Government Lobbying

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.

Moreover, the Schoolhouse Rock presentation identified the major committees that play a vast role within legislation, but furthermore failed to acknowledge the significant influence of interest groups, lobbyist, and campaign contributors. Interest groups are pertinent to the legislation process because of their vast influence. While interest groups strive to “influence public policy” to benefit its members, it accomplishes this task by using inside strategies that “pursue a narrow policy of change and directly influence legislation” and through its relationship within the iron triangle that works to “seal off” external influencers that are irrelevant to the groups view towards public policy; thus leaving a “closed

The purpose of lobbying is to communicate to public officials the special interests of specific groups.

American Politics Today defined Interest groups as “organizations of people who share common political interests and aim to influence public policy by electioneering and lobbying. Lobbying involves convincing an elected official or bureaucrat to help enact a law, craft a regulation, or do something else that a group wants”. Thus, America being a nation that welcomes new ideas and ways of doing things, will probably surfer set-backs if it place limits on one of the most used gateways (interest groups ) of its citizens to the Government. For example, if tomorrow the federal government decides that for national security reasons all phone and internet communications must be recorded. Imagine the impact this will have on U.S Tech companies; people will drastically reduce the rate they use phones and internet; stocks of companies like Google, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft etc. Will go down. And at the end of the day these Tech firms are denial the possibility of reaching the government through limitations on interest group.

All these wealthy groups and people would benefit from passing of a certain law. For example, big banks and central banks have an interest group, who uses congressmen to try to influence politicians so that they won’t make strict policy regarding banks systems and how they operate. Those rules may be affect banks or big business in generating fewer profits. Majority believe that it is a bad thing that interest groups and lobbyists are involved in legislating because their voices and ideas do not come directly from ordinary citizens. Their interest to grow their business and wealth may not benefit the general ordinary citizens of United States. The big business and wealthy groups may try to influence a bill to be passed for their interest and not for the interest of the general public. Nevertheless, Congressmen may listen to the big central banks because they have money to play around with. This includes donating to Congress campaigns to be

Both sides of the topic have gripping reasons why they feel the way they do. The supporters believe that lobbying is acceptable and contributes to a healthy democracy. In this light, lobbyists are simply seeking power within governmental and public affairs. In the United States our political system is based on power, authority, and legitimacy. One of our nation’s values is the fact that people can and should try to influence our political system; individuals have the power to bring attention to important issues, matters of public concern, and current problems. Supports argue that lobbying cannot contribute to the demise of American democracy. All these factors contribute to what is our political system and lobbyists are arguably doing their best to advocate for the people, even if huge sums of money are involved.

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.

In this essay I will compare and contrast the different legislative agendas of various interest groups involved with the Texas Government. An interest group (also called an advocacy group, lobbying group, pressure group, or special interest) is a collection of members that are determined to encourage or prevent changes in public policy without trying to be elected. The essay will discuss the four kinds of interest groups, trade, professional, single and public, as well as provide one detailed example of each type. It includes examples from the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers, Texas AFT, MADD and TexPIRG interest groups, which are just a few of the many groups in existence out, but it provides an idea of what different types of

Gaurav Sharma Professor Sherry Sharifian Texas Government 2306 SLO#3 April 24, 2017 Local Control in Texas In Texas, there are very many functional Interest groups and lobbyists that operate effectively influencing the policy-making processes. The Interest groups and lobbyists are in close association with policy-makers whereby they act as negotiators of democracy to the citizens who cannot reach the legislatures (Texas Vox: 1). This has impacted local control in Texas greatly. However, the nature of laws that have been passed recently in Texas shows that the policy-makers are diverging from interest from the citizens and favoring individual groups and companies. The following essay will address the impact depicted by Interest groups and lobbyists

I feel that money is an important factor to lobbyist whose connection with people at the top is crucial. Representative Lloyd Doggett agrees that in most cases, “All the lobbying is focused on a handful of people at the top”(Wayne, NYT, 10/01/01). It seems to me that major corporations have an easier time

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.

People are important for the success of democracy. After electing their representatives, some individuals wish to be more involved in legislative decisions that affect them, so they take to lobbying and joining interest groups. This often provides them with an atmosphere of individuals who think like they do, while also allowing them to play more of a role than just voting for a few people to represent them. Lobbying and interest groups also allow for issues to be brought to the attention of the legislature and provide a way for these groups to talk to the legislators, whether it is over dinner or at a concert. By voicing their opinions and placing pressures on the legislation, these groups have become successful in fighting for their passions and their views on important

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