Affiliated Interest Groups

In his book Hardball, Chris Matthews discusses the useful strategies for getting ahead in politics that he observed during his time working in Washington, D.C. He breaks up his observations into chapters with different lessons. Three of the most important lessons are “It's Not Who You Know; It's Who You Get to Know,” (Chapter 1) “All Politics is Local,” (Chapter 2) and “Dance With the One That Brung Ya.” (Chapter 4). These chapters illustrate how important making and keeping connections and relationships is in Washington. The “game of politics” is played by using these relationships to gain favors, votes, support, etc. According to Matthews, the people who get ahead are the ones who make and keep these important connections and relationships with other politicians and the public.

Interest groups can be a private organization or a voluntary association, that try to influence public policy on its favor. There are two types of interest groups, there is private interests which is for interest of its members and there are public interests which is try to affect society. Lobbyists is a member of an interest group and it tries to influence the behavior of public officials. Lobbyists try to influence the legislative process by having bills in their favor passed and sop those that are against their objective, this is possible because they have or form personal relationships with senators or house Leaders. Lobbies usually donate money to campaigns in order to persuade candidates. A PAC or political action committee donates money

Part One, Alliances, starts off with the importance of one-on-one relationships. The sole purpose of these one-on-one relationships, which in political terminology is known as “retail politics” can provide a personal and political awareness for the other individual’s concerns. This triggers a chance for the one who is performing the retail action the opportunity to network. Lyndon B. Johnson created the “Johnson

Political action committees (PACs) have gained influence throughout political history. However, their gain of influence does not play a role in their acceptance from political parties. People believe political action committees influence the legislature. Political action committees raise money for political campaigns and other political issues. As Elizabeth Drew said, “The process by which Congress is supposed to function have been distorted, if not overwhelmed, by the role of money. The ability of even the best of legislators to focus on broad questions, to act independently, or to lead has been seriously impaired.” This leads to people believing political action committees influence political official’s views on issues in the government. The increase in political action committees are said to influence and help the political officials that are going to run for office again, because they want to get more money from the political action committees for their next political campaign. However, the supporters of political action committees say they allow average citizens the right to let their voices be heard in the political process. Another argument political action committees express is the First Amendment. The people who support certain candidates believe that donating money is an act of Freedom of Speech. Still many people oppose them. There is a bipartisan consensus on the dislike of political action committees. It may be said that political action committees are a

People flock to those with similar ideas. Some people create or are involved in interest groups to act on their beliefs. Said beliefs are strong and have the capacity to change current political agendas. Beliefs produce responses; responses ignite operation. The power of political

A good depiction of the interaction between the president and interest groups was seen in The American President. In this movie a special interest group, the GDC, sent a lobbyist, Sydney, to get a bill introduced into the senate. The process they went through, convincing the president to introduce the bill if they got enough support from congressmen and then seeing them gain support from the congressmen, was very informative. This movie also helped set a complete picture of the way the president works in the political system.

How does public opinion, presidential patronage, iron triangles, the distribution of power within congress, and whether the presidents agenda involves, foreign or domestic policy affect the president's ability to mobilize congressional support for his programs and bills? Are these relations between the president and congress showing signs of support towards elite or popular democracy? These are the questions brought to light in this paper and each factor will be discussed as to why these functions operate as they currently do. Without congressional approval the president is helpless as to his power to but a bill or a proposal into law. Therefore, it is mandatory for the president to gain

Through the definition, interest groups refer to groups with a small number of people and more money plus power, while social movements refer to a larger amount of people with less weight per person. For example, the Civil Rights movement which is social movement was trying to obtain the basic privileges and rights of U.S. citizenship. On the other hand, United States Chamber of Commerce which is one of interest groups is one of the largest lobbying groups in the U.S., spending more money than any other lobbying organization on a yearly basis. Such the Interest group has more negative associations. Thus, people like to make a goal per person through social movements, but people do not like to support forever with no-agency of the United States

Political parties and pressure groups are dependent upon one another. Interest groups find the parties an important method of gaining access to those in public authority, and the parties need the support of groups to elect and maintain themselves in power. The loose party structure and the nature of the federal system foster a chain of continuous relationships between the two. Interest groups participate in both nonpartisan and partisan primaries and general elections through candidate endorsement, providing campaign funds, and general campaign activity. Interest groups are particularly interested in programs and seek to influence party platforms and may provide speech materials for candidates. There is some attempt on the part of both to infiltrate each other though rarely has an interest group been able to capture complete control of a party organization. The overlapping memberships help to educate the parties about the interests of the private groups and vice versa, and provide some cross-fertilization of ideas as well as manpower assistance. Political parties have a prime function of accommodating the demands of the private interests into the larger public interests (Bone. A, 1958).

Inherent within democracy are expansionary pressures. Olson (1965) argued in ‘The Logic of Collective Action’ that small groups with concentrated interests will prevail over large groups with diffuse interests, who tend to suffer from free-rider problems. Special interest groups will tend to successfully lobby for subsidies and other favourable government actions (and they have the incentive to do so), while the tax-paying public will not have the incentive to block these changes as the costs of collective action outweigh the individuals benefits. US Senator Tom Coburn produces the ‘Wastebook’ every year, showing some of the more ridiculous examples of such special interest lobbying activity in America and the logic of collective action

This was unprecedented, and inevitably led the part to transform into a powerful interest group; all to protect themselves from such actions in the future. This was perhaps also influenced by the past policies which regarded disagreement with the Party line was regarded as high treason. The growth of interest groups within the party became a liability to itself as it was now not working as a single unit, which was the goal of the party in its early

The pluralist theory of democracy contends that people with common interests, organize in groups to solicit support and solutions to problems in relation to government. Research indicates a key element of interest group formation is the entrepreneur. The research suggests, however, the incentive for entrepreneurs to organize varies. Some say the motivation to organize is economically based, others say the motivation to organize is tied to a specific disturbance or event. Some contend patrons motivate leaders to organize interest groups, others suggest a more altruistic motive for group formation. My aim is to determine the driving force behind the entrepreneur

Political scientists have recognized two main factors influencing coalition formation: office-seeking – where parties form alliances to obtain power and positions in the

According to ushistory.org, there are four types of linkage institutions. Interest groups and political parties are said to be ‘linkage institutions’. In this essay, I will be addressing why it is exactly that interest groups and political parties fall under the category of linkage institutions, the similarities and differences between interest groups and political parties, the differences in the roles that interest groups and political parties play, and which of the two linkage institutions is most important to the democratic processes. These topics are significant because interest groups and political parties keep the people involved with government policy by giving people a chance to influence policy in our country. The main purpose for this essay is to inform the reader of the differences between interest groups and political parties and how the people can get more involved; more than just simply casting a vote in elections.

To begin this assessment, we ask the question, how why and how does politics play a role in government. Initially, the answer is obvious; politics is the process by which governments operate. However, for this essay the definition of politics has a more distinctive and idiosyncratic meaning. What we find with politics is that it is found in all organizations, both public and private. Organizational politics refers to how people develop power and social networks in attempts to influence others in the group. People use strategies like coalitions, alliances, bargains, or deal making to engage others to influence decision-making and outcomes. In most cases people use politics to seek positive outcomes but we have also seen where negative results are the consequence (Denhardt, Denhardt & Aristigueta, 2013, p. 238).