest groups may support candidates for office, but do not run their own slate of candidates. While parties run candidates for public offices. They are also often policy specialists, whereas parties are policy generalist. Interest groups have a hand full of key policies to push, they do not face the constrains imposed by trying to appeal to everyone as parties do. Interest group suffer a lot of stereotype, they are seemed as faction ➢ Pluralist theory argues that interest group activity brings representation to all, and group competes and counterbalances one another in the political marketplace. (Groups provide a key link between people and government, they compete, no one group is likely to became too dominant, and group weak in one resource can use another.) ➢ Elite theory argues that few groups (primarily the wealthy) have most of the power. (The fact that there are numerous interest groups proves nothing because they are extremely unequal in power, awesome power is held by the largest corporations, other groups may win many minor policy battles, but the corporate elites prevail when it comes to the big decisions). ➢ Hyper pluralist theory asserts that too many groups are getting too much of what they want, resulting in government policy that is often contradictory and lacking in direction. It is necessary to examine them carefully. (Also called interest group liberalism.)(Groups have become too powerful

in the political process as government tries to appease every conceivable interest. (Trying to please every group results in contradictory and confusing policy.)The hyperpluralists’s major criticism of the interest group system is that relations between groups and the government have become too cozy.