Pressure Groups

Question 1

Political Action Committee

Answer 1

An organisation established by a pressure group or company to raise and distribute campaign funds to electoral candidates.

Question 2

Examples of PACS

Answer 2

Microsoft (a corporate PAC); Teamsters Union (organized labor); National Rifle Association (gun owner rights), Emily’s List (abortion, pro-choice).

Question 3

Super-Pacs

Answer 3

Super PACs are a new kind of political action committee created in July 2010 following the outcome of a federal court case known as SpeechNow.org v. Federal Election Commission.

Question 4

Tom Steyer

Answer 4

He pumped more than $73 million into NextGen Climate Action, the super PAC he created to make climate change a top priority in several key Senate and gubernatorial races.

Question 5

Koch Brothers

Answer 5

They actively fund and support organizations that contribute significantly to Republican candidates.

Question 6

Revolving door syndrome

Answer 6

Revolving door syndrome shuffles former federal employees into jobs as lobbyists, consultants and strategists just as the door pulls former lobbyists into government careers.

Question 7

Three reasons pressure groups do well in the US.

Answer 7

Plenty of access points, can set agenda for parties, and first amendment protection.

Question 8

Amicus curiae

Answer 8

‘Friend of the court’ - a means of pressure groups using courts to hear their perspective.

Question 9

Membership of NRA.

Answer 9

Three million.

Question 10

Obama’s lobbying policy

Answer 10

This banned aides from trying to influence the administration when they left his staff. Those already hired would be banned from working on matters they have previously lobbied on, or to approach agencies that they once targeted.

Question 11

Jack Abramoff

Answer 11

Abramoff was a top lobbyist in Washington From 1994 to 2001 he was a top lobbyist for the firm of Preston Gates & Ellis, and then for Greenberg Traurig until March 2004. His behaviour and contacts in Washington have led to many Republican politicians coming under media scrutiny and even losing their seats, eg Tom DeLay – Majority Leader of House.

Question 12

To what extent are pressure groups now more important than political parties in US politics?

Answer 12

The ways in which pressure groups have taken over the role of political parties include:
• the combined effect of Citizens United and SpeechNow has been to expand the ability of groups to run political campaigns, while restrictions on parties remain
• politicians’ dependence on groups’ campaign contributions, and their ability to finance the campaigns of challengers, gives them significant influence over the votes of members of Congress
• think tanks have a significant role in policy formulation
• groups have a significant role in voter mobilisation
• groups such as ‘Occupy’ set the political agenda The ways in which political parties have retained their role include:
• parties have been increasingly influential in organising Congress as the rise in party votes testifies
• parties are increasingly unified around coherent ideological values and programmes
• congressional elections have been ‘nationalised’ in recent years and fought by both parties on the record of the president; despite the banning of ‘soft money’ in 2002, parties have been increasingly involved in supporting candidates financially

Question 13

Why is the US political system such a favourable environment for pressure groups?

Answer 13

The reasons the US political system is such a favourable environment for pressure groups include:
• fragmented political system and multiplicity of access points – two houses of Congress and president all elected separately and often under the control of different parties , state governors and legislatures likewise, mean groups are likely to find a sympathetic response somewhere in the system, if not at the federal level then in the states
• weak parties - the traditionally vague ideological identity of parties give groups opportunity to recruit voters for a single issue, and parties’ limited control over candidate selection and voting in Congress means politicians are open to group influence
• limited party finance for, and expense of, elections – particularly in primaries, candidates are dependent on groups for the considerable finance needed
• constitutional protection – the first amendment guarantees the right of citizens to petition the government
• diverse population – the US comprises many ethnic groups, all wanting representation
• tradition of civic engagement – the US ‘can do’ culture means that American citizens are likely to be active in pressure groups
• freedom of information – gives pressure groups more resources to work with

Question 14

Why does the role of pressure groups in US politics continue to be controversial? (15 marks)

Answer 14

• campaign donation – creates the appearance of corruption and puts pressure on congressmen to please donors, which may lead to constituents’ interests and/or the national interest being neglected
• lobbying – knowledge and contacts of lobbyists gives benefit to wealthy groups who can afford to hire them, the ‘revolving door’ creates a self- serving elite of politicians and lobbyist
• iron triangles – will protect policies and programmes which benefit only a wealthy minority
• infiltration of the federal bureaucracy - usually by corporate interests, skews policy implementation in their favour, ‘regulatory capture’
• direct action – subverts democracy and in some cases, e.g. attacks on abortion clinics and doctors, illegal
• pressure groups use their financial muscle to disproportionately influence the initiative process in many states.
• Foreign policy, pressure groups are sometimes accused of skewing US Foreign policy to their advantage or the advantage of other nations.

Question 15

To what extent is influencing Congress the most successful route for pressure groups? (45 marks)

Answer 15

Factors which make Congress the branch of government most likely to produce success for pressure groups include:

• power of Congress over legislation and money
• multiple blocking points within the congressional legislative process
• expense of elections and dependence of members of Congress on pressure groups for finance
• 535 potential points of access
• apparent ease with which regulations on donation and lobbying can be circumvented.

Factors which make Congress the branch of government less likely to produce success for pressure groups include:
• limited influence of individual members of Congress
• limited ability of Congress to act in an organised or coherent way
• veto power of the president.
Factors which make the executive the branch of government most likely to produce success for pressure groups include:
• power of the president to set the political agenda
• power of the president to persuade Congress – ‘the bully pulpit’
• power of the federal bureaucracy over the implementation of policy
• power of the president to issue executive orders.

Factors which make the executive the branch of government less likely to produce success for pressure groups include:
• difficulty of getting access to the president himself

Factors which make the judiciary the branch of government most likely to produce success for pressure groups include:
• power of the Supreme Court over the constitution
• relatively inexpensive.

Factors which make the judiciary the branch of government less likely to produce success for pressure groups include:
• difficulty of getting a case heard
• uncertainty of getting the right verdict
• court decisions may be ignored or only partly implemented.

Question 16

Assess the effectiveness of the methods by which pressure groups attempt to influence the Supreme Court. (15 marks)

Answer 16

The methods by which pressure groups attempt to influence the composition of the Supreme Court include:

• supporting presidential candidates – the scale of presidential campaign expenditure and campaigns makes it difficult for any one group to create significant leverage with the president through their donations or activity
• lobbying the president when a vacancy occurs – very difficult for a pressure group to gain access to the president, e.g. even social conservative groups apparently had little role in President Bush’s nomination of Harriet Miers
• lobbying senators during the nomination process – senators will have their own views and are likely to be sympathetic to only one side anyway
• media campaigns for or against nominees to the Court – there will be campaigns mounted on both sides which tend to have a self-cancelling effect; the only clear-cut example of success was the liberal campaign against the nomination of Robert Bork, and even the NRA failed to block the nominations of Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan

The methods by which pressure groups attempt to influence the court cases include:

• bringing test cases – there are high profile successes, most famously the NAACP sponsorship of Brown v Topeka Board, but thousands of cases are submitted every year and even if a case is granted cert there is no guarantee of the verdict going the right way
• submitting amicus curiae briefs – amicus briefs are sometimes cited in the court’s opinions but so many briefs are submitted that the chances of any one have significant influence are slight; even if a brief is cited in a judgment, it is impossible to know whether it had any actual influence or merely supported a position the justices were going to take anyway
• rallies outside the court during case hearings – frequently staged but likely to have an almost purely symbolic value, very improbable that they would influence the court