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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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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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