CHAPTER SEVEN
I. Interest Groups in a Pluralist Society
A. Overview.
1. In 2003, the Congress overhauled the Medicare program, adding a
prescription drug benefit. That benefit was controversial.
2. Analysts estimated that the new law could increase drug company
revenues by 9 percent ($13 billion) because more people would buy
drugs under the new program.
3. However, the drug companies were opposed to the importation of drugs
from Canada, which are 75 percent cheaper in price.
4. In the first six months of 2003, the pharmaceutical industry spent $38
million to shape the legislation to their wishes. Since 2000, they have
spent $60 million in political donations.
5. The millions spent every year raise a basic question about democracy:
Do the people really rule, or do powerful groups with deep pockets full
of money control government policies and determine what laws get
passed?
6. Public opinion plays an important role, but is not the only influence.
Who, then, is really in charge?
B. Who governs?
1. The people, through political parties that select leaders elected by the
voters.
2. The “power elite,” a “power structure,” or an “establishment” really
rules.
a. In his 1950s book The Power Elite, sociologist C. Wright Mills
said that the few possessors of power, wealth, and celebrity
occupy the key positions in American society.
b. Richard Rovere calls this group the “American Establishment,”
a cadre of leaders of finance, business, professions, and the
universities, who hold power in the United States, regardless of
which administration is in the White House.
3. Robert A. Dahl, a political scientist studying power structures in New
Haven, Connecticut, concluded that instead of one set of omnipotent elites,
there were different elites for different issues.
a. Dahl saw decisions as being made in a “pluralist system.”
b. Critics of Dahl’s view have several complaints:
i. Those who wield power cannot always be identified by
examining key decisions.
ii. Powerful people can keep issues from even getting onto
the agenda.
4. Pluralism is a system in which many conflicting groups have access to
and compete for the ear of the decision makers.
a. It supposes that people are active in organizations to advance
their interests.
b. Sometimes people can be members of many organizations.
c. Minorities, the poor, and consumers tend to be underrepresented
or even left out in a pluralist system.
d. Even pluralism falls short of democracy, some argue, because it
is competition between groups of elites.
e. Elites exercise power both in and out of government circles.
C. Interest groups: a definition.
1. Defined as private groups that attempt to influence the government to
respond to the shared attitudes of their members.
a. When one group wins, another often loses.
b. David B. Truman points out that interest groups may make
“certain claims” on other groups in the society by acting through “the
institutions of government.”
2. James Madison warned of the “mischiefs of faction” in Federalist No.
10. He also recognized that reconciling the competing interests of
various groups was what legislation was all about.
3. Woodrow Wilson argued that government should act as a referee among
interest groups to protect the public.
4. Muckraking journalists like Lincoln Steffens exposed big business
barons. This developed the traditional view that these groups are evil
plotters against the common man. Today, though, major businesses
have well-paid lobbyists acting in their interest.
5. Many political scientists consider interest groups a normal and vital part
of the political process, providing many important inputs into the
political system.
6. These groups are different from political parties, which seek to
influence government by electing candidates.
7. Interest groups should not be confused with political parties.
D. Who belongs?
1. Alexis de Tocqueville noticed that in no nation in the world has “the
principle of association been more successfully used or applied to a
greater multitude of objects than in America.”
2. There are more than 100,000 clubs and organizations in America, yet
more than one-third of Americans are not involved in any organization.
Nearly half who do belong are affiliated with social, fraternal, or
church-connected organizations with little relation to politics.
3. One survey reported that only 31 percent of the population belonged
to groups that sometimes takes a stand on housing, better
government, school problems, or other social issues.
4. Over one-third of Americans belonging to no groups at all raises the
question about pluralist democracy.
E. How they operate.
1. In the early 1980s, the FTC proposed a set of rules on the purchase of
used cars, requiring that their major defects be made known to the
buyer.
2. The National Automobile Dealers Association mounted a lobbying
campaign to have Congress overturn the rules.
a. According to Ralph Nader’s Congress Watch, the group gave
members of Congress campaign contributions of $770,000 the
previous year.
b. Consumers lost when Congress voted to kill the rules.
c. Brewers tried to avoid national regulation of beer-distribution
practices, which artificially kept prices high. Big contributions
to senators exempted those practices from the federal rules, but
consumer activists joined with the states to defeat the
exemption.
F. Lobbying.
1. One of the most powerful techniques interest groups use is lobbying.
2. Lobbying is defined as communication with legislators or other
government officials to try to influence their decisions.
a. Lobbying dates back to the 1600s in England, and first came into
use in this country in Albany, New York. It was used in
Washington in the early 1830s.
3. Although the term “lobbyist” is negative and targeted in campaigns,
lobbying is not incompatible with democracy.
4. Lobbying is often applied to mean direct contact with lawmakers, and is
not confined to the legislative branch. The executive branch, regulatory
agencies, and the courts are also influenced by lobbyists.
5. Another effective technique is for lobbyists to form friendships with
staff members and bureaucrats so that they can present a personal
viewpoint.
6. The lobbyists’ influence is simple: they pay personal visits, attend
hearings, and form friendships with staffers. They also provide
carefully researched background materials.
7. President Truman said “We probably wouldn’t call these people
lobbyists. We would call them citizens appearing in the public interest.”
G. Money: the lobbyist’s tool.
1. In 1998, fifty lobbyists posed for a group photo, accompanied by an
article entitled, “Show Me the Money!” The phrase serves as a motto
for a most affluent group in Washington.
2. Michael Deaver, Reagan’s friend and deputy chief of staff, left the
White House and set up his own lobbying firm in Washington, D.C. in
1985.
a. Foreign governments, defense contractors, and others flocked to
hire his firm at fees ranging into the millions.
3. Federal law prohibits past government workers from appearing before
their former agencies to represent clients for a year after leaving
government service.
a. Deaver was convicted for violating this law and was fined
$100,000 and sentenced to three years’ probation.
4. In 2003, two top lobbying firms—Cassidy & Associates and Patton
Biggs—each earned more than $28 million in revenues.
5. In 1997, the tobacco industry reached a multi-billion dollar settlement.
Six months later, they spent $15.8 million to hired 186 lobbyists to
influence Congress.
6. The tobacco industry also spent $1.9 million to political party
committees and $587,000 to candidates in the hopes of modifying the
settlement.
7. In 1998, the Senate modified the settlement in ways the companies
opposed. The number of tobacco lobbyists increased. Later, the
industry and the states reached a new settlement.
8. A major milk lobby compromised the Nixon administration with
$100,000 in cash and a $2 million contribution to Nixon’s 1972
campaign.
a. The secretary of agriculture decided not to raise price supports,
and members of Congress were deluged with letters on the
issue. Nixon again met with dairy leaders and the secretary
reversed his decision.
b. The price increase to the dairy industry netted it $300 million.
9. Since 1962 federal statutes make bribing a member of Congress or
taking “anything of value” in exchange for a vote subject to a $20,000
fine and imprisonment of up to 15 years.
10. Instead of bribes, fund-raising dinners generate money for parties and
candidates.
11. Since so many members of Congress are lawyers (two-fifths in the
1995 House), interest groups can divert insurance, banking, and other
legal business to their firms.
12. Another technique involved offering campaign contributions and
helping a candidate raise funds. The American Medical Association’s
political arm, AMPAC, contributed almost $2.3 million to
congressional candidates in 1998.
13. The AFL-CIO’s Committee on Political Education gave Congressional
candidates $1.1 million in 1998.
14. When George W. Bush, a former oil businessman, began his 2000
presidential race, he received more than $1.42 million from oil and gas
companies. Democratic rival Al Gore received only $84,750 from the
same source.
15. The Center for Public Integrity found examples of large contributions
to Al Gore, including improvements to his official residence from Bell
Atlantic, Coca-Cola, Time Warner, and others.
16. Despite the money, most lobbyists contend that most of their work
consists of solid research and long hours of committee hearings.
H. Mass propaganda and grass-roots pressure.
1. Interest groups influence public opinion through mass-publicity
campaigns using television and print media.
2. With the help of public relations firms, an interest group can use all the
latest techniques of Madison Avenue.
3. The American Automobile Association (AAA) fought a bill that would
have permitted bigger trucks on American highways. A major
newspaper ad blitz began showing damage to highways convinced
Congress to abandon their trucking bill.
4. Lobbyists use grass-roots organizations to put pressure on Washington.
Lobbyists may ask Congressional constituents to write, fax, and e-mail
their legislators.
5. In 2000, Pat Robertson and other evangelicals helped when George W.
Bush sought the White House.
6. Liberal groups, such as MoveOn.org, also use grass-roots lobbying
techniques by using their websites to register members and raise
money. In 2002, MoveOn.org contributed $3.5 million to
congressional candidates.
7. Groups like the National Rifle Association (NRA) have successfully
used computerized mailing lists to help get contributions and letters to
members of the House and Senate.
8. The NRA has 3.5 million members and a $120 million dollar budget,
and contributed $1.6 million to Congressional candidates.
9. Letter-writing campaigns can still have an impact, despite the fact that
only 17 percent of the public writes letters to Congress.
10. With the Internet, it is easier for lobbyists to organize a grass-roots
organization by bombarding legislators with e-mail.
I. The Washington Lawyers: Access to the Powerful.
1. Members of prestigious Washington law firms are among the capital’s
most effective lobbyists because of their knowledge of the ropes, the
issues, and the people who make decisions.
2. In 1994, grunge band Pearl Jam, other bands, and consumer groups filed
a complaint alleging that Ticketmaster had a monopoly in ticket
pricing.
3. An antitrust investigation begun by the Justice Department was halted
when Ticketmaster hired five powerful lobbyist, public relations, and
law firms. Pearl Jam lost when the Department ended their
investigation.
4. The authors examine Clark Clifford as the quintessential Washington
lawyer.
J. Public interest groups.
1. These groups often are the major opposition to corporate lawyers and
lobbyists in influencing public policy.
2. They have used class action lawsuits, lobbied Congress via publicity,
and added new issues to the public agenda in the areas of
environmental issues, consumer protection, health, and minority rights.
3. Two of the biggest and best-known are Common Cause, and Ralph
Nader’s network of lobbyists, lawyers, and political analysts.
4. Nader’s groups include Public Citizen, the Critical Mass Energy
Project, the Health Research Group, the Center for Study of Responsive
Law, the Freedom of Information Clearinghouse, the Center for Auto
Safety, and the state-based Public Interest Research Groups.
5. All of these groups are involved in making reports, writing books, and
educating the public on public policy issues. The income from
contributions and these efforts helps to run the network of Nader
organizations.
6. In 2000, Nader ran as presidential candidate on the Green Party ticket.
Some argue that cost Al Gore the election.
7. In 2004, Nader announced he would run again as an independent.
K. Single issue groups.
1. These concentrate on one issue, often with devastating effect.
2. The authors chose the National Right to Life Committee (opposed to
abortion) and the National Rifle Association (opposed to gun control)
as examples of the impact these groups can have.
3. Sometimes, public opinion counters the most effective lobbying groups.
In 2000, President Clinton pushed for trigger locks to prevent children
from firing guns.
a. The NRA president, Charlton Heston, suggested that Clinton
was a liar.
b. The NRA’s public relations barrage proved ill-timed: A year
earlier, a dozen students and a teacher were shot to death at
Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado.
c. Smith & Wesson, in response to the Columbine shootings,
agreed to install trigger locks in order to end some lawsuits.
L. Political action committees (PACs).
1. PACs are sometimes independent, but are often political organizations
that are an arm of corporations, unions, or interest groups, organized for
general political goals and to contribute to candidates.
2. The Federal Election Campaign Act of 1974 permitted unions and
corporations to establish PACs to contribute $5,000 to candidates
a. The law was challenged in 1976 in Buckley v. Valeo. Most of the
law’s provisions were upheld, except for independent
expenditures, funds spent for or against candidates by
committees not connected to the candidate’s campaign.
b. The Court ruling opened the way for vastly increased
expenditures by PACs.
c. Even though contributions are still limited to $5,000, PAC
contributions totaled $220 million in 1998.
3. In 1978 the Supreme Court overturned a Massachusetts law prohibiting
corporations from spending money to influence public referenda, calling the law a
violation of the corporation’s First Amendment rights.
4. A Harvard study found other reasons for growth.
a. PACs pick up the slack for laws limiting individual
contributions.
b. Decline in the ability of political parties to raise funds has
helped make the PACs more important in fund-raising.
c. PAC contributions follow an “investment pattern,” aimed at
strengthening the group’s influence in Congress. In 1998,
Congress received 78 percent of all PAC contributions.
5. In 1974 there were 608 PACs; by 2000, that number had increased to
about 3,800.
M. Regulating interest groups.
1. The Federal Regulation of Lobbying Act of 1946 required individuals
or groups to register with the clerk of the House and the secretary of the
Senate if they solicit or collect anything of value “to be used principally
to aid . . . the passage or defeat of any legislation by the Congress of the
United States.”
2. In 1954, the Supreme Court limited the term “lobbyist” to those who
communicate directly with members of Congress, not to grass-roots
efforts.
3. According to a 1991 General Accounting Office report, only 3,700 of
the estimated 60,000 to 80,000 lobbyists active in Washington had
registered.
4. The 1946 law was ineffective in regulating lobbyists.
5. The Foreign Agents Registration Act exempted lawyers representing
foreign clients.
6. A new, more restrictive law was passed in 1995.
a. Lobbyists must report who their clients are, what agencies or
branches of Congress they lobbied, and how much they were
paid.
b. Lobbyists are defined as people who spend at least 20 percent
of their time at that activity.
c. Lawyers representing foreign clients are no longer exempt.
d. With several exceptions, senators may only accept gifts worth
less than $50.
e. Law does not apply to grass-roots lobbying.
N. Interest groups and the policy process.
1. There is a common public perception that interest groups are
undemocratic and work for narrow goals and against the general
welfare.
2. Some are that way. But others, like Common Cause and the Nader
groups, work for the common interest.
3. Interest groups compete for government’s attention, as do parties,
individuals, and the press.
4. Interest groups perform certain functions in the political system.
a. The kind of representation that interest groups provide
supplements the representation provided by Congress.
b. Interest groups permit the resolution of inter-group conflicts.
c. They can perform a watchdog function, sounding alarms when
government policies might hurt their membership.
d. They initiate new ideas. Lester Milbrath says “if we had no
lobby groups and lobbyists, we would probably have to invent
them.”
5. There are also criticisms of these groups.
a. Theodore Lowi questions the assumption that the tug and pull of
competing interest groups will produce policy decisions capable
of meeting the social and political needs of the nation.
b. He contends that interest group pluralism has resulted not in
“strong, positive government,” but “impotent government” that
can “neither plan nor achieve justice.”
c. E. E. Schattschneider observed: “The flaw in the pluralist
heaven is that the heavenly chorus sings with a strong upperclass accent.”
d. Interest groups are biased against minorities that have neither
the knowledge nor the money to organize and are in favor of
business organizations and other affluent groups.
e. Ordinary customers are not as represented as are manufacturers.
Compared to business groups, consumer organizations are fewer
in number. The reason: The interest of consumers is so general
as to not lend itself to an organized expression.
f. Organized interest groups do not represent all the people in their
group. For example, the American Medical Association has
293,000 members, but there are 650,000 physicians in the
United States.
6. Despite all of their flaws, interest groups do supplement formal
channels of representation and allow for the expression of public
opinion in an organized manner.
7. If American democracy is to become more responsive to the needs of its citizens, it
needs to hear from the lower echelons of voters not often represented by these groups