2. Intermediary Organizations
GovernmentIntermediary
Organizations
Citizens/
the Public

3. Are interest groups good?
 Interest Groups enhance democracy.
 Interest Groups represent the evils of faction
Madison and the Federalists were concerned
with in Federalist #10.

4. Strategies of Influence
Contemporary
interest groups seek
influence over policy
makers through a mix
of “inside” strategies
and “outside”
strategies.
Inside strategies include:
 lobbying
 influencing administrative rule-
making
 litigation
Outside strategies include:
 influencing election outcomes
 affecting media coverage

5. Interest groups “lobby” legislators
in efforts to shape policy as it is
being made.
Interest groups also seek to
cultivate access to officials in the
executive branch to influence
administrative rule making and the
details of policy implementation.

6. Interest groups hire lawyers to
influence the judiciary.
Sometimes groups are litigants
in lawsuits.
Often groups submit amicus
curiae briefs giving their
perspectives on cases to which
they are not a party.

7. Interest groups seek to
influence public opinion by
 developing media strategies
and advertising (known as
going public);
 mobilizing citizens at the grass
roots.

8. Finally, interest groups seek to
influence the outcome of
elections.
 By mobilizing their members, groups
can deliver volunteers and votes to
campaigns.
 Through political action committees
(PACs), groups contribute money to
candidates. The influence of PAC
contributions has increased
considerably in recent years.

9. Interest Group Print Ads

12. How does persuasion in politics
work?
 “The Persuaders”– Frontline
– Focus on Chapters 4, 5, and 6.

13. Functions of Interest Groups
 Representation
 Participation
 Interest Aggregation
 Education
 Agenda-Building
 Program Monitoring`

14. Why Some Groups Organize
 Selective Incentives Theory
– Material selective benefits
– Purposive selective benefits
– Solidary or social selective benefits

16. Why Some Groups Organize
 Selective Incentives Theory
 Disturbance Theory– People unite against a
common harm after a threshold of negative
experience is reached. I.E., unions
 Entrepreneur Theory

17. Why Some Groups Organize
 Selective Incentives Theory
 Disturbance Theory
 Entrepreneur Theory– People are brought
together by ambitious, energetic,
charismatic, entrepreneurial leadership. For
instance the role of Billy Graham in the
Christian Coalition.

18. “By a faction I understand a
number of citizens, whether
amounting to a majority or
minority of the whole, who are
united and actuated by some
common impulse of passion,
or of interest, adverse to the
rights of other citizens, or to
the permanent and aggregate
interests of the community.”
—James Madison, Federalist 10
Madison believed:
 Balancing the conflicting interests
of different factions was the most
reliable way to control the
negative effects of factional
politics.
 Increasing the number and
variety of factions actually aided
the pursuit of the public good.
Interest Group Pluralism

19. Following Madison, mid-
20th century pluralists
argued that interest group
politics was a major
strength of American
government and society.
Pluralism is the theory that
all interests are and should
be free to compete for
influence in the government.
The outcome of this
competition is compromise
and moderation.

20. Pluralists argued that interest
groups
 represent many diverse
interests in society;
 provide expert information
and perspectives that
improve policy making.

21. Pluralist Model of Politics
 Assumptions:
– System is open
– System is responsive
– Activity is restrained

22. INTEREST GROUPS
BAD FOR
DEMOCRACY?

23. Schattschneider
Scope and Bias: Who can get into the fight and
who is excluded?
“The flaw in the pluralist heaven is that the
heavenly chorus sings with a strong upper
class accent.”

24. Critics of pluralism argued that
interest groups
 represent “special interests”
and do not reflect the broader
will of the people or the public
good;
 over-represent the wealthy in
society;
 provide self-serving and biased
information that warp policy
making.

25.  The best Congress money can buy?
– Buying support vs. rewarding supporters
– Most IG money goes to the strongest supporters
– Buying time in committee

26. Iron Triangle
Executive Branch Congressional
Agency Committee
Interest Group

27. Good or Bad for Democracy?
 Iron triangles don’t last forever
 Evidence suggests that the “public interest” is
on the rise

29. Good or Bad for Democracy?
 Iron triangles don’t last forever
 Evidence suggests that the “public interest” is
on the rise
 What other organization would perform the
intermediary functions… parties?
 If Madison is right– factions are inevitable–
the institutional arrangement matters!