1. TODAY:
1. Review
2. American politics: winners and losers



2. REPRISE:
1. Interest groups: organizations that advance rather narrow interests of members
1. Exceptions: ideological groups
2. They do not seek to control government as a whole.
3. Being private associations, they are in practice and theory not accountable to the public
1. That is, the public does not judge their policies and accomplishments in elections.
2. Interest groups politics: competition among groups for material and symbolic "goods" and rewards.
1. Madison-style democracy: an extended republic of groups pursuing selfish interest leads to balance and compromise.
2. Openness of the system
3. Balance and narrow policy scope
4. Mobilization of resources and lobbying
3. Generalizations:
1. Most political scientists and journalists believe the interest group politics or "pluralism" describes the American political system.
1. Most of them also praise it for being approximately democratic.
2. Interest group politics mostly describes fights over branch and twig decisions and distributive policies.
1. Many trunk policies are made differently.
3. Existence and proliferation of interest groups comes at the expense of political parties.
4. They weaken democracy by hindering accountability and cripple political capacity by fragmenting power.



3. INTEREST GROUP POLITICS-WHO WINS:
1. Representation of the interest of their members.
2. Pluralism: groups are part of society's system of checks and balances.
3. They provide the political system with information and services.
1. Lobbying is an information service, not vote buying.
2. Access is the name of the game
4. Private government: many government programs are administered by private groups. Examples: job training, loans, housing, schools, jails.
1. A great deal of legislation is written by private groups.

1. INTEREST GROUP POLITICS-WHO LOSES:
1. Certain segments of society are not well represented by groups
1. Social and economic inequality disadvantage various segments of society.
2. Others are not represented, or are not represented effectively, by groups.
1. Public interest groups
2. Privatization and conflicts of interest
1. Examples: regulation and conflicts of interest
1. See the article on the web site "Delaware and Banking Laws."
2. Atomic energy, Dow Chemical
3. Abuse of power
1. Campaign spending and PACs.
1. A great source of information is the Federal Election Commission



2. NEXT TIME:
1. The presidency
2. Reading:
1. Start There Are No Children Here

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