Interest Groups and their Influence on the Making of Public Policy - Research Paper Example

Interest Groups and their Influence on the Making of Public Policy Question 1: Defining Interest Groups with Specific Examples Different authors have come up with different definitions of special interest groups. Some view interest groups as encompassing voters who have similar beliefs, policy references, interests, and similar socio- demographic characteristics. Others define interest groups as institutions who on behalf of their members, engage in political activities (Friedrich, 2010). Interest groups have also engaged in activities that not only serve the interest of their members, but also serving the interest of the public at large. This therefore culminates to one conclusive of interest groups as an organization that avows to influence the public policy in an area of interest to its members (Asare, 2009). The composition of interest groups depends on the issues that the groups are concerned with. Examples of the interest groups are business organizations, labor unions, gender, professional associations, religious and public interest groups, and occupational groups. The impact of the interest groups depends on two factors: if the elected officials and bureaucratic agents are, championing public policies considered by the interest groups. Secondly, it depends if the interest groups can be able to form organized groups through which they can lobby and influence public policies that are consistent with their mission and vision statements (Asare, 2009). Interest groups tend to thrive in a pluralistic environment and conflict ensuing from this environment translates to compromise and bargaining among the interest groups with the policy makers and the politicians. A review of literature evidences that these groups have been given names ranging from: iron triangles, epistemic communities, advocacy coalition frameworks, and policy subsystem, issue, and policy networks. Though they are diverse groups, they all sought to influence the public policy in the areas they were envisioned to represent (Asare, 2009). The American government has classified the types of interest groups into three main classes based on their mission and composition: economic, public, and single use. Economic groups are aimed at providing economic benefit for their members. Examples are: professional associations, business, and labor organizations. Business interest group examples are: United States Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Manufactures. An example of labor interest groups is The American federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), the Teamster, the United Auto Workers (UAW). Professional groups in this category include American Bar Association (ABA), American Medical Association (AMA), and the Screen Actors Guild (SAS) (American Government). Public interest groups are entitled to protect the general public resources, liberties, and rights. Some prominent interest groups include American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Environment Defense Fund, National Wildlife Federation (NWF), and the Sierra Club (American Government). Single interest groups aim at championing for the hub interest of their members. An example is the debate on abortion that saw the birth of two interest groups: National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) that aims at legalizing abortion, and the Right to Life Committee, aimed at making abortion outlawed (American Government). Question 2: The Relationship between Interest Groups and Political Parties Special interest groups play a very dire role in the political system of any developed country. They interact with political parties in their role as campaign contributors through the political parties accessing, and influencing for the rights of the special interest groups. Political parties use the lobbying approach with a promise to champion for the rights of the interest groups during campaigns as a campaign strategy. This therefore evidences that interest groups have a role in determining the campaign strategy that will be used by various political parties (Stambough, 2000). The campaign contribution of special interest groups is evident in the United States through contributions by Political Action Committees (PACs). These committees are organized for the prospect of raising funds and using the generated resources to defend and garner the election of their candidate. PACs represent ideological interest, labor, or even business entities and can give a candidate of their choice USD 5,000 per election and up to USD 15, 000 to a national party annually. Consequently, PACs are allowed to receive up to USD 5,000 from an individual candidate or a party in a calendar year (Friedrich, 2010). Some researchers have criticized the involvement of interest groups in political parties and have questioned the integrity of their actions. Some view their actions as a way of buying political favors through their political contributions in the parties. However this has been challenged and the campaign contribution by PACs has been documented a way of deriving consumption by the interest groups. Consequently, PACs has been defended as it has been documented as the bid of interest groups to gain access to the legislator, and in a way garner investment in the policies made (Stratmann, 2005). Question 3: How Interest Groups try to Influence the President and Congress in the Policy Making Process The influence that interest groups have on public policy can be viewed from three diverse perspectives. To begin with, interest groups can engage in different channels of influence, concurrently their involvement can be a form of counteractive lobbying and finally, their influence can be engaged at different channels of the public policy process (Friedrich, 2010). Their effectiveness in influencing the president and Congress in making public policy is based on their channel of influence: campaign contributions, and dissemination of information. In the role of dissemination of information, interest groups’ inform their member, policy makers, and the public on the current events that need to be addressed by either of the involved parties (Friedrich, 2010). Dissemination of information is the role played in informing and persuading the policy makers of the wisdom of the groups’ position as pertains to the issue at hand. Interest groups play an important role in information dissemination to politicians involved in public policy making process. This is since they are viewed as individuals or entities with familiarization to the idea and are willing to engage in research to provide evidence based research as to why the policy should or should not be implemented. The United States federal level in an extensive survey carried out, reported that special interest groups spent bulk of their resources in informing policy makers (Friedrich, 2010). Interest groups are able to influence the president and the Congress to make policy, because of the close proximity of the lobbyists to the policy makers. Interests groups that lobby for increment of salaries portray the impact that former officials can have on the government in influencing their decision making process. Data has been collected to evidence the role that ex- congressional politicians play in influencing policy making as they are well connected to the Congress and hence utilize their connections for the implementation of policies that support the special interest groups they represent (Friedrich, 2010). As a way of assessing how interest groups influence the president and congress to make policy, some researchers have defined lobbying in the United States as interest groups lobbying for their friends. Other researchers are of the opinion that interest groups target undecided and opposing legislators. This emphasizes the notion that lobbyists mainly enforce existing legislations among the policy makers and not implement policies that benefit the interest groups (friendly model). However, some interest groups influence the opponent legislators in bid to have an avenue to change the prevailing legislations and hence can positively influence the chance of a new legislation being passed (confrontational model) (Kollman, 1997). Political science literature has evidenced the presence of sub governments in Washington. This form of policymaking has a hypothesis that the policy makers, interest groups, and administrators share common interest in policymaking. These sub governments represent the public to who it is purported that the three parties involved in policy making pass laws that do not consider the interest of the public at large but are meant to propagate the interests of the administrators, policy makers and interest groups. This form of sub government is a form of ensuring that the majoritarian rule is not overshadowed by the interest of some member groups (Kollman, 1997). The sub government model that depicts how interest groups influence the congress to make policies is based on two assumptions. To begin with, it is based on the assumption that some members of the Congress who have an intrinsic interest in policy areas, because of the demands of their constituents, find their way to join the Congress committees and hence influence policymaking. An example is given of a Congressman who represents an area where farming is predominant; the sub government assumes that he will do everything in his power to get into a committee that is debating a policy about farm, for the benefit of the farming interest group in his area (Kollman, 1997). Consequently, the sub government assumes that some interests groups seek alliance with committees whom they predict that they can deliver favorable legislations that address the needs of their members. An example of this assumption is given of producer groups that have been documented to have a greater influence on the Congress committee members and hence influence their decisions. The role of the sub government in the two case scenarios is to cushion the public from personal interest of the lawmakers, administrators, and interest groups (Kollman, 1997). Consequently, interest groups influence the policymaking by the Congress on the basis based on the powers vested to the Congressional committee. The Congressional committee is vested upon the power to chair meetings and if the interest groups congressional members chair these meeting, they are considered to have a pivotal role in the legislation of the policy. Also, the committees are vested with the power to gate keep the policies and also the role of generating agendas as pertains to the policy that the house will discuss. In a scenario where the interest groups have an influential role in the congress committee, they are in a position to influence agendas set and hence influence the motion and culminate to a decision that favors them (Kollman, 1997). Interest groups because of access to the arms of government: executive, legislation and judicial, they are able to influence the policy making process. Firstly, they have been documented to prolong the decision making process of a policy. In addition, they have been avowed to have overcrowded agendas and they fix prices rather than fixing quantities that are aimed at protecting their interests (Coates & Heckelman, 2003). Subsequently, interest groups reduce the propensity and willingness of a society to adapt to new technology as they serve as decision makers for the society members they represent. This inhibits the allocation of new resources to adapt to the changing environment, leading to only a small portion of the community benefiting from the resources (Horgos & Zimmerman, 2009). Interest groups limit the capability of dynamic incentives by synchronizing their members’ interest, and aiming at reducing the prevalence of conflict that may disrupt the group. In this way, they are not responsive to change. Increase in the number of interest groups has also been documented as a prospect that translates to complexity in government regulations, as they have to favor all interest groups. Additionally, their increased number extends the period in which political consensus are arrived at, prolonging political decision. This curtails the implementation of reforms by the incoming legislation (Heckelman, 2000). In conclusion, an interest group is an organization that represents individuals who have similar ideologies and can represent either the interest of its members or those of the public. As it was earlier foretold in the relationship between interest groups and political parties, interest groups have a great influence on the president and the Congress when it comes to policy making. It was evident that interest groups are involved in financing the campaigns of politicians who become Senators, chair the Congress, or eventually become president. This illustrates that the interest groups have a bearing and a great opinion in the policies that a country generates. To affirm this they are the informational bears to the Congress and in a policy that they need to favor them, they can provide misleading information to the Congress. However, a check to this has been evidenced by the involvement of the sub government that is aimed at ensuring the majority rule. Though the influence of public interest in policymaking has been criticized, interest groups serve are made by the people and for the people and hence meet the needs of the individuals they represent. It is however important to acknowledge that the influence they have in policymaking needs to be bench marked. References America Government (n.d), Interest groups: Types of interest groups, Retrieved from http://www.netplaces.com/american-government/interest-groups/types-of-interest-groups.htm Accessed on November 28, 2011. Asare, B. (2009). Tobacco regulation in South Africa: Interest groups and public policy, African Journal of Political Science and International Relations, 3 (3), pp. 99-106. Coates D., & Heckelman, J. (2003), Interest groups and investment: a future test of the Olson hypothesis, Public Choice, 117, pp. 333-340. Friedrich, Silke. (2010), Measuring Interest Group Activity. DICE Report 8.4 37-46. Heckelman, J, C., (2000). Consistent estimates of the impact of special interest groups on economic growth, Public Choice, 104, pp. 319-327. Horgos, D., & Zimmermann, K. (2009), Interest groups and economic performance: Some new evidence. Public Choice, 138(3-4), 301-315. Kollman, K. (1997). Inviting friends to lobby: Interest groups, ideological bias, and congressional committees. American Journal of Political Science, 41(2), 519-544. Stambough, S. (2000). Interest groups in American campaigns: The new face of electioneering. The American Political Science Review, 94(3), 730-731. Stratman, T. (2005). Some Talk; Money in Politics: A (Partial) Review of the Literature, Public Choice: 124, 135-156. Read More