Ch. 11 Interest Groups for A.P. Government

Amicus Curiae Briefs

Definition:Legal briefs submitted by a "friend of the court" for the purpose of raising additional points of view and presenting information not contained in the briefs of the formal parties. Significance:Purpose is to influence the courts decision.

Class Action Suits

Definition:Lawsuits permitting a small number of people to sue on behalf of all other people similarly situated. Significance:A few people represent for the whole.

Single-Issue Groups

Definition:Groups that have a narrow interest, tend to dislike compromise, and often draw membership from people new to politics. Significance:Want all support they can get.

Subgovernments

Definition:A network of groups within the American political system that exercise a great deal of control over specific policy areas. Significance:Gets into depth with certain situations and its policies.

Union Shop

Definition:A provision found in some collective bargaining agreements requiring all employees of a business to join the union within a short period, usually 30 days, and to remain members as a condition of employment. Significance:If they want to keep their job, they must join a union.

Right-To-Work Law

Definition:A state law forbidding requirements that workers must join a union to hold their jobs. Significance:Can have a job without it.

Hyperpluralist Theory

Definition:A theory of government and politics contending that groups are so strong that government is weakened. Significance:Not very well understood since its so contradicting.

Elite Theory

Definition:A theory of government and politics contending that societies are divided along class lines and that an upper-class elite will rule, regardless of the formal niceties of governmental organization. Significance: Not a popular theory to me since I am not part of the upper-class.

Pluralist Theory

Definition:A theory of government and politics emphasizing that politics is mainly a competition among groups, each one pressing for its own preferred policies. Significance:People choose the one they prefer by the policies they state.

Public Interest Lobbies

Definition:According to Jeffery Berry, organizations that seek "a collective good, the achievement of which will not selectively and materially benefit the membership of activities of the organization. Significance:Purpose is to receive that collective good.

Lobbying

Definition:According to Lester Milbrath, a "communication, by someone other than a citizen acting on his own behalf, directed to a governmental decisionmaker with the hope of influencing his decision." Significance:Being able to persuade someone in power.

Olson's Law of Large Groups

Definition:Advanced by Mancur Olson, a principle stating that "the larger the group, the further it will fall short of providing an optimal amount of a collective good." Significance:Since it becomes bigger, the more it has to give.

Potential Group

Definition:All the people who might be interest group members because they share some common interest. Significance:People getting along because of their beliefs.

Interest Group

Definition:An organization of people with shared policy goals entering the policy process at several points to try to achieve those goals. Significance: We as the people, come together to try to get the government involved in what we believe in, by making interest groups.

Electioneering

Definition:Direct group involvement in the electoral process. Significance:Helping one another become more involved in the government.

Selective Benefits

Definition:Goods (such as information publications, travel discounts, and group insurance rates) that a group can restrict to those who pay their annual dues. Significance:Some get more benefits then others because they pay.

Political Action Committees (PACs)

Definition:Political funding vehicles created by the 1974 campaign finance reforms. A corporation, union, or some other interest group can create one of these and register it with the Federal Election Commission, which will meticulously monitor its expenditures. Significance: Purpose is to raise money.

Collective Good

Definition:Something of value (money, a tax write-off, prestige, clean air, and so on) that cannot be withheld from a group member. Significance:No one can stop a group member from their right to have this.

Actual Group

Definition:The part of the potential group consisting of members who actually join. Significance:People who are completely part of the group.

Free-Rider Problem

Definition:The problem faced by interest groups when citizens can reap the benefits of interest group action without actually joining. Significance:Actual group members might have a problem with that if they actually joined and these potential group members did not have to join to get the benefits.