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Interest Interest Groups Interest Groups Interest groups are defined as organizations of people sharing a common interest or goal that seek to influence the making of public policy. Their goals and tactics reflect not only the interests of their members but also the size of groups, the incentives with which they attract their supporters, and the role of their professional staffs. The more cleavages there are in society, the greater variety of interests that will exist. Thus, the influence of the interest groups comes from the fact that they give to various types of people from different lines of income, occupation, race and so forth, representation and access to the government.
Also, where parties are strong, interest work through the parties; where parties are weak, interests operate directly on the government. Thus, it is the peoples position that partly influences the governments action. Where the public is unable to give its consent or not through voting, interests groups take care of the communication between the government and the governed. Interest groups represent Americans common belief that organized activity is an effective way to influence the national government, remote as that institution may seem (Wilson 240).
I believe that interest groups are the active agents of social movements. Then the organizations fight for the belief that they stand like the feminist movements of this century. Interest groups are very influential not only through the results of their actions, but just the mere fact that they bring up the controversial issues of a given period forces the government to act upon it. Otherwise, the public may turn against the government, seeing that it ignores the issues that the public does feel are important. Another way the groups exert their influence is through funding certain candidates for office. Though the congress law of financing campaigns in 1973 curtailed their activities and possibilities, they still can contribute to the candidate and organize other supporters.
After all, their main purpose is to supply credible information. Although it may be biased and presented in a persuasive manner, it is as factual as possible in order to convince either the potential voter or a legislator, who is deciding on whether a certain law should be passed. The interests groups are biased in themselves just by the mere fact that they represent only one side in the spectrum of an issue. Furthermore, the members of the interest groups are usually higher income, white collar, higher educated people, for those do posses a wider range of interests and they can allow themselves to spend time attending meetings. Thus, the organizations seem to represent only a limited group of people. However most of the major conflicts in American politics are ones witching the upper-middle-class and among politically active elites.
Perhaps, this could be remedied by government sponsored interest groups in the areas that cant afford to form such organizations. It may be useful to create polls on the current conflicts and see what are the stands that the people take on the issues, and then, create interest groups for the opinions that are not represented, so that all positions are equally represented.
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Research essay sample on Interest Groups Interest Groups Interest Groups Interest Government
