Interest Group Politics - Essay Example

Interest Group Politics Givel concludes after lengthy discussion that the tobacco did not change significantly even when the policy was punctuated as suggested by the punctuated equilibrium theory. I however disagree with the findings in this article because they do not delve deeply into the tobacco industry before making such conclusions (Givel 5). No industry wants to be labeled as failing and not especially a tobacco industry which has been receiving anti-tobacco campaigns and slogans and even being taken to court in litigation cases.

This would prove to the world that they are failures they have been labeled to be. Something must have really happened but the truth could only be revealed by those considered not useful in the industry but they indeed have a lot of underground information.Blaming the failure to effectively control the smoking of cigarettes in the US on politics as suggested by Sapolsky is entirely wrong and short sighted. Even though there is huge political influence from the politicians that is not entirely the reason cigarette smoking is still persistent in the US (Sapolsky 8).

The author of this article would have explored the profits the companies make and how the market is widely providing taxes and hence the protection and control is coming from people with much more influence and more money than the politicians. There are many people with vested interest in continuation of cigarette smoking.In as much as large organizations can move directly and not through lobbyist, their success rate compared to that of organizations (no matter how minor) that use lobby groups to advocate for changes in congress is way higher (Hojnacki and David 778).

The article by Hojnacki and Kimball would have been more convincing if they had indicated figures on the success rate of such major organizations because research about lobbyists suggest otherwise.Work CitedGivel, Michael. “Punctuated Equilibrium in Limbo: The Tobacco Lobby and U.S. State Policymaking from 1990 to 2003.” The Policy Studies Journal, vol. 34 (3), 2006.Hojnacki, Marie, and David, Kimball. “Organized Interests and the Decision of Whom to Lobby in Congress.” American Political Science Review, vol. 92 (4), December, 1998.

Sapolsky, Harvey. “The political Obstacles to the Control of Cigarette Smoking in the United States.” Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, vol. 5 (2), 1980.