5.6 Interest Groups Influencing Policymaking

An interest group is an organization of people who share a goal and try to influence public policy. Unlike parties, interest groups don't run their own candidates; they try to influence whoever holds office. They're a linkage institution (5.3) and the heart of pluralist democracy (1.2), and the First Amendment's rights to assemble and petition protect them.

Types include economic groups (business associations, industry groups), labor unions, professional associations (doctors, lawyers, teachers), public interest groups (consumer, environmental and good-government groups), single-issue groups and ideological groups.

• Lobbying: meeting with lawmakers, staff and agency officials to argue for a group's position and provide information. Lobbyists must register and report their activities under the Lobbying Disclosure Act (1995).
• Drafting legislation: groups often supply lawmakers with model bills or proposed language.
• Educating: publishing research, testifying at hearings and running ads to inform officials and the public.
• Grassroots mobilization: getting members to call, email or visit officials, showing that voters care.
• Litigation and amicus curiae briefs: suing to challenge laws, or filing “friend of the court” briefs that give judges arguments and information in cases where the group isn't a party (2.10).
• Electioneering: endorsing candidates, mobilizing voters and spending through political action committees (5.11).
• Commenting on regulations: submitting comments when agencies propose rules (2.13).

Interest groups are one corner of an iron triangle, together with a bureaucratic agency and a congressional committee in the same policy area (2.12). Each side benefits: the group gets favorable policy, the committee members get electoral support, and the agency gets funding. Issue networks are broader and looser webs that include think tanks, academics and media along with groups and officials.

The revolving door, when officials leave government to become lobbyists or lobbyists take government jobs, strengthens these connections. Federal law requires waiting periods before some former officials can lobby their old agencies.

Groups differ greatly in resources. Influence tends to grow with membership size, money, organization, access to policymakers and the intensity of members' commitment. AARP, which represents Americans 50 and older and has tens of millions of members, is powerful partly because older Americans vote at high rates and pay close attention to programs like Social Security and Medicare. Critics of pluralism argue that groups representing business and wealthy interests have built-in advantages over groups representing the poor or diffuse public interests.

Many groups pursue collective goods, benefits that everyone receives whether or not they helped. Clean air rules or a tax break for all retirees help members and non-members alike. So a rational person might skip paying dues and let others do the work. That's the free-rider problem, described by economist Mancur Olson. It's especially hard for large groups with diffuse goals.

Groups respond with selective benefits, rewards available only to members, such as discounts, insurance, magazines, training or networking. AARP's member discounts are a classic example. Some groups also rely on solidarity (the satisfaction of belonging) or purposive benefits (the satisfaction of supporting a cause).