# Interst Groups Influencing Policy Making ## Pluralism The idea that a magnitude of views will ultimately find a consensus on some issues ## Lobbying applying pressure ot influence the government in order to get them to do something in the group's favor ## Big Idea: Multiple actors and institutions to produce and implement possible policies ## Free-Rider Problem lack of resources in smaller groups. ## Iron Triangle an illustration of the relationships between a congressional comittee, and agency, and the interest group. ## Issue Networks groups with a collective goal. Work together to support the solution to a specific issue ## Direct Lobbying directly trying to influence the legislators. writing op-eds, press releases, television, print advertizing. Calling directly: all forms of direct lobbying ## Lobbyists people who work on establishing relationships with legislators in order to help the person/group they are lobbying for ## Legislative Activity ??? does not exist ??? ## Think as a Political Scientist: Use the table below to answer the questions that follow 1. What conclusions can be made from the information presented in the table? it can be made out that men are more affected by smoking than women 2. What information would make the table more useful to lawmakers as they crafted the 2009 law? displaying the same information for all the idfferent categories. such as putting cornary heart disease in with those who actually get that who are not secondhand smoke people 3. What information might the tabacco industry want shown to defend their product? the amount of people who do not die from their products 4. How could this data have been presented in a different visual format to convey the information more clearly? showing bar charts that would show where the discrepancy of the death between the different people/demographics ## Social Media can influence the general populus which will influence the legilator ## Implementation ??? not in the text?! ## Electoral Activity ## Other Activity ## 501(c)(3)/501(c)(4) groups 501c3 churches, hospitals. tax deductions. can influence but are not allowed to lobby government officials or donate to campaigns 501c4 is allowed to spend on political things. but cant be more than half of expenditures ## Endorsement person's/company's expression of support that is public ## Grassroots lobying mobalizing large numbers of people in order to work on an issue ## Essential Question: What are the benefits and potential problems of interest-group influence on elections and policy making? 1. Benefits of interest groups- gets politics moveing as well as demonstrating some of the public's opinions 2. Drawbacks of interest groups- can influence too much of the government and typically allows the most resource people to have the most influence on the government