Interest Groups

Which of the following is a reasonable conclusion based only on information in the table?

• Advocacy groups appear more effective at influencing policy than business interests.

• Business interests are the main interest groups for agriculture.

• Environmental issues draw the most support from interest groups.

• There are more advocacy groups than business groups.

Which of the following issue areas would have more grassroots reach with conservatives?

• Transportation

• Civil Rights and Liberties

• Criminal Justice

• Environment

Which interest group action would most greatly influence rulings in the courts?

• Rating senators and representatives based on roll call votes

• Directly lobbying House and Senate members

• Filing an amicus curae brief

• Purchasing an ad in a newspaper

Which statement about recent trends in grassroots lobbying is true?

• Only citizen groups employ grassroots lobbying.

• Grassroots lobbying uses mail and telephone, but not television.

• This technique is often used to target particular congressional districts.

• The average citizen and the grasstops are of equal value to a lobbyist.

Which of the following statements about interest groups and lobbying is true?

• Lobbying is protected by the Fourth Amendment.

• Lobbyists spend most of their time persuading lawmakers to change their political views.

• A Capitol Hill lobbyist's most precious asset is access.

• Free riders rarely benefit from interest group activity.

Which trend does the table on the previous page support?

• PAC donations tend to change legislators' votes.

• PAC donations to challengers have diminished in recent years.

• Republican candidates receive more donations from labor PACs than do Democrats.

• Interest group PACs tend to donate to incumbents more than challengers.

What implication can be drawn from the information in the table?

• To be effective, PACs need to spend more on challengers than on open seats.

• Issue networks have incumbents at their center.

• Iron triangles depend on longstanding relationships that challengers can't provide.

• Open seats provide the opportunity for a new access point for interest groups.

Which statement reflects the perspective of the cartoonist? ***

• Interest groups working together improve legislation.

• Health care reform has been threatened by special interests.

• Special interests make surgically precise changes to proposed policy.

• Government involvement in health care is unwise.