Interest Groups Fundamentals of Politics Interest Groups

Interest Groups Fundamentals of Politics

Interest Groups • An interest group is an organized association that aims to influence policies or actions of government. • Interest groups have a narrow issue focus; concerned with a specific cause (Antigeptil – against launching rockets on Baikonyr)or the interest of a particular group • Seldom have programmatic or ideological features

Interests Groups • Communal Groups – membership is based on birth rather than recruitment (tribes, castes and ethnic groups); based on shared heritage and loyalties • Institutional Groups – (Bureaucracy and the military) ; they are part of the machinery of government and have no independence or autonomy

Interest Groups • Associational Groups- formed by people who come together to pursue shared, but limited, goals. Groups as associations are characterized by voluntary action and the existence of common interest, aspirations and attitudes.

Interest Groups vary in terms of shapes, sizes and structures • Sectional and promotional groups Sectional groups advance and protect the interests of their members (trade unions, business corporations, trade associations); they represent a section of society - workers, employers, consumers, an ethnic and religious group, and so on.

Associational Groups • Promotional groups - to advance shared values, ideals or principles ( pro-life, prochoice lobbies on abortion, campaigns in favor of civil liberties or against sex and violence on television, defense of traditional or religious values, etc.

Interest Groups • Insider and outsider groups – this classification is based on status that these groups have to government and strategies they adopt to exert pressure • Insider groups have institutionalized access to government through consultation or representation on government bodies • Outsider groups – lack formal access to government

Models of Group politics • Pluralism - the idea that power is fragmented and dispersed ; decisions are made via the process of bargaining • Corporatism – is a theory that emphasizes the privileged position that some groups enjoy in relation to government enabling them to influence the formulation and implementation of public policy.

Interest Groups • The New Right The theory of public choice developed by Mancur Olson “The Logic of Collective Action” (1968). • People join groups only to secure ‘public goods’; the idea of free riding; thus there is no guarantee that the existence of a common interest will lead to the formation of an organization to advance or defend that interest. • Group politics (pluralism) may often empower small groups at the expense of large ones. A larger membership encourage free riding.

Pros of Interest Groups • Strengthen representation by articulating interests ignored by political parties • Promote debate and discussion creating a better educated electorate • Broaden the scope of political participation • They check government power • Maintain political stability by providing a comomunicaiton channel between people and government

Cons • They entrench political inequality by strengthening the voice of wealthy and privileged, those who have access to resources • They are socially and politically divisive • They exercise non-legitimate power • They tend to make the policy process closed and more secretive be exerting influence through negotiation and deals that are not subject to public scrutiny

Patterns of Group Politics • Factors determining group influence • The political culture • The institutional structure (fragmented/decentralized vs unitary and centralized) • The nature of the party system • The nature and style of public policy

Channels of access for interest groups to influence • • • The bureaucracy The assembly The courts Political parties The mass media Supranational bodies

Social Movements • Social Movement is a particular form of collective behavior in which the motive to act springs largely from the attitudes and aspirations of members, typically acting within a loose organizational framework.

Social Movements • New Social movements since the 1960 s • A social movement is a particular form of collective behavior in which the motive to act spring largely from the attitudes and aspirations of members. • New movements are concerned with postmaterial values – quality of life issues • New Social movements subscribed to common ideology – New Left

Social Movements • The New Left rejects conventional society (the system) as oppressive, commitment to personal autonomy, liberation, preference for decentralization and participatory democracy • It challenges social goals and defends personal fulfillment and self-expression

Social Movements • New movements have organizational structure based on decentralization and participatory decision-making • New style of activism – use of internet, mobile phones, etc