How Do Business Interest Groups Influence Politics

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, during the climax of the American Industrial Revolution, there was a small group of men who owned the major businesses and were leaders of their industries. They owned factories, railroads, banks, and even created company towns for the sole purpose of housing their workers. Due to the efforts of these few men, the U.S. economy became the envy of the world, and America became a leading world power. They provided the public with products that were in high demand for reasonable prices, and opened their markets to countries overseas. Although many people believe the early industrialists were Robber Barons who exploited the poor, these great men were truly Captains of Industry who created new ways of doing

Near the last decades of the 19th century, America’s industrial economy skyrocketed. As these industrial leaders like Carnegie and Rockefeller not only lead the expansion through their respective industries, but revolutionized businesses while crushing free-market competition in the process. As

The post-Civil War era was an era filled with political corruption, economic industrialization, and social urbanization largely due to an great surplus budget. With this being the case, the industrial capitalists, such as Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and others, were leaders in this societal boom. However, it would be appropriate to say that most industrial capitalist could be accurately characterized as “robber barons” for they often unethical, self-interested, and corrupt.

The United States has experienced fundamental changes that are dramatically detrimental to democracy. Voters’ ability to define political discourse has been so diminished that even decisive election results like Barack Obama’s in 2012 have little impact. That’s because powerful interests — freed to, in effect, buy elections, unhindered by downsized and diffused media that must rely on revenue from campaign ads — now set the rules of engagement. Lobbying involves working to bring pressure to bear on policy makers to gain favorable policy outcomes. In order to accomplish their goals, interest groups develop a strategy or plan of action and execute it through specific tactics. The particular strategies developed and the specific tactics used, however, vary widely both among and within political

As seen in Document C, in 1887, a labor leader illustrated the enormous amount of control large corporations had not just in the American economy, but also in American society as a whole, specifically in politics. The amount of control and influence these businesses had on politics was massive. As seen in Document D, Joseph Keppler’s political cartoon from 1889, shows the massive corruption in the political system to the degree that he stated that the U.S. Senate was no longer for the people, but now for the big business monopolies. The American people responded to the unrivaled influence of corporations in politics by forming political and economic organizations that were intended to restrain the monumental influence of big

Throughout the late 19th century, several men such as John Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, and Cornelius Vanderbilt built empires in railroad construction, coal mining, and the oil industry. These industrial leaders helped the economy flourish and created a leading industrial power in the world. After a while, critics began to question their power and objective. Critics began to call them “robber barons” for their selfish and corrupted techniques. While they took advantage of careless government regulation and no income tax, they generated huge business that benefited the country.

There has been a lot of fuss over big business influencing the government in the United States lately. Now there is no doubt that the business elite have some influence on politics. It can even be traced back to the early 1900’s, when “the People’s Party had disintegrated, but many writers and activists have continued to echo the Populists’ central thesis: that the U.S. democratic political system is in fact dominated by business elites” (). Although there are countless arguments to go against this idea, the questions still comes up today: Is government dominated by big business? Political Scientist G. William Domhoff believes that government is dominated by big business. More specifically, Domhoff believes that owners and top-level managers in income-producing properties are not only dominant power figures in the US, but they also have inordinate influence in the federal government (). Another political scientist however, Sheldon Kamieniecki, believes otherwise. He states that businesses do not really get involved in policies that affect them; and even when they do, their success rate at influencing policies is not consistent. In fact, he believes that other factions have more influence on government policies ().

People argue that political interest groups have corrupted American democracy when others believe it is not corrupted but essential for a cooperative government and democracy. In American politics some would argue that interest groups have corrupted American democracy and “, exert too much influence” (We

“Is America a Democracy?” This first question was posed by Professor Jennings at the start of his discussion on American corporations. The simple answer is no, we are a republic, a system where the people have control of the government by electing representative officials. Some people, including Professor Jennings, argue that incorporated businesses are now “running the show” instead of citizens. In the 2011 Gallup poll “Do the following have too much power?” sixty-seven percent of people said that corporations do while seventy-one percent agree that lobbyists have too much power. Professor Jennings then presented data on how corporations lobbying members of congress spent 2.6 billion in a year while the federal budget for congress is 2 billion. Business lobbying also outspends labor by thirty-four to one.

Some students don’t know the purpose of lobbying or what it is used for. Almost all of the candidates in the 2016 election took money from lobbyists (except for Trump, who is a billionaire himself). APLAC students will read this book and realize exactly how big companies influence politicians. Koch Industries was able to lobby successfully and it and is described thoroughly in the book. The Koch brothers failed with their Libertarian ideas, but they can still keep them alive by giving money to politicians to influence their decisions. This is shown in the book and will be intriguing to the

In this nation’s majority of experience, large corporations were not prevalent until the early 1900’s, and compared to present day their influence was not as huge as it is today. It is true, money has always been a large role in campaigning, but now it is a large deciding role, and quite possibly makes up most of the decision for

Many studies have demonstrated that this culture is alive and well, for example, “scholars have found that campaign contributions influenced votes on trade policy and banking regulations and that contributions from the banking sector were associated with a greater likelihood to vote for the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, which bailed out the largest U.S. banks,” (Craig an..). Other examples of this could be the NRA’s campaign contributions advancing an anti-gun control agenda, or even the Koch brothers and their attack on clean

Corporations rely upon the interest groups to sway the laws of the land in their favor. This can only be done by shaking hands and greasing palms of those on capitol hill. This means that it is very important that their interest and their wealth be protected. It is equally important for political figures to maintain political power and stay in office. Conversely, the wealthy will do all that they can to acquire and maintain their wealth. To that end, the wealthy tend to be intimately involved in the political process. Therefore, the wealthy often will donate to candidates or parties that support the same their interest. Views of the less fortunate and low income often conflict with the upper class. Likewise, the two groups are at opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to political views. This causes a wide disparity in political views. An example of this are the markedly different opinions on the black lives matter movement. Supporters of the black lives matter movement typically are lower income and because of this their views are often underrepresented and lack the political strategy due to lack of funding. Therefore, a potential candidate who is a strong supporter of the movement would have a lesser chance than a candidate who strongly focuses on agendas that support big business. Ultimately, candidates who support the views of the upper class have a larger advantage because they receive more

The majority of people are oblivious to the intergovernmental relations in how things go about. When it comes to election campaigns, the one with the majority of the money and the best name recognition wins, or has the best chance of upsetting the incumbent. This proves that self-interest plays a role in the connection of the polis and the market place being one in the same. The relations between the two play out so that it is mutually beneficial for the public policy makers and the leaders of the businesses in the market work together to increase each other’s profit in their separate day to day operations. If the leaders of the multi-billion dollar corporations or the policy makers do not comply with how they want the other to operate, both can take measures to harm one another. If the corporations act in a way the policy makers do not like, they can simply pass new rules and regulations to limit the businesses profit. If the public policy makers do not comply with the leaders of the market place, money can be funded into a competitors bid to challenge the non-complying incumbent for the policymaker’s office seat, which would make it difficult for them to seek

“All contributions by corporations to any political committee or for any political purpose should be forbidden by law”. This quote from Theodore Roosevelt illustrates how corporate money can be disastrous when entangled in elections. Unfortunately, the United States continues to grant large corporations the ability to donate to campaigns, leading to a corrupt campaign system. The Supreme Court decided in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission that companies and Super PAC’s can donate an unlimited amount of money to endorse candidates. The Citizens United ruling has caused increased political corruption in the United States by giving candidates the money they need to win an election while changing policies that would be beneficial to their corporate donors and not the American people.