Chapter 8: Interest Groups

Chapter Review

Pluralist and Elitist Views Both Explain the Group Process

1. The principle of pluralism-group-based politics-dates to James Madison's concept of "faction."
2. The modern group process has an elitist, upper-class bias because the upper class has greater resources to exploit that process.

Interest Groups Represent Different Interests but Have Similar Organizations and Membership

1. Interest Groups Represent Different Interests but Have Similar Organizations and Membership
2. Most interest groups share key organizational components, such as mechanisms for member recruitment, financial and decision-making processes, and agencies that actually carry out group goals.
3. Interest-group politics in the United States tends to have a pronounced upper-class bias because of the characteristics of interest-group members.
4. Because of natural disincentives to join interest groups, groups offer material, solidary, and purposive benefits to entice people to join.

The Number of Groups Has Increased in the Last Thirty Years

1. The Number of Groups Has Increased in the Last Thirty Years
2. The second factor accounting for the explosion of interest-group activity in recent years was the emergence of a new set of forces in American politics: the New Politics movement.

Interest Groups Use Different Strategies to Gain Influence

1. Lobbying is an effort by outsiders to influence Congress or government agencies by providing them with information about issues, giving them support, and even threatening them with retaliation.
2. Access is actual involvement and influence in the decision-making process.
3. Interest groups often turn to litigation when they lack access or feel they have insufficient influence over the formulation and implementation of public policy.
4. Going public is a strategy that attempts to mobilize the widest and most favorable climate of opinion.

Interest Groups Both Help and Hurt Democracy

1. The organization of private interests into groups to advance their own views is a necessary and intrinsic element of the liberty of citizens to pursue their private lives, and to express their views, individually and collectively.
2. The organization of private interests into groups is biased in favor of the wealthy and the powerful who have superior knowledge, opportunity, and resources with which to organize.

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