Political Interest Groups

Patrick Murphy, Florida State’s representative said, “The political process does not end on Election day”. However in today’s political world, it is as though the regular everyday citizens of our country do not have a voice in the policies, laws and activities of the government past Election Day. That is where interest groups come in. Interest groups, also known as pressure groups, lobby groups, campaign groups, advocacy groups or special interest groups, are voluntary organization with the common goal of influencing public policy to change to benefit the common goal or cause of said interest group. Interest groups will often try to influence peoples in legislative bodies to support the goal of the interest group, ultimately leading to more
These interest groups will seek to change public policy to gain some sort of economic advantage for their members. The goals of these interest groups could range from how factories need to be run, for example, changing the regulations on how much carbon monoxide can be released into the air to how much the employees need to be paid to change in export or import and trade laws. Within this group, there are 4 subcategories: Business groups, labour groups, agricultural groups and professional associations. Business groups will represent the interest of companies and corporations that they are associated with. Labour groups represent the interests of the unions and therefore the workers. Agricultural groups represent the concerns of the farmers and the agricultural sector. Many professions have formal organizations which will lobby on behalf of the interests of the
These interest groups aim to represent the concerns and interests of skilled and unskilled workers, which ranges from improving the working conditions of the workers to increasing wages to lobbying for more benefits. Like the business interest groups, labour groups will form together to create larger groups, which will have greater influence when lobbying. An example of a labour advocacy group would be the Canadian Labour Congress. While this labour group, like others, lobbies for workers’ rights, it also lobbies for social and economic policies which aim to benefit the workers and their