Interest Groups and Public Policy
Discussion Overview
“Keep close to Nature’s heart… and break clear away, once in a while, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.”
–John Muir
Interest groups are non-profit, voluntary organizations that seek to affect public policy. Although there are a number of ways to classify interest groups, for the sake of simplicity we shall use this model:
- Business/Labor/Professional Interest Groups: organizations that want to affect financial, public policy that benefits their members.
- Examples: U.S. Chamber of Commerce, American Medical Association, and American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations
- Ideological Interest Groups: organizations that advocate public policy based on a set of beliefs.
- Example: American Civil Liberties Union
- Public Interest Groups: organizations that want to affect public policy that benefits not just the members but also society.
- Example: Sierra Club
- Single Issue Interest Groups: organizations that advocates one public policy concern.
- Examples: Human Rights Campaign
Many if not most prominent interest groups form political action committees (PACs). PACs are interest groups that raise funds in order to contribute money on a political candidate and/or office holder. PACs are limited on how much money they can contribute. As of the 2019-2020 election cycle PACs can give each candidate and/or office holder $5000 (CRP, 2019.)
More information about PACs can be found the Center for Responsible Politics’s website.
An example of an interest group is Boeing Corporation. Boeing Corporation is a business interest group. According to the Center for Responsible Politics, Boeing “regularly lobbies Congress to win military contracts and increase defense spending. Boeing is a major supporter of free trade, especially in Asia, where it has focused on selling more planes. The company also lobbies on environmental rules and transportation regulations, among other issues. Boeing is also a large recipient of government loan-guarantees, primarily coming from the Export-Import Bank of the United States.” (CRP, 2019) During the 2017-2018 election cycle the Boeing interest group contributed $3,189,452 to candidates or office holders. This Center for Responsible Politics’s website lists all the candidates and/or office holders that received contributions from the Boeing interest group. In addition, this Center for Responsible Politics’s website lists all of the congressional bills the Boeing interest group advocated a public policy interest.
Directions: Using the required, academic readings, and supplemental academic research, please address the following while adhering to the Discussion Board Rubric:
- Select a specific example of public policy from one of the following fields:
- Economic policy
- An example of economic policy is U.S. budget deficit spending.
- Education policy
- An example of education policy are the implementation of charter schools.
- Environmental policy
- An example of environmental policy is the Clean Air Act.
- Foreign policy
- An example of foreign policy is the interplay between civil liberties and the Patriot Act.
- Healthcare policy
- An example of healthcare policy is the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare)
- Welfare policy
- An example of welfare policy is Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).
- Economic policy
- Select an interest group that advocates public policy change within your example.
- Explain the interest group’s mission statement or policy of purpose.
- Explain the funding of the interest group.
- Evaluate the interest group’s public policy engagement.
- Provide an example of how this interest group affected public policy?
- Would you join and actively participate within this organization? Why or why not?
References:
Boundless. (n.d.). Boundless Political Science. Retrieved from https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-politicalscience/chapter/types-of-interest-groups/
Data on Campaign Finance, Super PACs, Industries, and Lobbying. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.opensecrets.org/
