| Term | Definition |
|---|
| interest group | private organizations that try to shape public policy by influencing the behavior of political decision makers |
| pressure groups | interest groups |
| Pluralist argument | interest groups are instruments to attain democracy to server the public interest becasue people are free to join or organize groups that reflect their own interests, b/c elections don't work and groups are easy to form, government in porous, and legitimate interests can be heard |
| Why so many interest groups | structural factors, diverse interests, rules of the political games (1st amendment), Active governemnent, disturbances, |
| no dominant center of decision making because of | federalism,checks and balances, and seperation of powers |
| disturbance theory | proliferation of interests does not seem to lead to the formation of groups unless these intrests are threatened in some way, usually by ecnomic and social change |
| private interest associations | associated with benefits for some fraction of the community: business, professions, labor |
| public interest associations | connected in someway to the general welfare of the community |
| advocacy group | motivated by ideological concerns or a belief in some cause |
| inside game | direct contact of the interest group representative and government officials |
| lobby congress | personal contacts/relationships with committes and subcommittees and personal staff |
| lobby executive branch | cateer civil servants and upper-level appointness |
| lobby the courts | NAACP's work in Brown v Board of Edu demonstrates how federal courts can be lobbied, amicus curiae |
| outside game | indirect form of influence, grassroots interest group efforts to mobolize public opinion, voters, and important contributers in order to put pressure on elected officials, BUNDLING |
| Issues with lobbyists | mobolizing membership, organizing the district, shaping public opinion, educate the pubnlic, image adverstising, targeting mailings |
| E.E. Schattschneider | problem with pluralist interpreation of interest groupis that "it's heavenly chorus sings with a strong upper class accent" |
| Inequalities | representational, resource, access inequality |
| Political Action Committees | entitites created by interest groups to collect money and make contributions to candidates in federal elections |
| soft money | unregulated expenditures by political parties on general public education, voter registration, and voter mobilization, often used to indirectly influence campains for elective office, until banned after 2002 |
| iron triangles/subgovernments demonstrate | inequalities of represenation and resources are exaggerated by the ability of some groups to play a central role in teh formation and impelemation of government policies based on the mebership of these groups in informal networks within the gov itself that are involved in the policy areas of interest to them |
| iron triangles | include a private interest group, agency in the executive branch, and committes in congress |
| 527 organizations | groups that can collect and spend money without legal limits to advocate for and against issues; most are barely disguised efforts to support or attack candidates or parties |
| issue networks | braod coalititons of public and private interest groups, policy experts, and public officials that form around particular policy issues, said to be more visible to the public and more inclusive |
| revolving door | phrase to describe the common practice in which former government officials become lobbyists for interests wiht whom they formely dealt with in their official capacity |
| pluralist | a political scientist who views American politics as best understood in terms of interaction, conflict, and bargaining of groups |
| earmarking | practice of appropriating money for specific pet projects of members of congress usually done at the behest of lobbyists and added to bills at the last minute with little oppurtunity for deliberation |
| grassroots lobbying | the effort by interest groups to mobolize local consituencies and shape public opinion to support the group's goals and to bring that pressure to bear on elected officials |
| political culture that enables intrest groups | minorities will not be silenced, we have honored the pursuit of private intrest has led individuals to seek and question government about social contract |
| Madison #10 | "liberty is to factions as air is to fire" |
| Truman | factors relating to status and presitge, internal characteristics |
| Olson's incentives | material, purposive, solidary |
| material | freebies |
| purposive | allow people to feel connected to a world issue |
| cooperative federalism | interest groups work |
| solidary | make friends |
| Who's participating in interest group | 11% complete activists |
| membership types | individual, organizations of organizations, staff organizations, single enterprise |
| inequalities | representational, access, resources |
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