highschool-senior/apgov/Interest_Groups.md

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