Interest Groups A Benefit To Democracy

Pressure groups are formal (Insider) and informal (Outsider) associations whose goals are to further the interests of a specific section of the society to promote a particular cause by influencing the decisions of the government. An insider group is a pressure group which is very involved in the decision making of policies e.g. Cancer Research UK. An outsider group is a pressure who is not associated with decision making as they like to assert their independence and lack political clout e.g. Greenpeace. However there are some outsider groups that want to be affiliated and become an insider, but they have not yet been asked by the government e.g. Association of British Drivers. These groups are also known as “Aspiring Insiders”. These

I think the interest groups are the primary factor influencing the acts of government. I believe there should be tougher restrictions and more strict oversight of the interest group. The interest group has plenty of resources and is helping in influencing the people in higher ranks and higher positions to support the legislature. The groups have the right to know about the money they have funded are going on the right path or not. They should be strictly watched by the law to ensure there is no violence and should be done by the legislation of the United States. The violence may cause various problems and may harm the peace and harmony of the country. Although the money is funded privately, the use should be disclosed and should have more impact on public rather

Elected officials are voted into office with a mandate from the voters. These officials are there to implement policies that the public wants to be enacted. However, in addition to the marching orders, there are special interest groups that have quite a significant amount of influence on the those who make policies. These groups mission is “They attempt to impact what laws or policies the government passes for the new law to “look like” what they want it to be”. (Marion & Oliver, 2012)

On the other hand it includes some merits also. As everything has two sides the influence of the interest groups and lobbyist also have some pros and cons. Talking about pros, it use the democratic way where people express their freedom and also these groups can easily influence the policymakers as mentioned above. They are known to be providing positive solutions to any problem related to politics. On the other hand it includes some demerits also.

Interest Groups are extremely influential and effective when it comes to public policy. Interest Groups employ many techniques such as, lobbying, protests, rally’s, campaigns, and marches, also, Interest Groups will attempt to influence policies in their favor. If an Interest Groups is not powerful enough it will not be very influential, therefore Special Interest Groups need masses, because masses make up most of the population. In order, for the power of an Interest Group to increase, the Interest Group, must gain more members to collect more

After reading the 6th Chapter in Pal’s book, I believe that interest groups and advocacy politics are essential to ensure a healthy democracy. As stated by Pal on page 233, public interest groups “were motivated to challenge policy and the state through collective identity and shared values.” Through this we can see that it is essential to government to have public interests groups in order to meet the publics needs. Several examples of these types of groups/movements include the Civil, women’s, and lesbian/gay rights movements. Another example is that of climate change, an issue that has an impact on everyone, and through interest groups and advocacy politics, the public have the ability to present the issue to the government in an attempt

1.) When there is a case that a particular interest group has interest in, comes before the court, a group has the option to file an amicus curiae brief to better present the groups breakdown of the case. Now the impact that amicus curiae can have is that it brings policy perspective to the courts in a way that a party’s own individual brief may be unable to do so (White).

Money cannot buy votes. 1 No dollar amount is powerful enough to secure a win in the elections. Indeed, money is needed during election campaigns to showcase the plan and promises of a candidate and a political party. However, this does not imply that the more money you spend in campaigns, the more votes you get. According to Alex Samuels in his article, “Hey, Texplainer: 1 How much does it cost to run for office in Texas?”, sometimes some of the most expensive campaigns go unnoticed while sometimes a candidate entering a general election contest with better name recognition or the right party affiliation for that district doesn’t have to spend much money

I believe that interest groups are helpful to our political process. Interest groups have particular issues that they have faith in and do their best to advance them and cause bills/laws to be passed that support them. Interest groups have several valuable functions. They provide useful information to the government, represent members of the interest group in congress, provide political participation, educate the public, build agendas, and serve as a government watch dog. To me one of the most important functions of interest groups is that they advocate an interest for citizens who either dont have the knowledge, resources, or time to advocate what they want by themselves.

Interest groups are associations of individuals who shared knowledge, status, or common goals, who work together to influence what the government does. There are a few factors that can make an interest group more successful then others.

I believe that there are advantages to interest groups because it gives people a voice

According to Lenz & Holman, “public policy refers to governmental programs, rules, and courses of action” (2013). Public policy comes about through 6 stages: problem recognition, agenda setting, policy formulation, policy adoption, policy implementation, and policy evaluation (Lenz & Holman, 2013). Public interest groups have a great influence on formulating public policy, and implementing their personal agendas. They do this through lobbying. Lobbyist create networks with members of Congress, who then create public policy that benefits the interests of their group or organization.

Interest groups have many benefits to the average American citizen, minorities, businesses, corporate leaders, those in agriculture, and various other groups of people. One of the ways that interest groups are beneficial to a democracy, a government of the people, is that it brings people together over one common goal or issue that they believe needs accomplished or changed. Interest groups bring issues to the government, either nationally or locally, that may otherwise be looked over or not noticed. Additionally, data or information can be brought to these governing bodies that they would not have had the access to

Many people thing the system of having pressure groups complements a representative democracy because surely the right to join groups is a mark of a free society. Many people think minority voices are generally unheeded; pressure groups mean that these minorities can be heard more effectively an example of this is the pressure group Gay lib. Another positive thing about pressure groups of that they encourage political participation. In a country where the number of people who vote is going down, pressure groups allow people to become more politically aware especially those under the age of eighteen.

Interest groups are organized to create an influence in governmental policies. Interest groups abide by three structures: interest groups share common interests and goals, they are an organized structure, and they desire to influence public policy. Interest groups come in many different sizes and backgrounds but all are important to representatives and reelections. Interest groups typically release documents with representative “report cards” to indicate how well or not a representative is voting in Congress to that specific interest group’s standards.