Interest Groups Flashcards
What are interest groups?
any group other than a political party that is organized to influence the government
What do Interest Groups Do? it’s different from what ?
aim to influence the government rather than gain positions of power within it (different from political parties)
Is unity within the business community is rare.
Yes
Most interest groups in the United States represent _____?
business
Industry lobbyists often compete on _____
policy issues
What is lobbying ?
influencing public officials directly or through pressure, often targeting Congress, the White House, or bureaucratic agencies.
What is inside lobbying?
involves direct contact with policymakers, such as testifying at hearings or contributing to fundraisers.
Where does opposition to development projects come from ?
environmental organizations, existing businesses, and other interest groups, leading to competition for lawmaker attention.
What do Interest groups use to promote their agendas ?
the courts
What is outside lobbying?
seek to mobilize constituents and others outside the policy-making community to contact or pressure policymakers by letter-writing campaigns, advertisements, and protests.
Which type of lobbying is less effective for targeting bureaucratic agencies due to their lack of electoral accountability ?
outside lobbying
Campaign donations by interest groups are regulated by acts of Congress and what Supreme Court decisions ?
- Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (ruled that corporations and unions can spend unlimited amounts of money on political campaigns)
Legislators tend to grant more access to what two types of groups ?
- Groups that represent their constituents
- Groups that contribute to their campaigns
what is Campaign financing ?
giving money to politicians to influence their decisions.
What type of collective dilemma are Campaign Contributions ?
- Prisoner’s dilemma
- Collective Action Problem: Despite recognizing the benefits of the group’s success, individuals may hesitate to contribute due to the belief that their contribution won’t significantly impact the outcome. (thus free-riding)
What is Latent Interest ?
A concern shared by a group of people on which they have not yet chosen to act collectively
What is a by-product ?
political activity conducted by groups whose principle organizational purpose it the pursuit of some nonpolitical goal
Interest groups tend to be successful in organizing when they ?
- exist primarily for reasons other than political influence
- when they have methods to combat free riding.
What is Selective Incentive ?
benefit that a group can offer to potential members in exchange for participation as a way to encourage that involvement.
Interest groups can rely on _____?.
entrepreneurs
What is a Special Donor ?
potential participant for whom the cost of participating is very low and/or the benefits of participating are very high.
can make significant political contribution
Groups with Similar Interests face what problems ?
Coordination Problems
Are Coordination problems unique to interest groups ?
no
are social movements formal organizations ?
no
what are social movements ?
loose coalition of groups and organizations with common goals that are oriented toward using mass action to influence the government.
Social movements are what side’s tendency ?
Leftist tendency
Why do some social movements succeed in mobilizing people while others fail?
Succeed when they overcome collective action problems and establish groups and organizations that can be knit together (resource
mobilization)
do Interest groups serve as crucial sources of information for policymakers and often play pivotal roles in legislative processes ?
yes
What do Pluralist scholars, led by Robert Dahl, argue ?
that power is decentralized among various interest groups, rather than concentrated in one.
When facing pressure from conflicting interest, Policymakers tend to do what ?
align their decisions with public opinion in their districts or their party’s positions
Interest Groups In Comparison
US has more active and numerous interest groups than other democracies do and Laws in other countries restrict kinds of lobbying
What groups demonstrate the influence of well-organized efforts in elections ?
AIPAC and the NRA
_____ drive group influence on policymakers, emphasizing their potential impact on elections.
Electoral connections
What do Page & Gilens say ?
- Rich people are more likely to get their preferred policies. (tilt to republican)
- vast majority of campaign contributions are private and come from a tiny, extremely wealthy fraction
- U.S. officials are dependent on private money, and this money affects who gets elected
What is the primary distinction between an interest group and a political party?
A. Interest groups do not seek positions of power in government; political parties do.
B. Interest groups operate at the national level; while political parties are organized at the state level
C. Interest groups are smaller than political parties
D. Interest groups are focused on individual issues; political parties are interested in large sets of issues
E. Interest groups are larger than political parties
A. Interest groups do not seek positions of power in government; political parties do.
The resonance mobilization perspective suggests that a social movement’s success or failure hinges on its ability to ______.
A. Provide high-quality selective incentives
B. Recruit talented political entrepreneurs
C. Activate latent interests
D. Connect preexisting established groups into a broader movement
E. Overcome free riding
D. Connect preexisting established groups into a broader movement
Which dilemma is evident in the difficulties that arise in enticing individuals who may benefit from an interest group’s work to provide financial support for that organization?
A. Coordination problem
B. Prisoner’s dilemma
C. Principal-agent problem
D. Unstable coalitions
E. Collective action problem
E. Collective action problem
Human Rights Campaign, which lobbies for the rights of gays and lesbians, sends bumper stickers to individuals who provide financial support to the organization. These bumper stickers are an example of _______.
A. A solidarity incentive
B. A public good
C. A selective incentive
D. A by-product
E. Insider lobbying
C. A selective incentive
A pharmaceutical company wants to convince the Food and Drug Administration, a federal bureaucratic agency, to relax regulations governing the amount of time it takes to move a drug through clinical trials. The company is most likely to succeed if it uses _____ lobbying tactics to influence _____ because _____.
A. Outside; the courts; justices are often heavily influenced by the content of amicus curiae briefs
B. Outside; bureaucrats; individuals working for bureaucracies can be influenced by their membership in interest groups
C. Inside; Congress; congressional hearings can draw attention to the issue and put it on legislative agendas
D. Inside; the president; he or she can change the institutional rules of any executive office agency
E. Inside; bureaucrats; interest groups often already have ongoing cooperating relationships with agendas
E. Inside; bureaucrats; interest groups often already have ongoing cooperating relationships with agendas
