American Politics: Political Parties Vs. Interest Groups

260 Words2 Pages
Government policy is an important issue in American politics. Policy is influenced in countless different ways, by many different institutions; two in particular are political parties and interest groups. While both political parties and interest groups are able to command heavy influence over policy, I see the latter as the entity that wields this power more effectively.

Without interest groups, political party members would be substantially less knowledgeable about the policies they make. Party members tend to be "generalists"; even though they are somewhat knowledgeable about a broad range of issues, they often lack specific intel that is crucial to understanding how a policy will affect a particular group. This gives interest