Interests

Policy Paradox The Art of Political Decision Making Trey Perez Heather Rawls DJ Reid GROUP D

“The squeaky wheel gets the grease”

• Passive  Active – How is this transition achieved?

• Interests – The sides in politics – Groups that have a stake in an issue or are affected by it.

Interests

The result of people experiencing or imagining effects and attempting to influence them.

– Effects are underlying, enduring consequences or actions that exist whether we know them or not, with interests being the active side of effects.

Concepts of “Interests” Real Interests?

-problems and needs people have

OR Political demands?

-what people ask for from government

Objective Interests

Objective interests  “Having an interest” 1. Effects that impinge on people, regardless of awareness.

2. The actions or policies that would serve people best, given the objective effects and consequences of those policies

Objective Interests cont.

3.

The things or policies that meet people’s essential human needs.

4. The things or policies a person would want if he or she had knowledge about all the alternatives and were free to choose 5. The things or policies that would increase the well-being of an entire social class (class interest)

Subjective Interests

Subjective  “Taking an interest” 1. Those phenomena, social arrangements, and policies that people perceive as affecting them 2. The effects of actions or policies

Political Awareness

“Correctly” identifying an objective as a subjective interest – Rationality-under-freedom – Basic human needs – Different attitudes and motivations

Rationality-Under Freedom

What a person would want or prefer if they had experienced all other alternatives and were free to choose.

Issues: – How do you get all the experiences necessary?

– Can we assume everyone would choose the same objectively?

– Is it possible for people in the same situation to choose differently?

Group Interest

Identifying your interests according to demographics – Occupation – Race – Religion – Gender – Political affiliation

Group Interest

• Issues – It is easier to see common problems of a group than to see a common solution – Groups still need a spokesperson or vanguard (representatives) • It is up to the interest groups to make individuals identify with them regardless of gender, race, class, family status, political party – But what about dual roles causing personal conflict?

Representation

The process by which interests are defined and activated in politics.

– Representatives portray an issue and show how it affects people – Persuade people that their portrait of the issue is the correct one – Stand in for people during debate and policy making

Paradox of Representation

• Representatives speak for the people, but in their own words. Therefore, the paradox is that the representative does not speak the

“actual”

words of their constituents.

• They do what they think is best for their constituents.

“The problem in explaining how effects are translated into interests is to explain

why

some effects are selected and emphasized and

how

they are represented both artistically and politically.”

Making Interests in the Polis: Mobilization

“The process by which effects and experiences are converted into organized efforts to bring about change”

Conservative View

• Most important problems lead to action.

• All potential problems have equal chance of stimulating political organization

But what makes certain issues the most important?

– People allocate their time to issues they care about most – Who decides importance?

Liberal View

• Objective needs and problems will naturally lead to action unless: – The process is somehow blocked – Covered by ignorance or other issues – Through information suppression

Does the structure of capitalism provide privileges for some interests over others?

Free-Rider Problem

Individuals have little or no incentive to join groups when they receive the benefit worked for by others (hence “free-ride”) – Seen as a major obstacle to interest mobilization – Not a major issue among small groups due to

the logic of collective action

Logic of Collective Action

Smallest or most individually oriented groups will organize —based on universal logic of human motivation – Doesn’t explain large organizations that offer few benefits • Environmental • Anti-nuclear groups • Pro-choice/life • Anti-war groups • Therefore, we realize that the logic of collective action is in reality the logic of markets .

Forces leading to Mobilization

1. People are socially influenced 2. Collective efforts follow the laws of passion 3. Perception of goods and bads

1. Social Influences

People are influenced by those around them such as: • Parents • Friends • Superiors • Lovers • Children • Bosses • Teachers • General cultural ideas

2. Law of Passion

“Collective action in politics is more like a sports competition than a bargain hung. One plays to win, and winning gives the game its direction and structure; but one plays even more just to play, and the great satisfactions come from being in the game.” • Therefore, the costs of collective action are its benefits, i.e. time and effort, “social capital”

3. Perception of goods and bads

• People are more apt to organize due to threatening issues or losses than potential gains. • Opportunity costs are politically significant – Opportunity costs are the imputed costs of not doing something, “missing an opportunity” • If a group can portray an issue that shows bads, losses, and costs it can harness actions for the collective good

Wilson’s Theory

• James Q. Wilson devised the view that there are two kinds of effects – good (benefits) and bad (costs) – and that the way good and bad effects are distributed will determine whether organizations will form and be active on an issue.

Wilson’s Theory

•

“Politically what matters is whether the losers or gainers on an issue are more concentrated than other losers or gainers on the same issue.”

Types of Political Contests

• Wilson uses the terms “benefits” and “costs” to establish good and bad effects of policy. • He also uses “concentrated” and “diffused” to distinguish the intensity of policy effects.

– Concentrated effects encourage organization and diffused effects inhibit organization

Types of Political Contests

1. Diffused Benefits vs. Diffused Costs

– Expand gradually

2

.

Concentrated Benefits vs. Diffused Costs

– Group that will gain the most will be more organized in their efforts, while the larger group losing the least will remain passive

Types of Political Contests

3. Diffused Benefits vs. Concentrated Costs

– Organized opposition will easily defeat the hard to organize potential gainers

4. Concentrated Benefits vs. Concentrated Costs

– Neither side of the issue is strong enough to dominate

Perception of Policy Issues

• A large part of politics consists in trying to influence how people perceive effects of policies and proposals.

– Issues change as they play out over time

National Health Insurance

• National health insurance first presented in beginning of the century and again in the late 1940’s – Supported by liberal reformers but opposed by the highly organized AMA • The AMA viewed the issue as a concentrated cost for the medical profession and diffused benefits for the general population, and thus mobilized against the plan.

Medicare and Medicaid

• Medicare and Medicaid was enacted in 1965. This issue looked more like concentrated benefits for labor unions and their allies, the elderly and poor, versus concentrated costs for physicians. • The AMA did not oppose this issue because they benefited as much or more than the recipients due to the new reimbursement policies.

Bill Clinton and the 1990’s

• PLAN: Universal health insurance benefits to expand access to healthcare for the uninsured.

• OPPONENTS: Employers, big pharma, and hospitals and medical providers

Special Interest Perceptions

• Employers did not want the cost to fall primarily on them • Pharmaceutical companies saw the insurance reform as a threat to their profits • Hospitals and medical providers did not want Big Government intruding in their affairs

The Reality

• In actuality, the plan would have reduced costs to employers in many ways • Universal insurance could only increase money available to purchase medical services

How Issues and Interests Define Each Other

• Are some types of interests universally stronger than others?

– Not all interests are virtuous and those that are tend to be weak interests – The role of government is to protect the weak virtuous interests, however democratic theories differ on what they identify as weak

Special Interest vs. Public Interest

• Special interests  • Public interests  strong weak • Underlying theory is that having a small selfish, less virtuous concern will dominate public interest. Therefore it is strategically significant to portray one’s interest as weak in order to garner support from bystander groups and the government.

Strategies for Broadening Interest Groups

1.

2.

3.

Disaggregate special interests -Show political actor is made from his/her constituents Transform a perceived narrow and concentrated interest to encompass the “everyman.” Transforming economic interests into social or short term interests into long-term and vice versa.

Conclusion

• The logic of collective action theory shows that individualistic interests will triumph over collective.

• Wilson’s distribution-of-effects theory shows that small minorities intensely affected by an issue will dominate large majorities moderately affected.