Interest Group Flashcards
Faction
Parties or interest groups that James Madison saw as arising from the unequal distribution of property or wealth and attacked as having potential to cause instability in government.
Pluralist theory
A theory of government and politics emphasizing that many groups, each pressing for it’s preferred policies, compete and counterbalance one another in the political marketplace.
Elite theory
A theory of government and politics contending that an upperclass elite will hold the most power and thus in effect run the government.
Hyperpluralist theory
A theory of government and politics contending that groups are so strong that government, seeking to please them all, is thereby weakened.
Sub-governments/iron triangles
A mutually dependent, mutually advantages relationship between interest groups interested in a particular policy, government agencies that administer that policy, and the congressional committees and subcommittees that handle it.
Potential group
All the people who might be interest groups members because they share some common interest.
Actual group
The people in the potential groups who actually join.
Collective good
Something of value that cannot be withheld from a potential group member.
Free-rider problem
For a group, the problem I people not joining because they can benefit from the group’s activities without joining.
Olson’s law of large groups
The smaller the better and more effective
•easier to organize & activate all it’s members
•prevents free-rider problem
Lobbyist
A “communication, by someone other than a citizen acting on his or her own behalf, directed to a governmental decision maker with the hope of influencing his it her decision.”
Electioneering
Direct group involvement in the electoral process, for example, by helping to fund campaigns, getting members to work for candidates, and forming political action committees.
Litigation
Used if an interest groups fails in Congress or get only a vague piece if legislation.
- “friend of the court”
- groups together cases with similar issues
Interest Groups
An organization of people with shared policy goals entering the policy process at several points to try to achieve those goals.