US Politics - Pressure Groups (inc. comparison)

Question 1

The main pressure groups in the US

Answer 1

1) National Rifle Association
2) American Association of Retired Persons
3) American Civil Liberties Union
4) National Organisation for Women
5) American Israel Public Affairs Committee
6) National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
7) American Medical Association
8) League of Conservation Voters
9) American Bar Association - called upon to vet federal court candidates and therefore have direct influence on the makeup of the court
10) National Federation for Independent Business

Question 2

Activities done by pressure groups

Answer 2

1) Direct action - the use of strikes, demonstrations or other forms of public protest to gain publicity and raise awareness of issues
2) Lobbying - Seeking to influence a legislator, judge or policy-maker done by individuals or organised groups
3) ‘Revolving door’ - Where former legislators or bureaucrats work for lobbying firms to use their expertise and contacts to lobby the institution of which they were once a member - whilst this was limited in the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act, there is evidence it operates in stealth
4) Clientelism - when agencies serve the interests of those they are supposed to be overseeing, usually at the expense of the public interest e.g. MMS allowed BP to complete its own safety checks on Deepwater Horizon so it could collect drilling revenue
5) Iron triangles - a strong relationship between a pressure group, the relevant congressional committee and a government department in an attempt to guarantee outcomes to the benefit of all three e.g. military-industrial complex

Question 3

Activities done by pressure groups cont.

Answer 3

6) Pluralism - Dahl’s book Who Govern argues that ‘an active and legitimate group’ can make itself heard efficiently at some stage in the decisions making process
7) Elitism - C. Wright; America is controlled by a small elite of the wealthy and powerful acting in their own interests, such as the vitamin supplement industry in the USA is largely unregulated, partially due to campaign donations to Tom Harkin and Orrin Hatch
8) PAC - Political Action Committee; a group that donates directly to a candidate (usually connected to a pressure group) that aims to spend and raise money to elect and defeat candidates, and they are limited to $5,000 in receipts and expenditures by FECA
9) Super PAC - political committees that may receive unlimited contribution from individuals, corporations, unions and other political action committees to finance independent expenditure and other independent political activity - a group that cannot donate directly to a candidate but can fund them in others way in an unlimited amount

Question 4

What have some pressure groups have been involved in?

Answer 4

• League of Conservation Voters - the dirty dozen
• AARP - Campaigned successfully against Bush’s cuts to social security
• Lockheed Martin Corp and Raytheon - main manufacturers for the US military
• NAACP - supported Brown in the Brown v Board of Education case
• American Bar Association - decides federal judges

Question 5

The impact pressure groups can have

Answer 5

• Why do they appear in committee hearings - Because committees are able to influence bills and so by providing their perspective, they can help make direct changes to legislation
• FECA - Federal Employees Compensation Act - AARP
• Reno v ACLU - all anti-indecency provisions of the 1996 Communications Decency Act violated the First Amendment
• Amicus brief - A legal document supplied to a court of law containing advice or information relating to a case from a person or organisation that is not directly involved in the case (pressure groups send these in)
• The Honest Leadership and Open Government Act prohibitions on lobbying - members have to prohibit their staff from having any lobbying contract with the Member’s spouse if such individual is a registered lobbyist or is employed or retained by a registered lobbyist to influence legislation. It strengthens public disclosure requirements concerning lobbying activity and funding, placing more restrictions on gifts for members of Congress and their staff, and provides mandatory disclosure of earmarks in expenditure bills, signed by George W Bush.

Question 6

Why are pressure groups important to democracy?

Answer 6

• Pressure groups are important to democracy because it allows citizens to participate in politics to avoid tyrannical government.
• US chamber of Commerce and the Confederation of British Industry represent business. Unions represent workers - the AFL-CIO (USA) the UK is the Trade Unions Congress (TUC). The British Medical Association (BMA) in UK and the American Medical Association (AMA)

Question 7

What are promotional groups?

Answer 7

Defend many civil causes. The American Civil Liberties Union supports civil liberties and the equivalent in the UK is Liberty and they have similar aims. Green PEace Organisations and Extinction Rebellion started in the UK and spread to the US.

Question 8

How are pressure groups structured?

Answer 8

Similar organisational structures in both countries, although Us pressure groups often have both federal and state based offices. The insider, outsider typology can be applied to US and UK pressure groups. Both have seen a rise in social movements recently such as BLM.

Question 9

What are access points?

Answer 9

• Access points for pressure groups to focus on in the US. The UK has general election and devolved assembly elections, whereas the US has more elections for pressure groups campaigning. E.g. Presidential elections, HoR every 2 years, a ⅓ of the Senate every 2 years, primary elections, state legislations and governor elections and 19,000 directly elected mayors whereas general elections are every 5 years in the UK.
• Direct democracy in the USA also increases access points as they have more initiatives and referendums on issues such as marijuana use whereas the only significant referendums that happen in the UK were the Brexit referendum

Question 10

What is the biggest difference between UK and US pressure groups in terms of elections?

Answer 10

• The most striking difference between US and UK pressure groups are their involvement in elections. Us groups have unlimited amounts of money and they can donate millions by PACs and Super PACs. The UK has tight restrictions and many groups of charities have to be independent of party politics and can’t make political donations or endorse candidates. Trade unions must have permission from members to operate their political funds.
• This means that pressure groups are more likely to have their ideas listened to because of the threat of ruining an entire campaign if they refuse to fund it. So the tradeoff is that they get their ideas prioritised and that person gets campaign funding. Whereas there are no similar obligations in the UK for pressure groups to be listened to because they cannot impact somebody’s term in office.
• Any non-party campaigners, including pressure groups, who spend more Than £20,000 in England on electoral campaigning in a single election (£10,000 in the devolved nations or in referendums) must be registered with the Electoral Commission and are subject to regulations and restrictions.
• During general elections pressure groups can spend a maximum of £319,800 in England, with spending in an individual constituency for a parliamentary general election capped at £9,750. Donations to a party of more than £7,500 must be declared.
• There are fines for breaching regulations: after the 2016 EU referendum the Leave.EU campaign was fined £66,000 and the Vote Leave campaign £61,000. US pressure groups spend far more on election campaigning than UK pressure groups. In the 2020 presidential and congressional elections Super PACs spent $1.8 billion of the total $14 billion spent on the election, whereas in the 2017 UK general election non-party campaigners spent £2.5 million of the total £41.5 million election spending. Political advertising on television is banned in the UK, with the exception of a small number of party political broadcasts in the run-up to elections. Pressure groups in the USA spend large sums on television adverts attacking or endorsing candidates.

Question 11

What is the revolving door policy?

Answer 11

• The revolving door exists in the UK as it does in the USA, with former ministers and MPs regularly working for professional lobbying firms after they leave office, leading to several ‘cash for access’ scandals in which former ministers were caught boasting of their ability to influence government on behalf of private clients.
• Ministers’ former staff may also use their contacts and expertise to work as lobbyists. Both countries have rules intended to reduce the influence of former government officials. In the UK, former ministers cannot lobby the government for 2 years after leaving office. In 2017 Donald Trump placed a 5-year ban on former officials lobbying the government. However, loopholes can allow former government officials to sidestep the rules in both countries.

Question 12

2 examples of pressure groups holding the government to account in legal cases

Answer 12

1) The Public Law project, the legal Charity successfully challenged the government’s imposition of a residence test for legal aid in R V Lord Chancellor 2016.

2) Miller V Secretary of State for exiting the EU 2016 and R V The Prime Minister 2019. Pressure groups in both countries use legal challenges to hold the government to account. Judicial review is a more limited power in the UK as it only applies to government and not to Acts of Parliament, whereas the US Supreme Court can rule that Acts of Congress are unconstitutional. The potential for landmark rulings to fundamentally change the law means that US pressure groups spend a great deal of time and money on legal challenges and preparing amicus curiae briefs.

Question 13

What option has Brexit removed for pressure groups in terms of legal challenges?

Answer 13

• Brexit removed the option of pressure group legal challenges via the European Court of Justice. EU law is no longer superior to UK law now that the transition period for exiting the EU has ended. The UK remains; signatory to the ECHR, so pressure groups can still bring rights cases to the European Court of Human Rights.
• Unlike in the USA, if the UK government has a majority in parliament with which to pass retrospective legislation, it can change the law in its favour, overruling the Supreme Court’s decision. The Miller cases had the support of a majority in parliament, otherwise they could potentially have been overturned. When the UK Supreme Court makes a declaration of incompatibility with the Human Rights Act (HRA) 1998, parliament can choose to ignore this ruling.
• Pressure groups campaigning for prisoners’ voting rights have supported a series of legal challenges via the European Court of Human Rights. In judgements from 2005 to 2019 the Court has repeatedly found the UK in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Other than a minor change announced in 2017 that planned to allow about 100 prisoners on temporary release to vote, successive UK governments and parliaments have ignored the ruling.

Question 14

What was the average cost for winning a seat in an election, and why is it so high?

Answer 14

In 2016, the average cost of winning a house seat was 1.5 million $ and more than 19 million for a Senate seat. Us pressure groups can spend an unlimited amount of money on election earring but it’s heavily restricted in the UK. In the USA the money involved in elections means members of congress spend up to 50% of their time fundraising.

Question 15

Other than cost, what other differences are imposed on pressure groups in election campaigning?

Answer 15

Political advertising on television is banned in the UK, with the exception of a small number of party political broadcasts in the run-up to elections. Pressure groups in the USA spend large sums on television adverts attacking or endorsing candidates. Both countries use online and social media advertising.

Question 16

How do trade unions act as pressure groups for political parties?

Answer 16

• Democrats and Labour are both supported by Trade Unions but Unions have more influence on Labour. Labour was founded with Union support.
• Trade Union funding is less important to Democratic party receiving large sums from big businesses and wealthy individuals.
• Unions have more influence on Government in the UK, Power of Unions has been decreasing in both countries, reducing the ability of Unions to exert pressure on the government through strike action which has been historically low.
• Unions have more influence on government in the UK, 23% of UK employees are union members compared to only 10% in the US. Each had around 50% fewer than in the 1970s.

Question 17

Where do pressure groups have the most influence?

Answer 17

• US pressure groups are generally considered to have more influence because of the SoP which allows targeting of each branch individually and unlimited independent expenditures in election campaigns gives wealthy groups significant power and influence over the legislature and the executive.
• UK groups only have considerable success if they can convince the government to support their cause, especially if public opinion is with them. So the US has more influence on the legislature whereas the UK has more power over the executive branch due to parliamentary sovereignty which allows rapid change and fusion of powers.

Question 18

Why is lobbying more effective in the US?

Answer 18

There is weaker party discipline and separation of powers so there is more to gain by lobbying legislators in Congress and the government. In the UK, party discipline is generally stronger so lobbying tends to focus on the government and not MPs. There are many more access points for US lobbyists as it happens at federal and state levels.

Question 19

Why would pressure groups be more likely to use legal action in the US than the UK?

Answer 19

The US Supreme Court has greater power than the UK supreme Court. US Pressure groups have won landmark rulings including, desegregation (1954), abortion rights (1971, overturned in 2022 by pressure group action) and same sex marriage (2015). Groups in both countries have used the courts to successfully defend citizens rights.

Examples of pressure groups defending civil rights:
- In the US, US Alliance Defending Freedom represented cake baker Jack Phillips in Masterpiece Cake Shop LTD. V Colorado Civil Rights Commission (2018) and the Christian Institute funded Lee V Ashers Bakery Company LTD (2018) both rulings protected the owners’ religious right to not make a cake promoting same sex marriage.

Question 20

Judicial appointments and pressure groups

Answer 20

• Pressure group influence of judicial appointment is a method is widely used in the US particularly in Supreme Court appointments. Pro business groups such as the US Chamber of Commerce and Americans for Prosperity backed Kavanaugh’s 2018 appointment and were fiercely opposed by liberal groups.
• Pressure groups do not campaign for or against appointments in the UK as appointments are made by independent selection committees and they are not politicised.

Question 21

Can pressure groups in the UK ever effectively influence the policy of government?

Answer 21

• US pressure groups are generally considered to have more influence than UK pressure groups. The separation of powers in the USA allows pressure groups to target the executive, the legislature and the judiciary.
• The right of US pressure groups to make unlimited independent expenditures in election campaigns gives wealthy groups significant power and influence over members of the legislature and the executive.
• However, UK pressure groups can have considerable success if they convince the government to support their cause. The strict restrictions on election spending make it easier for small or poorly funded pressure groups to achieve their objectives, particularly if public opinion is with them.
• The UK’s Gurkha Justice Campaign was catapulted to national attention in 2008 by support from the actress Joanna Lumley. It successfully convinced Gordon Brown’s government to allow Gurkha veterans to settle in the UK.
• Furthermore, the sovereignty of parliament means that a pressure group that convinces the UK government to alter the law in its favour can achieve rapid and significant change that many US pressure groups would envy (Brady Campaign v Snowdrop campaign with Gun control)

Question 22

Structural theory on pressure groups

Answer 22

1) More pressure groups in the US that campaign on federal and state level.

2) Separation of powers in the USA allows Congress to act more independently of government than UK parliament can
- US pressure groups are more able to influence politics by lobbying the legislature; UK pressure groups tend to focus more on lobbying the executive. In the UK, some pressure groups have begun lobbying the House of Lords more intensively, as the Lords are less under the control of the party whips, and there are many crossbenchers.

3) Unlimited US election spending versus restrictive UK campaign finance and advertising laws
Vastly more money is spent by US pressure groups in elections. US pressure groups generally have more influence on members of the legislature than UK pressure groups do. Spending contributes to the formation of ‘iron triangles’ in the USA.

4) More powerful Supreme Court in the USA as the Constitution is sovereign. Legal challenges are a much more commonly used method for US pressure groups and can potentially lead to more significant victories than in the UK.

5) Weaker trade unions in the USA,
stronger links to a political party
(Labour) in the UK
- Workers’ rights are better protected in the UK, as successive governments have faced sustained pressure from unions and Labour governments have been partly funded by unions.

Question 23

Why would American candidates be more influenced by lobbyists in the US than the UK - Rational theory

Answer 23

• Both prize political pluralism but the US pressure groups are protected by the first amendment; charities in the UK cannot be political and funding restricted.
• Because the outside role played by wealthy pressure groups is more pronounced in the US where groups spend millions of dollars in each electoral cycle and iron triangles are seen by many liberals as undemocratic.
• In the UK, the trade union movement provides a little more balance to the power of big business, particularly as the opportunity for electoral spending is limited.

Question 24

Political alliances - Rational theory

Answer 24

• Unions help to fund Labour and the Democrats, and share many of their political objectives. Democrat or Labour-led executives generally allow unions more influence, whereas Republican or Conservative-led executives tend to listen more to big business.
• Pressure groups campaigning on abortion, gay rights, civil rights, gun rights and the environment receive very different receptions depending on the type of government in place. Presidents and parties favour pressure groups whose aims appeal to their voters, and may be influenced by previous or future donations.

Question 25

Direct action - rational theory

Answer 25

• Pressure groups in both countries use these methods widely.
• Grassroots campaigning is undertaken by all types of pressure groups to put pressure on elected representatives and raise revenue through membership donations.
• Direct action tends to be used by outsider groups that need to generate media attention and public support for their objectives.
• Direct action is generally seen as a tactic of last resort in both countries.
• Insider groups try to work to influence the government and legislature via lobbying, meetings and providing policy information.
• Direct action risks alienating the government, even if it is successful in generating media attention and changing public opinion.
• Outsider groups, who are denied the opportunity to engage in a dialogue with the government, may feel forced to use direct action in order to put their issue on the political agenda. The Black Lives Matter mass protests in the USA and the UK in June 2020 had the effect of placing a spotlight on systemic racism and inequality in both societies.
• Insider groups who cannot convince the government to agree with the may also be driven to direct action, as in 2016 when the BMA called a junior doctors’ strike over government changes to UK junior doctors’ contracts.

Question 26

Cultural theory and pressure groups

Answer 26

Both cultures prize political pluralism, but in the USA, pressure groups are protected by the First Amendment and can spend unlimited amounts in elections. In the UK, charities are not allowed to be political, and election funding and advertising are highly restricted.
- UK and US political cultures have both been criticised for elitism, because of the outside role played by wealthy pressure groups. This is more pronounced in the USA, where pressure groups spend millions of dollars in each electoral cycle and ‘iron triangles’ are seen by many liberals as profoundly undemocratic. - In the UK, the trade union movement provides a little more balance to the power of big business, particularly as the opportunity for electoral spending is limited. However, in the 2019 election the Conservative Party, traditionally well supported by big business, received nearly four times as much money in registered donations as the Labour Party.
- Both cultures share a tradition of political protest using marches,
demonstrations and direct action. Marginalised groups have used these methods to win civil rights.

Question 27

US Pressure groups have more influence because ->

Answer 27

1) There are more access points to target because of the federal
system, more regular elections and the separation of powers.
2) Weak party discipline encourages pressure groups to target Congress.
3) They can spend unlimited amounts on electoral campaigning.
4) ‘Iron triangles’ exist between government, Congress and
powerful interest groups.
5) Pressure groups can use legal challenges to achieve landmark rulings from the Supreme Court.
6) Amicus curiae briefs are used to lobby the Supreme Court.
7) Powerful ‘K Street’ professional lobbyists have influence with
policy-makers.
8) Former lobbyists in Trump’s government are an example of
the ‘revolving door’

Question 28

UK Pressure groups are more influential because ->

Answer 28

1) A pressure group that convinces a majority government to
pass legislation can achieve its objectives quickly.
2) The lack of an entrenched constitution means that
pressure groups can influence parliament to make sweeping changes to the law, e.g. in the cases of same-sex marriage, gun control, abortion.
3) Tight electoral finance laws mean that poorly funded groups are at less of a disadvantage than in the USA.
4) Unions have considerable influence on Labour as they are
the party’s main financial supporters.
5) The professional lobbying industry is growing.
6) The revolving door exists in the UK as well as the USA, and ‘cash for access’ scandals demonstrate that influence can be bought.

Question 29

Are US Pressure groups too powerful? - Yes

Answer 29

1) Pressure groups are elitist: well-funded interest groups. The lobbying industry exacerbates the problem of elitism as only wealthy pressure groups can afford professional lobbyists.
2) The revolving door gives corporations, interest groups and
lobbying firms excessive influence over members of the executive and Congress.
3) Iron triangles can lead to the executive and Congress taking
decisions that benefit interest groups over the people.
4) Some pressure groups are able to develop extraordinary influence in Congress, e.g. the NRA successfully opposed gun control legislation from 2012 to 2016 despite support from the public and President Obama.

Question 30

Are US Pressure groups too powerful? - No

Answer 30

1) Pressure groups are essential to a pluralist society and protected by the First Amendment.
2) Social movements can provide a cheap and effective alternative to the power of wealthy interest groups.
3) The right to lobby is protected by the First Amendment and the lobbying industry is subject to regulations.
4) Access does not automatically guarantee influence, and legislators and the executive branch can use the specialist information provided by pressure groups to write better laws and regulations.
5) Pressure groups play an important role in scrutinising the executive and Congress.
6) Legislators are accountable to the voters at elections so make decisions in their interests: pressure groups can help legislators protect citizens’ constitutional rights and liberties, e.g. the NRA defends the right to bear arms.
7) Pressure groups have brought many successful legal challenges to executive policy and federal laws, including important landmark cases that have updated the Constitution and improved civil rights.

Question 31

Areas of influence for pressure groups

Answer 31

• Electoral campaigning
• Access points
• Legal challenges
• Lobbying

Question 32

Methods of pressure groups

Answer 32

• Lobbying (both, but different access points)
• Grassroots / direct action (both, but last resort)
• Links to political parties / alliances (both)
• Legal challenges (both, more prominent in US)
• Electoral campaigning / funding (both, more prominent in US)
• Judicial appointment (only US)
• Trade unions (mainly UK)