Interest Groups Within the Country
AP U.S. Government: Chapter 9 and 10
Chapter 9: Interest Groups * K Street – where much political life occurs; a row of office buildings where nearly 7,000 organizations are represented in Washington * The U.S. has many more organizations represented in its capital than other countries. These are interest groups (lobbies) who participate in politics. * Explaining Proliferation * Three reasons why interest groups are so common in this country * Cleavage in society * Divisions among income and occupation; countless immigrants and races; over 72 religions with 65,000+ members; many regions with distinctive traditions and cultures = many interests and opinions * Madison, Federalist No. 10: “The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man.” * American constitution system * Multiplies points where interest groups can access government. * In Great Britain, a lot of political authority is lodged in single official (prime minister), so there are only a few access points and few opportunities to affect decisions. * U.S. gov – president, the courts, and Congress = plenty of access points and more chances to influence policy, which results in creation of many interest groups. * Great Britain’s government helps explain why there is only one organization representing a given interest. Ex: 1 represents industry; in contrast, in the U.S., at least three organizations represent farmers (American Farm Bureau Federation, National Farmers’ Union, and Grange) which are made up of state and county branches, which act independent of national headquarters. AFL-CIO is 1 major labor organization made up of independent unions (plumbers, steelworkers, coal miners), and large unions, ex. Teamsters, were once not part of the AFL-CIO. * Weakness of political parties * Parties strong=interests work through the parties; political parties weak=interests work directly on government; a plausible theory can be illustrated by
Chapter 9: Interest Groups * K Street – where much political life occurs; a row of office buildings where nearly 7,000 organizations are represented in Washington * The U.S. has many more organizations represented in its capital than other countries. These are interest groups (lobbies) who participate in politics. * Explaining Proliferation * Three reasons why interest groups are so common in this country * Cleavage in society * Divisions among income and occupation; countless immigrants and races; over 72 religions with 65,000+ members; many regions with distinctive traditions and cultures = many interests and opinions * Madison, Federalist No. 10: “The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man.” * American constitution system * Multiplies points where interest groups can access government. * In Great Britain, a lot of political authority is lodged in single official (prime minister), so there are only a few access points and few opportunities to affect decisions. * U.S. gov – president, the courts, and Congress = plenty of access points and more chances to influence policy, which results in creation of many interest groups. * Great Britain’s government helps explain why there is only one organization representing a given interest. Ex: 1 represents industry; in contrast, in the U.S., at least three organizations represent farmers (American Farm Bureau Federation, National Farmers’ Union, and Grange) which are made up of state and county branches, which act independent of national headquarters. AFL-CIO is 1 major labor organization made up of independent unions (plumbers, steelworkers, coal miners), and large unions, ex. Teamsters, were once not part of the AFL-CIO. * Weakness of political parties * Parties strong=interests work through the parties; political parties weak=interests work directly on government; a plausible theory can be illustrated by