Lawmaking And The Role Of Interest Groups

In a pluralist democracy like in the United States, interest groups have played a major role throughout the history through highly organized factions and are aimed at different levels of government. Lobbying is one of the tactics of the interest groups to aid their agenda through implementing new laws and regulations. "If you want to have your face in the light, you should have your back in the dark". Similarly, the influences of the interests groups and lobbyists have good and bad effects on the people and the society.

Interest groups can be both bad and good for democracy. The interest groups are able to lobby to congress to help out different organizations. They basically work on a “you do a favor for me and I’ll do a favor for you later” basis. This gives the lobbyist an influence over congress. They can be bad for the democracy because too much influence and power can be a bad thing. The issue they are lobbying for may not be a good cause.

It is evident that interest groups have more of an influence than a citizen’s ability to

Limiting independent expenditures is limiting money spent by individuals and groups, such as 527’s and super PACs, for candidates and parties that the individuals and groups are not directly affiliated with. There are many viable arguments in favor of the proposal; one of the strongest arguments in favor is that the most affluent groups and people should not be the most influential groups and people. If there was no limit of independent expenditures, the influence that wealthy individuals and groups have over elected officials would be potentially magnified. Thus, as long as there are restrictions on the amount of money that individuals and groups may expend in support of candidates and parties, the influence of the preponderance of the population is closer to being equal.

Interest groups have a lot of influence over decision that the government makes and has made. These groups, when formed right, are highly organized and have a definite agenda they are trying to push that is important to them. Interest groups will lobby in congress as well as other levels of government to get new laws and regulations passed.

Limiting interest group is like cutting off the blood that flows through America’s vein. Interest groups plays a pivotal role in todays U.S society ranging from but not limited to; helping Congress and the administration to draft legislation and policy initiatives, provide information both to government and the public on a broad range of topical issues, and contribute significantly to political

Of course, such influence establishes a tyranny of the rich that our forefathers clearly wanted to prevent. Senator Russ Feingold, a proponent of campaign finance reform, said, "The current campaign finance system is fueling the transformation of our representative democracy into a corporate democracy creating a political system that allots power in direct relation to the amount of money an individual or interest group can contribute" (Campaign Finance Reform). The horror of such a governmental system has fueled the cries for campaign finance reform.

Legislators often utilise the agenda-building function of pressure groups to obtain information on specific legislative issues because pressure groups, particularly insider groups, are “recognised by government as legitimate spokespersons for particular interests or causes” (Grant, 2004, p. 408). This assumption can often be taken advantage of by insider pressure groups, as they are often able to “hire the most skilful and eloquent lobbyists, some of whom obviously gave a higher priority to pleasing their clients.” (Garnett and Lynch, 2012, p.

Public interest lobbies form a linkage element between citizens and governmental elites. In lobbying they articulate what they perceive to be the issue positions of certain sectors of society. Public interest groups also play an important role in facilitating the political participation of their members and related attentive publics. By helping to bring new issues to the table, interest groups influence the shape of political agendas.

Democracy is the system of government where an entire population is represented through elected representatives. But there is a significant aspect in the US government that also acts as elected representatives which are in the form of interest groups. Interest groups are essentially a collection of people of organizations that tries to influence public policies. Just like the media and political parties, interest groups are one of the linkage institutions, linking the people to the government. The main role of interest groups in accordance to the government, is to mobilize the people. Ideally, an interest groups’ main goal is to ensure that a wide range of people and opinions are expressed in the democratic process. The significance of the

An interest group also known as a special interest group or a lobby is an organized group of individuals, organizations, or businesses who share a goal. The interest group forms an alliance in support of their cause to influence public policy and government officials in the group 's favor. The goal of the group could be focused on small group, such as the Japan Eraser Manufacturer 's Association; or the goal could be focused on a large public group, such as family and friends of public school-aged children in the United States. "The most important lobbying forces in any society are the various entities of government: national, regional, and local government agencies and institutions such as the military" (Thomas).???????????

But interest groups do not have a real place in congress. For them to affect motions in congress they need to utilise their powers of persuasion to influence the right people.

interest groups are activity involved in the legislature process (on the national level) seeking to

The most common activity for interest groups is lobbying. But that is not the only activity they are involved in, they are also involved in activities like forming Political Action Committees (PAC’s) and election activities. Lobbying is done by groups to influence the government decisions on policies. In the United States, almost all of the interest groups employ lobbyists to influence policy making. Lobbyists work to try to persuade governmental officials. Some ways they achieve their goals are persuasion, economic leverage, and disruption. The most important rule to lobbying is the entrance. You must be able to influence an official. The more spread out the interest groups money is throughout the country, the more likely it is that the legislators will listen to the concerns of that group.

Says Grossmann on page 3, “interest groups often play a central role in setting the government agenda…[and] are often found to have a substantial impact on policy outcomes.” Many political candidates from both sides of the partisan aisle have run on a platform of neutralizing the force of special interests in Washington, and this illuminates why that’s an important issue. Special interests lobby because they have something to gain from the result of the policy, or those they represent do. It’s not always a nefarious intention, but the parochial nature of special interests is in conflict with policy that affects the American public at large, and those interests often win out because they wield power over lawmakers at the national, state and local