Interest group

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An interest group (also advocacy group, lobby group, pressure group or special interest group) is an organized collection of people who seek to influence political decisions and policy, without seeking election to public office. They are a component of a pluralist democracy.

Types of group

Sectional

Sectional groups represent the interests of their members. They include:

• business groups, such as the Confederation of British Industry;
• professional bodies, such as the British Medical Association; and
• trades unions.

Aside from Germany representing the interest of their members, these groups may have influence on broader issues and may be led by political ideology, such as socialism for the Transport and General Workers' Union in the United Kingdom.

Promotional

Promotional groups (also known as cause or attitude groups) seek to influence policy in a particular area, such as the environment (Greenpeace), gun laws (National Rifle Association) or the protection of birds (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the largest advocacy group in Europe). These tend to be aligned toward a political ideology or seek influence in other policy areas.

'Fire brigade'

'Fire brigade' groups lobby on a specific issue such as War in Iraq or the Poll Tax. They usually disband as soon as the issue has been resolved.

Influence

A group may have more influence if it has a large membership, adequate funding, reflects public opinion or is supported by the media. Trades unions also have the sanction of being able to strike and other groups can organize demonstrations. An insider group is one that has strong influence on policy and is actively consulted on legislation with good access to political decision makers. An outsider group lacks influence on policy and is given little or no access to politicians. The status of a group can change over time as political parties come into power. An example is the Child Poverty Action Group who were an outsider group in the UK under the Conservatives, but went on to have influence on policy when Labour returned to power in 1997.

Functions

The main function of interest groups is to provide information. They provide information to politicians, executive agencies, and to constituents. There are three types of information acquired by interest groups. They are the status and prospect of bills under active consideration; the electoral implications of legislators’ support or opposition to potential legislation; and the political, economic, social, and environmental consequences of policies. Aside from advocacy, interest groups are often engaged in service delivery of some kind, often to their members.

Benefits and incentives

The general theory is that individuals must be enticed with some type of benefit to join an interest group. The reason for this is that individuals do not need to be a member of a particular interest group to reap the benefits of that group. For instance, an interest group dedicated to improving farming standards will fight for the general goal of improving farming for every farmer, even those who are not members of that particular interest group. So there is no real incentive to join an interest group and pay dues if they will receive that benefit anyway. Interest groups must receive dues and contributions from its members in order to accomplish its agenda. While every individual in the world would benefit from a cleaner environment, that Environmental protection interest group does not, in turn, receive monetary help from every individual in the world.

Selective material benefits are benefits that are usually given in monetary benefits. For instance, if an interest group gives a material benefit to their member, they could give them travel discounts, free meals at certain restaurants, or free subscriptions to magazines, newspapers, or journals. Many trade and professional interest groups tend to give these types of benefits to their members. A selective solidary benefit is another type of benefit offered to members or preservative members of an interest group. These incentives involve benefits like "socializing congeniality, the sense of group membership and identification, the status resulting from membership, fun and conviviality, the maintenance of social distinctions, and so on.

An expressive incentive is another basic type of incentive or benefit offered to being a member of an interest group. People who join an interest group because of expressive benefits likely joined to express an ideological or moral value that they believe in. Some include free speech, civil rights, economic justice, or political equality. To obtain these types of benefits, members would simply pay dues, donate their time or money to get a feeling of satisfaction from expressing a political value. Also, it would not matter if the interest group achieved their goal, but these members would be able to say they helped out in the process of trying to obtain these goals, which is the expressive incentive that they got in the first place. The types of interest groups that rely on expressive benefits or incentives would be environmental groups and groups who claim to be lobbying for the public interest.

A solidary incentive is when the rewards for participation are socially derived and created out of the act of association. Examples of groups that use solidary incentives to retain group participation include the Boy and Girl Scouts, the Masons, as well as fraternities and sororities.

Interest groups around the world

USA

Interest groups in the USA can exert influence in the form of amicus curiae (friend of the court) briefs. By doing this, interest groups act as direct representatives or sponsors of litigation. Another way interest groups can participate in the court is by sending sponsors of litigation. Here, they act as a legal service to a certain party in a case. For instance, if a person believes their constitutional rights were violated and are suing in a court, then an interest group could argue on their behalf in front of the court, or provide the financial resources for the individual to obtain the legal resources. However, the most important thing an interest group can provide to a party in the court room is legal and policy expertise. The most common way to do this is for an interest group's legal staff to prepare a brief and lend advice to another group who will then argue on behalf of that interest group. As a result of the extreme legal expertise needed in these instances, the interest groups participating in writing briefs must have substantial knowledge of the social or economic point that they are arguing.

UK

References

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Last updated on Thursday March 13, 2008 at 09:19:38 PDT (GMT -0700)
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