Interest Groups

What are the benefits of Interest Groups?

• Represent minority concerns

• people can band together and have more power than 1 individual.

• provide research/info on issues

• Influence can be disproportional ($, organization)

What are the negatives of interest groups?

• Push own interests, not interests of all Americans (or the "public good")

• Power to unelected elites

• Tactics may be questionable (bribery, $, threats of revenge)

• Push own interests, not interests of all Americans (or the "public good")

What are the types of Interest Groups?

• public interest

• Economic interest

• ideological groups

• professional groups

What is a public interest group?

• groups that organize to influence government policy for the economic benefit (industry, business, labor) of their members

• an organization that supports causes that affect the lives of Americans in general

• Advocates for people in a particular profession, such as doctors, lawyers, and teachers

• political organizations that attract members by appealing to their political convictions or principles

What is an economic interest group?

• groups that organize to influence government policy for the economic benefit (industry, business, labor) of their members

• an organization that supports causes that affect the lives of Americans in general

• Advocates for people in a particular profession, such as doctors, lawyers, and teachers

• political organizations that attract members by appealing to their political convictions or principles

What is a professional Interest Groups

• an organization that supports causes that affect the lives of Americans in general

• groups that organize to influence government policy for the economic benefit (industry, business, labor) of their members

• Advocates for people in a particular profession, such as doctors, lawyers, and teachers

• political organizations that attract members by appealing to their political convictions or principles

What is an ideological interest group?

• groups that organize to influence government policy for the economic benefit (industry, business, labor) of their members

• Advocates for people in a particular profession, such as doctors, lawyers, and teachers

• an organization that supports causes that affect the lives of Americans in general

• political organizations that attract members by appealing to their political convictions or principles

What are the strategies of Interest Groups?

• Inform

• Donate

• Endorse

What is an interest group?

• people who represent interest groups

• An organization of people sharing a common interest or goal that seeks to influence the making of public policy

• attempts to influence a legislator's vote through personal contact with the legislator

• Advocates for people in a particular profession, such as doctors, lawyers, and teachers