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Private Interest Groups In Politics

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Lobbying politicians is the predominant way in which citizens and organizations can attempt to shape the political process (Bernhagen, 2012, p. 20). Individuals who share common interests get together and form an interest group which, through lobbying, influences the law to either their, or society's, advantage. Specifically, these interest groups try to pressure the government to change public policies (Dyck, 2012, p. 18). There are, in fact, two types of interest groups; private interest groups and public interest groups. The difference between the two is one of utmost importance. Private interest groups tend to get the government to alter laws in ways that will solely benefit them, rather than benefit society as a whole. Public interest …show more content…

This is where the efforts of interest groups are particularly critical; “interest groups enhance democratic representation by articulating the interests of societal groups toward policy makers” (Giger & Klüver, 2016, p. 202). Legislators need to be pressured by someone to amend laws; otherwise they will not be nearly as willing to make changes to them. In other words, interest groups ensure that politicians modify laws so that these laws can actually help benefit society. The reality is that without lobbyists politicians would be considerably less willing to make changes because they would not have external pressure from anyone. Although the general public can pressure politicians to amend statues, money is a strong motivator, particularly for individuals who want to be in power. In the case of public interest groups, the issues that they publicize are issues that, if fixed, will likely benefit society. Publicizing issues that society is concerned about would lead to outrage among citizens if politicians would refuse to make the changes that would benefit society. Ultimately, this would force the government to amend the most crucial laws, in society's eyes, that need to be fixed. Due to the fact that a myriad of individuals believe that politicians do not make any major changes in office, the pressure of interest groups could potentially cause the public to have more faith in the political system (Bernhagen, 2012, p. 34). Once the public sees that politicians are attempting to make some major changes, they will have a better opinion of the political system and may gain greater interest in

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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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129 Words | 1 Pages

4. They are source of ideas and innovations. Lobbyists can’t introduce bills, but they can introduce an idea to and politician who will be eager to attach the lobbyists name

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While choosing electing official with common values and philosophies is a great way to get representation on social issues, interest groups are also helpful in keeping an open line of communication with elected officials on what is most important to the affected group. Interest groups use tactics to protect policies by focusing on the unknown consequences and keeping close relationships with government officials whose values are similar (Baumgartner, Jeffery, & Hojnacki (2009). One interest group who has knowledgeable lobbyists to affect public policy is the National Rifle Association (NRA). The NRA is a single issue group who advocates their position by using both the direct and indirect approach to rally support on issues in Congress.

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Now that lobbyists cannot utilize earmarks, traditionally the most direct way for a member of Congress to do a lobbyist’s bidding, because of the informal ban in Congress on earmarks, lobbyists are no longer receiving this kind of direct funding for their projects. Nonetheless, the presence of lobbyists will not fade. Lobbyists serve a vast array of interests, and reflect the diversity of the United States in what they represent. Today lobbyists are more powerful than ever, attempting to buy influence on issues, and are also more accountable than ever before. Allen concludes with asserting that since lobbyists represent interests at least some Americans hold, Americans cannot think that lobbyists are the

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539 Words | 3 Pages

This essay will discuss the impact of lobbyist on legislation in Washington, DC and the amount of dollars spent to influence federal policies. Throughout a normal day in Washington DC, the hustle and bustle of lobbyist is taking place in the Capital building, White House and along K Street, which is the home of many of the lobbying firms. There are special interest groups, corporations and industries that hire in-house lobbyist or lobbyist firms to influence legislation to benefit their cause. For example, some of these causes may include, but are not limited to tax breaks, subsidies and changes to current regulations or laws.

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Today, we still find significant concerns for how vast and powerful interest groups and their associated PACs have become over the past few decades, and their far reaching ability they have to affect even the highest court in the

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552 Words | 3 Pages

Party government believes that we need a “strong decisive government to solve social and economic problems”, but in order to do this we must be able to keep our government under control, as mentioned earlier (Hershey 301). All judges and justices share a commitment to uphold the Constitution making the United States a country governed by a rule of law. Roosevelt was no civil libertarian nor a crusader for racial justice but, his court-packing plan would not have endangered the Supreme Court 's legacy of ruling in favor of individual rights; the justices of his era showed little interest in protecting the rights that are actually protected by the Constitution (Milhiser Web). Studies over the last few decades have all come to the conclusion that court-packing is unconstitutional in nature, but what about interest groups? How can an interest groups influence courts as well?

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Because interest groups are protected by the First Amendment, they cannot be outlawed. However, their activities--particularly lobbying and making financial contributions--can be regulated. The 1973 Lobby Regulation Act, amended in 1983, is much more effective than two earlier attempts at regulating interest groups, one in 1907 and the other in 1957. In spite of its more stringent provisions, the total number of persons lobbying is much higher than the fifteen hundred groups and persons who annually register. The rise of bureaucracy requires interest groups to influence key points in government.

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The author’s perspective in this source is of a liberal-democratic nature, the author’s ideology is that the citizens should keep the government in check in order to prevent corruption and keep an honest government. Canadians should embrace the ideology of this source for it will preserve the rights and freedoms of Canadians and create an accountable and honest government through a system of checks and balances. The sources ideology will give power to the citizens and less government control over the economy and that is the main ideology of democracy and liberalism. Lobby groups are a perfect example of a people’s way of making sure that the government reflects their will. The MADD (Mothers against Drunk Driving) lobby group has influenced

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For an example, if there is a community that has a plant near their neighborhood and they are polluting their water supply. Homeowners will notice that their water supply are polluted with the plant’s chemical. They will most likely take this up with their elected officials. Then congress gets an issue that a plant is polluting into a water supply and the people would like this business to fix this problem. Now congress has to decide if they should or should not regulate

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547 Words | 3 Pages

Big powerful special interest groups have interfered with politicians’ decision to do what’s right; it appears that the political system has become corrupted and money plays a big role in their decision and money is very influential in getting the legislators to pass bills. One would believe that our politicians are making the battles between the political parties personally; it appear that if the parties don’t agree with another, they resort to drastic measures such as shutting down the government causing more hardship on

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Influences on parliament Influences on parliament is a factor that plays a very big role in creating new laws due to support and backing that some groups have which enforces their opinions and brings them in to the parliament. This helps them put their ideas forward and force them through the parliament so that they can become a law. There are 3 main influencers: • Pressure groups • Media • Law commission Pressure groups These are group of people who have the same interests in terms of making the government change particular laws in some areas. They mostly seem to target local government officers, government politicians and last but not least civil servants.

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(A) James Madison disliked the idea of interest groups, believing they were evil "factions" that disrupted the common good in people. Although political parties and interest groups seem similar, they actually both have different agendas. We have interest groups in order to influence government policies based on the groups interests. While political parties are politically funded groups that help decide political candidates. (B) Lobbying is the intention to influence the decisions that are made by legislators in order to benefit their own respective interest group.

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Interest groups in Texas are relatively powerful actors in the political process. Organized interest groups and their representatives, also known as “the lobby” participates in the policymaking and political processes in Texas. Interest groups provide critical channels for Texans to communicate their political preferences and attempt to influence government actors and their fellow

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1639 Words | 7 Pages

Interest groups encompass different citizen groups in a society. These interest groups include representation of the grassroots level such as labor union and farmer groups, representation of business corporations, and representation of the common citizen concerned with government reform (Janda et al,

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