Transcript Slide 1

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CHAPTER 7
Interest Groups and Political Parties
Introduction
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Group activity is particularly logical in a
democracy, where majorities and pluralities
rule.
 Politics is an arena for group conflict.
 Political parties in America perform many vital
functions.

Interest Groups in American Politics
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Interest groups are associations of people who hold
common views and work to influence what government
does.
These groups share the objective of looking out for their
members’ political interests, but differ in what those
interests are.
Interest groups are so dominant in America that many
see the American system as a pluralist democracy
designed to manage the interplay of group interests.
Interest groups are both praised for contributing to
democracy and condemned as a threat to the public
good.
Characteristics of Interest Groups
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
Size
Interest groups vary dramatically in size.
 Generally, the bigger the group, the more effective and
powerful it is.

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Membership
Groups may have formal or informal membership procedures.
 Generally, the stronger the bond between member and
group, the more effective the group will be.
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
Organization
Generally, the stronger a group’s internal organization is, the
more success it will have in promoting its interests.
 Groups differ in whether they are democratic or autocratic.

Characteristics of Interest Groups
(continued)
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
Ties to Politics
 Interest
groups may be essentially nonpolitical (a
bowling league), solely political (a political action
committee), or have a mixture of political and
nonpolitical activities (Roman Catholic church, National
Rifle Association).

Agreement with Societal Consensus
 Reactionary
groups are far to the right.
 Radical groups are far to the left.
 Groups that stay within the American mainstream tend
to be more effective.
What Interest Groups Do
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
Influencing Opinion
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The major channel used by interest groups to create public
support is the mass media.
Recently, interest groups have begun using direct mail to get
support.
Involvement in the Electoral Process: PACs
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Political action committees (PACs) channel money from interest
group members to sympathetic political candidates.
Most PACs are multi-candidate committees and formally
independent of the candidates they support.
The Federal Election Act of 1974 put limits on the amount of
money individuals and groups can contribute to campaigns,
making group contributions the more attractive option. This led
to the proliferation of PACs.
The Proliferation of PACS,
1974-2010
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The number of
political action
committees has
soared since the
post-Watergate
campaign
reforms made
them the
preferred
vehicle for
channeling
money from
interest group
members to
political
candidates.
What Interest Groups Do (continued)
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

PACs have become a controversial issue in American politics.
Involvement in the Legislative Process: Lobbying

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Lobbying is the attempt to influence legislation in Congress.
Lobbyists provide information, advice, and testimony to congress.
Lobbyists are highly paid, respected, and influential.
Involvement in the Administrative and Regulatory process
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When group interests appear to be threatened, groups meet with
agency officials and ask legislators sympathetic to the “true
intent” of the legislation to intercede with erring bureaucrats.
What Interest Groups Do (continued)
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The close ties between interest groups, administrators, and
legislators is referred to as the “iron triangle.”
 The close ties between interest groups, administrators, and
legislators is referred to as the “iron triangle.”


Involvement in the Judicial Process

Interest groups can do the following:
 Affect
the selection of judges
 File class action suits
 Encourage individuals to take legal action
 File amicus curiae briefs
Major Interest Groups
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
Economic Groups
Business advances its interests through groups that
represent commerce, corporations, and various
professions.
 Labor is primarily represented through unions.
 The AFL-CIO is an umbrella organization of unions.
 Labor union influence on the Democratic Party is
diminishing.
 Non-union workers lack organization and influence.
 The farm lobby is no longer as influential as it once was,
but it still can’t be ignored.
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Major Interest Groups (continued)
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
Social Groups
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Gender based – Women comprise one of the largest
potential interest groups in the United States.
NOW is a group that presses for economic and political
equality for women
 The women’s movement is closely tied to politics.
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Race based –Tthe most prominent biologically based
interest group in the United States is the African American
population.
African Americans have pursued their interests politically,
working predominantly through the Democratic Party.
 The NAACP is the most visible, official African American interest
group.
 African Americans have increased their number of registered
voters and elective office holders.
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Types of Major Interest Groups
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The table
includes only a
few of the
thousands of
groups that
exist. In
addition, note
that a group
may be of
more than one
type. This
occurs when
economic
groups, for
example,
make
statements
about social
and
ideological
questions.
Female, African American, and Latino National and
State Legislators and Executives, 1975-2009
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The increasing numbers of women, African Americans, and Latinos elected to public offices,
such as the U.S. Senate and House and state legislatures and to state executive offices in
the last 30 years, demonstrates how the political process has opened up to members of
these groups.
Major Interest Groups (continued)
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
Religious groups
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Ideological groups
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Groups that pursue a broad, explicitly political, agenda almost exclusively
Single-Issue groups
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Religious groups, especially the Christian Right, have become active in
political issues, especially in regard to the recent abortion controversy.
Most religious groups do not employ registered lobbyists.
Single-issue groups, such as those comprising the right-to-life movement,
have narrow agendas and limited political goals.
Single-issue groups are often controversial, and some see them as a threat
to democracy because they usually refuse to compromise.
Public interest groups
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These groups represent broad notions of the public interest.
Examples include Ralph Nader (consumerism) and Common Cause.
Perspectives on Interest Groups
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
Interest groups as the foundation of democracy
 Interest
groups promote democracy through competition
and representation.
 Cross-cutting
cleavages stabilize group competition.
 Cross-cutting
cleavage is the overlapping of interest group
memberships that protects against polarization.
 Interest
 The
group elitism
structures of interest groups may be undemocratic.
 Big, powerful groups dominate small, weak ones.
Perspectives on Interest Groups
(continued)
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
Interest Groups Versus the Public Interest
 Interest
groups are criticized most when seen as
using politics to achieve selfish goals.
 Many people favor more regulation of interest
group activities.
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Interest group gridlock
 Too
many interest groups, refusing to compromise,
can result in interest group gridlock
The Idea of a Political Party
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
What Is a Political Party?
A
political party attempts to influence public policy
by placing its own members into government
positions.
 Interest groups and parties are different in that
interest groups do not run their own candidates for
office.
 They are similar in that they both have members who
share common political views or objectives, and may
engage in collective political activities.
What Do Parties Do?
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
Parties perform important political socialization
functions:
Providing a means for psychological identification with
the world of politics
 Helping to structure people’s perceptions of politics
 Educating and mobilizing people about politics
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Parties perform important electoral functions:
Bringing individuals with diverse political needs together
around a commonly supported candidate
 Simplifying the set of alternatives between which voters
must choose

What Do Parties Do? (continued)
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 Complementing
the legal process for choosing
public officials.
 Recruiting and training political leaders.
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Parties perform important governmental
functions:
 Giving
coherence to public policy
 Helping make government more responsive
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They are also a major source of political
stability.
Party Identification by Income
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Basic Characteristics of the American
Party System
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It’s a two-party system.
Plurality/majority elections encourage a two-party
system, as exemplified by the U.S.
 Alternatively, proportional representation—the awarding
of legislative seats in proportion to the percentage of
votes a party receives—encourages the growth of more
than two parties. This system is more common in other
countries, like France and Italy.
 Voter opinions tend to form clusters near the ideological
center. This often fosters two similar parties that vie for
the same voters.


Third parties do have a role.
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They have forced major parties to address new issues,
and they have influenced election results.
American Political
Parties Since 1789
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The chart indicates the years
during which parties either
ran presidential candidates or
held national conventions. The
life span for many political
parties can only be
approximated because
parties existed at the state or
local level before they ran
candidates in the presidential
elections and continued to
exist at local levels after they
ceased running presidential
candidates. For example, in
the year 2008, at least a
dozen parties ran a
candidate for president in one
or more states; but only six
candidates were on the ballot
in over half of the states: John
McCain (Republican), Barack
Obama (Democrat), Bob Barr
(Libertarian), Cynthia McKinny
(Green), Chuck Baldwin
(Constitution), and Ralph
Nader, who ran as an
Independent.
A Complex Party Structure
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
Parties and the Levels of Government: National,
State, and Local
Party structures parallels the federal system.
 However, the relationship between party levels is not
strictly hierarchical.
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Parties and Their Components: Formal, Electoral, and
Governmental
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Formal party organization: the people who work for the
party
 At
the national level, the party convention chooses the
presidential candidate, writes the platform, and designates the
national committee.
A Complex Party Structure
(continued)
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 Formerly,
state and local political machines used patronage and
the spoils system to augment their power.
 State and local party structures are similar to that of the national
parties.

A party psychologically and socially includes the people in the
electorate who support it.
 Party
identification is a psychological attachment to a party by a
citizen.
 A party’s coalition consists of the groups of people who support it.

The party in government consists of the people from that party
who hold public office.
 Parties
in the legislature organize committees and leaders.
 The executive party and judicial party are informal and less
visible.
Party Identification of the American
Electorate 1960-2010
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The Democratic
Party held a
substantial edge
in the party
identification
from the 1960s
into the 1970s;
however,
Republican
resurgence,
beginning in the
1980s, eroded
that edge.
How the American Party System
Developed
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
Introduction
 Although
not mentioned in the Constitution, parties do
have explicit legal status.
 Four specific realignments throughout history have
created five different party systems.

The First American Party System (1789-1824)
Federalists and Antifederalists
 Major
issues of this period:
 Should
government be centralized and elite? (Federalist) Or
decentralized and open? (Antifederalist)
How the American Party System
Developed
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Government
role in the economy
Industrialization vs. agriculture
 Major
parties:
Federalists,
dominant until about 1800
Antifederalists (Democratic Republicans), ascended
after 1800
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The Second American Party System (18241860) Democrats and Whigs
 Major
issues of this period:
National
bank and states’ rights
How the American Party System
Developed
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 Major
parties:
 Whigs
had a vision of a nation modernized by
government-backed commerce.
 Democrats had a vision of an agrarian democracy.
 By
the late 1820s, issues of national bank and
states’ rights split the Democratic Republican Party,
forming the Whig Party and the Democratic Party.
 Slavery (and soon the Civil War, as well) undid
Whig Party and Democratic Party alignments,
instead dividing both parties into northern and
southern branches.
How the American Party System
Developed
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
The Third American Party System (1860-1896)
Democrats and the new Republicans
 Major
issues of this period:
 Slavery
 Government as a promoter of commerce
 After the Civil War, the Republican Party established
itself as the party of business.
 Competition between the parties characterized this
party system and divided congressional and
presidential control.
How the American Party System
Developed
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
The Fourth American Party System (1896-1932)
Republican Ascendancy
 Major
issues of this period:
 Capitalist
 The
system allowed free reign
1893 depression sparked the free silver
movement, led by William Jennings Bryan, and pitted
the Democratic rural, poor, and workers against the
Republican urban, industrial, and elite.
 Except for the Wilson years, Republicans were
dominant until 1929.
How the American Party System
Developed
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
The Fifth American Party System (1932-1968)
Democratic Ascendancy
 Major
issues of this period:
 Social
welfare
 Government involvement in the economy
 FDR’s
reaction to the Great Depression issued in an era
of government responsibility—both for restoring and
maintaining economic prosperity, and ensuring the
people’s basic well being.
 The Democratic Party remained dominant from 19321968.
The State of the American Party
System: Decline or Resurgence?
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
Parties in Decline
 In
the 1970s and 1980s, both national and state
party organizations appeared to lose their
viability.
 At the same time, fewer people identified with a
specific party, and the existing coalitions were
coming apart.
 Through the 1970s and 1980s, party discipline
and coordination in government seemed to
deteriorate.
The Causes of Party Decline
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More jobs fell under the heading of “civil service” and patronage
became more difficult, making it harder for politicians to marshal
support.
The rise of the mass media eliminated the need for parties to act as
intermediaries between candidates and the public.
PACs and public financing of campaigns weakened the parties’ role
as fundraisers.
Personal campaign organizations have bypassed traditional party
machinery.
Single-issue interest groups upset the parties’ function of coalitionbuilding.
The rise of the public welfare system reduced citizens’ personal
obligation to the party for help in the past. (Formerly, faithful party
members might receive food, money, or shelter from neighborhood
party organizations.)
Declining party socialization has reduced people’s tendency to
identify with their parents’ political parties.
The Consequences of Party Decline
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
The following occur if parties decline too much:
 Citizens
aren’t socialized into politics.
 Electoral alternatives become confusing, creating
incoherent policy proposals.
 Interests are not integrated, resulting in fragmentation
and paralysis.
 Campaigns and elections become fragmented and
personalized.
 Power is not coordinated, resulting in few common
bonds of philosophy or loyalty.
 Government is not responsible, so accountability breaks
down.
Parties in Resurgence
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

A number of new studies found evidence of the parties in
resurgence.
Formal party organization
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The Party in the Electorate
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National party organizations use computerized systems for
polling, conducting direct mail campaigns, and raising
money—especially “soft money.”
The rejuvenation of party organization started with the
Republicans, while the Democrats are trying to catch up.
Party identification is slowly rising again.
A reformation of new party coalitions may be occurring.
The Party in Government


Congressional campaign committees are growing stronger.
However, party discipline has not improved.
Parties in Resurgence (continued)
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
Reasons for Party Resurgence
Parties have adapted to the changing political environment.
 Parties can still supply candidates with needed resources.


Consequences of Party Resurgence
Rejuvenated national party organizations may strengthen
state and local organizations.
 Strong party organizations may help revive the party in the
electorate and the party in the government.
 In a resurgent party system, technology will replace party
workers.

The Future of the American Party
System
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
The Prospects for Realignment
Some argue that Republican dominance at the presidential
level may be solidifying and expanding their dominance to
other levels.
 Others argue Republican dominance of the presidency may
end as major conservative issues fade.


The Future of Resurgence
Recent changes in the party system may mark a broad and
permanent change based on centralization, the importance
of the media, and the demand for campaign money.
 Parties have shown the ability to sufficiently adapt to
changing circumstances.
