Interest Groups Flashcards
What is an interest group?
A collection of people or organizations that tries to influence public policy.
What did James Madison caution about in Federalist 10?
Factions
Why is it ironic that Madison cautioned against factions?
Placating existing factions was key to ratification of the Constitution.
What are some modern names of interest groups?
special interests, pressure groups, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), lobby groups
How are interest groups different from political parties?
They don’t run candidates for public office.
What legal decision prompted an increase in interest groups, especially among big businesses and trade groups?
The Supreme Court decision that effectively equated spending money on political purposes with the freedom of speech.
How did the framers of the Constitution try to check and balance political factions?
Divided power among national and state governments and across the three branches, and decentralized power.
How does the Bill of Rights directly aid the development of interest groups?
It guarantees the right to peaceable assembly, free speech, and to petition the government directly.
When did the first national interest groups emerge?
1830s (with the advent of improved communication.)
What was the American Anti-Slavery Society?
A major interest group founded in 1833 to advocate for the abolition of slavery.
What was the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)?
Public interest group created in 1874 with the goal of outlawing the sale of liquor.
What was the Grange?
Founded in 1867, worked to protect the political and economic interests of farming communities.
What is a lobbyist?
Interest group representative who seeks to influence legislation that will benefit their organization or client. This is done through political and/or financial persuasion.
What was one of the most effective organized interest groups of the 19th century?
Railroads
What was the Progressive Movement from the 1890s to the 1920s?
A broad group of social activists that opposed corruption in government, supported regulation of monopolies, and sought improvement in socioeconomic conditions.
Give some examples of progressive groups at the time.
Rallying for public libraries and kindergartens, seeking better labor conditions, NAACP, and groups seeking women’s suffrage.
What is a public interest group?
Organization that seeks a collective good that, if achieved, will not selectively or materially benefit group members.
How did the Progressive Movement manifest itself politically?
The formation of the Progressive Party.
What was the national government’s response to the Progressive Movement?
It started to regulate business.
What was the response of businesses to being regulated?
They organized and consolidated their strength to counter the Progressive Movement in order to keep wages low and costs down.
What was the American Federation of Labor?
The first national union of workers.
What is the Clayton Act.
1914 law passed by Congress that allowed unions to organize free from prosecution and guaranteed the right to strike.
What was the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM)?
Interest group of manufacturers founded in 1895 by manufacturers who had suffered losses in the 1893 panic. Became active politically in 1913 when a major tariff bill was under consideration. NAM’s tactics were so insistent and abrasive and their expenditures so lavish, they were denounced by President Wilson and investigated by Congress. But no member of Congress was willing to testify they had ever met a member of NAM “probably because many members of Congress had received illegal contributions and gifts.”
What is the Chamber of Commerce?
A major pro-business lobbying group founded in 1912 with the assistance of the federal government.
What is a trade association?
A group that represents a specific industry.
Why did public interest groups see a resurgence in the 1960s and 1970s?
Many grew from the civil-rights movement and anti-Vietnam War protests that generated pessimism about a government that failed to respond to the will of the majority.
What is Common Cause?
A good-government group that acts as a watch-dog over the government.
What is Public Citizen?
A group that advocates for consumer safety. Founded by Ralph Nader after widespread concerns about the safety of the Chevrolet Corvair car. Nader ran for president in 2000.
What is the Ford Foundation?
A charitable organization considered liberal at the time that helped fund many progressive public interest groups in the 1960s and 70s.
What was the Conservative response to the rise of liberal public interest groups?
Formed religious and ideological groups that became powerful political forces through the 1980s.
Who was Jerry Falwell?
Southern Baptist minister who founded the conservative religious interest group the Moral Majority in 1978
What was the Moral Majority?
Conservative religious interest group credited with mobilizing conservative Evangelical Christian voters.
Who was Pat Robertson?
Southern Baptist minister and TV evangelist who ran for president in 1988 and then founded the Christian Coalition in 1989.
What was the Christian Coalition?
Religious interest group that advanced conservative Christian values in American politics.
