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Influence Of Special Interest Groups In The United States

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1 In our country, there are many ways that one can get involved and influence legislation and public policy to further self interests. We can be active on all levels of government: local, state, and national. One way that we may involve ourselves is through special interest groups, which are groups with members who all have a common goal that try to influence government policies. Special interest groups are everywhere, covering almost any issue that there is in our society. Some special interests are so large that they can spend up to millions on lobbying.
According to Merriam-Webster a Special Interest Group is “ a person or group seeking to influence legislative or government policy to further often narrowly defined interests.” In …show more content…

Often times special interest groups send representatives to promote their ideas and policies. Special interest groups may target officials who have direct roles in passing bills and legislation. These officials include: the policy committee, the state senate, and the state assembly. These players are large components in the legislative process of our state. Representatives from the interest groups will try to influence the law making decisions of these officials or politicians. Another way that they may influence public policy -indirectly- is by contributing significantly to state elections or campaigns. The main goal when engaging in elections is to get specific candidates to win or to get specific legislation passed. There are various ways that interest groups can participate in elections, a big part of this would be by endorsing candidates, and contributing money to their campaigns. By endorsing a candidate, the public can see who the interest group supports. Supporters of these special interest groups see what kind of candidate might help their self interest, thus helping them to decide who to vote for. The same way that interest groups endorse a candidate, they may also endorse a bill or legislation that is up for vote in that election. …show more content…

I think that special interest groups are a great way to get people to find common grounds on certain issues, and be able to rally together to make changes that involve those issues. Special interest groups are great because anyone can start one, if someone is willing to start one then they will be able to pull it off. Even if your cause is an unpopular one you still have the right to advocate for it, and try to make changes. Although not all interest groups have everyone’s best interest at heart, we all have the right as citizens to rally for whatever we want to. Some big spenders in our state come from the healthcare field. An example of this would be the California Senate Bill 562, which pushed universal health care in our state. Some big contributors to lobbying for this

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One example of an interest group is AARP. AARP is a United States interest group with membership. It was founded in 1958 by Ethel Percy Andrus, Ph.D. And Leonard Davis. AARP has vast membership so it is able to generate its own income without being dependent on government grants or private donors. I read on Tuesday night on Facebook how disappointed they were in the Senate 's vote to proceed on the new healthcare bill and how they would inform 38 million members how their Senators voted so they could hold them accountable.

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An interest group is a group of people that tries to take action on a political issue or concern. The goal of an interest group is to recruit politicians as endorsements and persuade the government to take action on their respective issue. There are interest groups for mostly every issue or concern for the country. For example, the National Rifle Association and Brady Campaign are both interest groups that are concerned with gun control and gun violence. Both groups have stated their interests in influencing the American government to apply stricter gun laws and reduce the amount of shootings and deaths by firearms by a drastic margin.

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The Effectiveness of Lobbyist The act of influencing legislation in government is called “lobbying”. The right to lobby is protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution. It states “Congress shall make no law abridging the right of the people to petition the government for a redress of grievances” (APUS, n.d). Besides, this is considered to be part of the Freedom of Assembly and Petition Clause in the First Amendment.

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Interest groups, also known as pressure groups or special interest groups, are associations made up of organizations or individuals that are formally organized based on a shared concern. These interest groups share a determination to affect government policies to benefit their cause. They attempt to achieve their goals by lobbying. One specific interest group is the National Rifle Association and their goal is to protect the Second Amendment.

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