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| any group, other than a political party, that is organized to influence the government. |
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| an attempt to influence public officials by speaking to them directly or by pressuring them through their constituents. |
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| a loose coalition of groups and organizations with common goals that are oriented towards using mass action to influence the government. |
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| a concern shared by a group of people on which they have not yet chosen to act collectively. |
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| a political activate conducted by groups whose principal organizational purpose is the pursuit of some nonpolitical goals. |
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| a benefit that a group can offer to potential members in exchange for participation, as a way of encouraging that involvement. |
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| a potential participant in a group for whom the cost of participating is very low an/or benefits of participating are very high. |
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| a leading group participant who is so committed to the group;s goals, and/or so skilled in the pursuit of that goal, that he or she does not need selective incentives. |
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| activities by lobbyists and interest group leaders that involve direct contact with policy makers. |
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| activities by interest group leaders that seek to mobilize constituents and others outside the policy making community contact or pressure policy makers. |
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| a view of the American political system that emphasizes the fact that a large number of diverse interest groups are involved in the political process, and that any given group may be influential on some occasions and not on others. |
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| The activities of interest groups and actual movements → these groupings of people are more organized in pressing their claims on the government. |
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| How are interest groups different from political parties? |
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Interest groups do not seek positions in government, but rather try to influence those who are in government
o Some interest groups do exist primarily to advocate policy goals to government officials, but they are only a small portion of active interest groups. |
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| What are public interest groups? |
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| Organizations that seek a collective good, the achievement of which will not selectively or materially benefit the membership or activists of the organizations. |
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| What is the job of social movement leaders? |
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| To coordinate the actions of disparate and sometimes competing organizations, all of which might agree on large philosophical goals, and work toward common policy goals. |
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| What are the characteristics of a social movement? |
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• Social movements typically arise out of groups of people who feel excluded themselves.
• Social movements are leftist in orientation.
• Social movements tend to use strategies and tactics outside the mainstream. |
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| Someone who generally opposes inequalities of class, wealth, and status in society, and advocates redistributing wealth to the poor and increasing the representation of marginalized and disadvantaged. |
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| How can a social movement achieve success? |
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A movement can succeed in mobilization, by encouraging people to participate, by raising the profile of a cause, and by placing a specific set of policy changes on the agenda.
o Groups are more likely to succeed in organizing on belief of shared political interests if they exist primarily for reasons other than to influence politics. |
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| How can interest groups that center around political advocacy be successful? |
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| Those organizations are more likely to organize successfully if they have figured out a systematic method for overcoming people’s incentives to free ride off of others. |
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| What is the coordination problem that interest groups face and how can they overcome it? |
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Different people or different groups might have different views of the best ways to coordinate.
Ways to overcome it:
- A common message that can be delivered to government representatives from a variety of sources.
- Organizing action to focus lobbying on the same key people in the government. |
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| What do the critics of Robert Dahl's pluralist theory believe? |
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| Dahl missed the underlying bias in favor of the interests of the wealthy. |
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| How are interest groups useful to policy makers? |
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Definition
o Interest groups are vital sources of information for policy makers as they try to predict the consequences of policy changes.
• They can help write, amend, and lobby other members on behalf of a particular bill. |
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| How do interest groups influence the courts? |
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| Interest groups advocate for or against the confirmation of nominees for federal judgeships based on how they believe those nominees would rule on questions important to them, they can file an amicus curiae. |
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| What explains the success or failure of a social movement? |
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The failure of the movement’s potential leaders to overcome people’s incentives to free ride off of others.
Social movements succeed or fail depending on the existence of establish, organized groups that can be knit together to form a broader movement. Preexisting organizations have already overcome people's incentives to free ride. |
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