6-2: Different Types of Interest Groups

Public Interest and other Types of Groups: Identity Interest Groups

*Americans who share the same race, ethnicity, gender, or other characteristic often have important common interests.* Ex. The National Association for the Advancement of (NAACP) Colored People, The National Urban League was created *The campaigns for dignity and equality of Native Americans, Latinos, women, lesbians and gay men, Americans with disabilities, and many other groups have all resulted in important interest groups.* *Senior citizens* are numerous, are politically active, and have a great deal at stake in debates over certain programs, such as Social Security and Medicare. As a result, groups representing them, such as AARP, can be a potent political force.

Business Interest Groups: Trade Organizations

*An association formed by members of a particular industry, such as the oil industry or the trucking industry, to develop common standards and goals for the industry. Trade organizations, as interest groups, lobby government for legislation or regulations that specifically benefit their members.* important in seeking policies that assist members of Chamber of Commerce and NAM members. *support policies that benefit specific industries*

Public Interest and other Types of Groups: Consumer Interest Groups

*Groups organized for the protection of consumer rights* Ex. Consumers Union: -publishing Consumer Reports magazine -pushing for the removal of phosphates from detergents, lead from gasoline, and pesticides from food. -criticizes government agencies when they appear to act against consumer interests *Consumer groups have been organized in many cities as well. They deal with such problems as sub-standard housing, discrimination against minorities and women, discrimination in the granting of credit, and business inaction on consumer complaints.*

Public Interest and other Types of Groups: Single-Issue Interest Groups

*Numerous interest groups focus on a single issue.* Ex. Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) lobbies for stiffer penalties for drunk driving. The abortion debate has created various single-issue groups, such as the Right to Life organization (which opposes abortion) and NARAL Pro-Choice America (founded as the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws in 1969, when abortion was widely illegal). Other examples of single-issue groups are the NRA and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (a pro-Israel group).

Public Interest and other Types of Groups

*Public-Interest Group - An interest group formed for the purpose of working for the "public good." Examples are the American Civil Liberties Union and Common Cause.* Ex. American Civil Liberties Union and Common Cause

Business Interest Groups: Agricultural Interest Groups

*Three broad-based agricultural groups represent millions of American farmers: the American Farm Bureau Federation (Farm Bureau), the National Grange, and the National Farmers Union.* The Farm Bureau, representing more than 5.5 million families (a majority of whom are not actually farm families), is the largest and generally the most effective of the three. Founded in 1919, the Farm Bureau achieved one of its greatest early successes when it *helped to obtain government guarantees of "fair" prices during the Great Depression of the 1930s.* Producers of various specific farm commodities have formed their own organizations. *Interest groups representing farmers have been spectacularly successful in winning subsidies from the federal government. The government can restrict imports of a specific commodity. The restrictions raise the price of the product, which benefits growers at the expense of consumers.*

Labor and Professional Interest Groups: Public-Sector Unions

*do not have the right to strike over wages and working conditions. public-sector employees—as citizens—have the right to vote for their own bosses. As a result, elected officials are often reluctant to antagonize public-sector unions. One consequence of the influence of these unions is that government workers typically enjoy pension benefits that are substantially more generous than those received by equivalent employees in the private sector.*

Labor and Professional Interest Groups: The Decline of Unions: Reasons for Labor's Decline

1. the continuing fall in the proportion of the nation's workforce employed in such blue-collar activities as manufacturing and transportation. These sectors have always been among the most heavily unionized. 2. labor's decline, however, is the general political environment. *Forming and maintaining unions is more difficult in the United States than in most other industrial nations.* Among the world's wealthy democracies, the United States is one of the most politically conservative, at least on economic issues. Economic conservatives are traditionally hostile to labor unions. 3.many business owners in the United States do not accept unions as legitimate institutions and will make enormous efforts to ensure that their own businesses remain ununionized.

Labor and Professional Interest Groups: Union Goals

American unions press for policies to improve working conditions and ensure better pay for their members. Unions may compete for new members.

Public Interest and other Types of Groups: Ideological Interest Groups: Environmental Groups

Environmental groups have supported pollution controls, wilderness protection, and clean-air legislation. They have opposed strip mining, nuclear power plants, logging activities, chemical waste dumps, and many other potential environmental hazards. *Environmental interest groups range from traditional organizations, such as the National Wildlife Federation, to more radical groups, such as Greenpeace USA* In the past, environmental groups have been characterized as *single-interest groups*, not ideological organizations. *Issues such as climate change, however, have led many modern environmental groups to advocate sweeping changes to the entire economy. Groups with such broad agendas could be considered a type of ideological interest group.*

Public Interest and other Types of Groups: Ideological Interest Groups: Religious Groups

Many religious groups work on behalf of conservative social causes. Others take a strong interest in the well-being of those suffering from poverty.

Labor and Professional Interest Groups: Professional Interest Groups

Most professions that require advanced education or specialized training have organizations to protect and promote their interests. *These groups are concerned mainly with the standards of their professions, but they also work to influence government policy.* Major professional groups include the American Medical Association (AMA), representing physicians; the American Bar Association, representing lawyers; and the American Association for Justice, representing trial lawyers. Competing interests sometimes divide professional interest groups from one another.

Labor and Professional Interest Groups

The largest and most powerful labor interest group today is the *AFL-CIO (the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations)*

Public Interest and other Types of Groups: Ideological Interest Groups: Tea Party Movement

The highly decentralized *Tea Party movement*, which sprang into life in 2009, has been described as an ideological interest group. *The point is that interest groups, while they are often very concerned about who wins an election and may endorse candidates, do not themselves attempt to gain control of the machinery of government.* Most Tea Party leaders claim that *the movement is nonpartisan and that it contains not only Republicans but independents, libertarians, and even a few Democrats.* Still, some Tea Party groups have attempted to gain control of local Republican Party organizations. *It may be only a matter of terminology, but political scientists refer to groups that compete for control of a political party as factions, not interest groups.*

Labor and Professional Interest Groups: Differing State Laws

The impact of the political environment on labor's organizing ability can be easily seen by comparing rates of unionization in various states. One factor that depresses unionization rates in many states is the existence of so-called *right-to-work laws. These laws ban unions from collecting dues or other fees from workers whom they represent but who have not actually joined the union. Such laws create a significant free rider problem for unions. Twenty-four states have right-to-work laws.*

Business Interest Groups

Two umbrella organizations that *include small and large corporations and businesses are the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM).* In addition to representing more than 3 million individual businesses, *the Chamber has more than three thousand local, state, and regional affiliates.*

Public Interest and other Types of Groups: Government Interest Groups

When states experience budget shortfalls, these governments often lobby in Washington, D.C., for additional federal funds. The federal government has sometimes lobbied in individual states, too.

Business Interest Groups: How Business Interest Groups Support Both Parties

ensure that they will benefit regardless of who wins the elections campaign contributions are often made not to gain political favors but rather to avoid political disfavor.

Labor and Professional Interest Groups: The Decline of Unions

members of organized labor make up only 11.3 percent of the labor force—*defined as all of the people over the age of sixteen who are working or actively looking for jobs.*