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Interest group- is a private organization that tries to persuade public officials to respond to the shared attitudes of its members

ROLE OF INTEREST GROUPS

1.They are sometimes called pressure groups or special interest groups

2.They all seek to influence the making of public policy

( goals of government)

3. They are organized groups that try to control government and exercise political power

POLITICAL PARTIES AND INTEREST GROUPS1. Differences between parties and groupsMaking of nominations (interest groups

cannot nominate a candidate, but do try to affect a primary)

Primary focus (parties want to win elections and control government, groups what to influence polices of government)

Scope of interest( parties deal with all issues, groups try to influence select issues only)

Valuable functions of interest groups-Raise awareness to public

issuesRepresent their members

based on same attitudes rather than basis of geography ( which is what candidates are elected by)

INTEREST GROUPS: GOOD AND BAD?

Provide useful, specialized and detailed information on government

Like minded citizens can pool their resources

Make sure government performs itself in responsible and effective ways

Allows for competition in public arena

Criticisms have an influence far out of

proportion to their size, to their importance to the public good (rich larger groups can influence any issues even if bad)

Hard to tell how many people a group represents

Many groups don’t represent the views of the people they tend to represent.

Some groups use tactics that become widespread and would undermine the whole political system ( bribery and heavy uses of money)

TYPES OF INTEREST GROUPS

No one really knows how many interest groups are in America today

Whenever an association tries to influence government it is an interest group

There are thousands with millions of members

The largest numbers are ones that focus on business, labor, professional interests and agricultural groups

ECONOMIC INTEREST GROUPS

1.Business groups- business communities form their own interest groups called trade associations

2.Labor groups- also called labor unions which fight for the rights of the worker

3.Agricultural groups- speak for the production of food supply and everything surrounding farms and the farming community

4.Professional Groups- medical, law, teaching career groups to fight for the future of the profession

OTHER INTEREST GROUPS

1.Groups that promote causes - rights for woman, abortion, gay marriage parenthood

2.Groups promote welfare of certain groups- veterans, immigrants, and senior citizens

3.Religious organizations- catholic groups, Jewish groups

PUBLIC INTEREST GROUPS

Interest groups that seek to promote policies for all the country whether you are part of there organization or not. For example Health care

INTEREST GROUPS AT WORK

1. Influencing Public Opinion- to supply the people with information on an organization, to build a positive image of a group and to promote a particular public policy

2. Propaganda- a technique of persuasion aimed at influencing individual or group behaviors, its goal is to create a particular belief

3. Influencing Parties and Elections- interest groups keep close to parties and try to urge their members to become party members and try to win elections. They influence election by give money to the party and the political action committee ( raise and distribute money to candidates)

4. Lobbying- interest group pressures are brought to bear on all aspects of public policy makers

4.1. Lobbyist’s task is to work for those matters that benefit their clients and against those that they harm.

4.2. Lobbyists use articles, reports and all sorts of other information favorable to their causes to reach officeholders

4.3. Lobbying abuses do occur now and then, misleading information, bribery and unethical pressures. So states have set up laws to regulate lobbying activities