1. TODAY:
1. Disadvantages of interest group politics
1. Case study: the sugar bill



2. MONEY AND POLITICS AND GROUPS:
1. "Agents" of interest groups: lobbyists and PACs.
2. This brief film clip about the 1995 farm bill illustrates the downside of interest group politics.
1. Note that the issue cuts across party and ideology.
2. Note the overwhelming importance of constituency services
3. Note role of campaign spending and PACs.
4. Note the role of congressional committees.
5. Note the reference to "independent" expenditures.
6. Note, finally, that the sugar quotas represents a distributive policy.
1. Consumers pay higher prices for sugar and the industry's two major "players" win; but consumers do not lose something they already have. They just don't receive the break that they might have obtained had Congress not voted for the quotas.
2. The discretionary budget partially represents the sum of interest group activities like this.

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.
1. Segments of society differ in their ability to mobilize resources.
2. Success in interest group politics depends on "staying power": the ability to play the game year after year after year.
1. Others are not represented, or are not represented effectively, by groups.
1. Public interest groups
3. 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
4. Interest group politics partly explains why government has grown and why it seems so frustratingly difficulty to hold accountable.
5. Consequence for the public
1. Fragmentation of power
2. Loss of accountability.

1. NEXT TIME:
1. The presidency
2. Reading:
1. Squire and others, The Dynamics of Democracy, Chapter 10

Go to notes page

Go to Political Science 105 main page