Section 3 - Interest Group Key Terms Flashcards
interest groups
A public or private association of individuals or organizations that attempt to influence
government decision-making and/or public policy.
association
an interest group comprised of many groups or institutions with similar interests (usually
individual businesses joining together in a larger interest group.)
public interest groups
A group that pursues policies or goods that members perceive to be useful for
most or all citizens.
Private interest group
A group that pursues government laws or policies only for themselves/their
members (for particularized benefits).
particularized
benefits that are specific to an individual or group and from which others can be
excluded.
legislative liaison
An individual who represents a government institution to other governmental
decision-makers.
lobbyist
A representative of a particular interest or organization, usually employed for pay, who
attempts to influence legislators.
inside lobbying
Attempt to directly influence governmental officials such as legislators or their aides
outside lobbying
Attempt to influence governmental officials such as legislators or their aides
indirectly, by going to the public and influencing the public’s opinion.
Political Action Committees
Each interest group must have their own PAC to collect funds from donors
and make campaign contributions (hard money donations) to political candidates; and give soft money
donations to political parties.
Buckley v. Valeo
A landmark court case that held that spending money in an election was essentially
equivalent to free speech (or political speech); the case also upheld hard-money donation limits to
candidates (that is, money donated to a candidate’s campaign). The judgment also allowed candidates
to spend an unlimited amount of their own money.
Super PACs
A nonprofit political action committee (PAC), created to raise and spend unlimited amounts
of money to influence an election, that becomes “super” when it can spend unlimited amount of money
on political speech to help or hurt candidates. SuperPACs cannot donate to or coordinate with
candidates. SuperPACs started from the Citizens United v FEC court case.
bundling
A fund-raising strategy in which individuals (“bundlers”) collect individual private campaign
donations and submit them as a single contribution. The bundler, sometimes an interest group, achieves
greater political influence in this way.
scorecards
Interest Groups rate or score incumbents on how well the incumbents vote for laws in favor
of the group.
amicus briefs
A legal written argument (that is, a “brief”) filed with a court by an individual or group
who is not a party to a case but has an interest in the case’s outcome
