POL 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: New York State Bar Association, Advocacy Group, American Civil Liberties Union
2 May 2018
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POL 102
Lecture 16
Ch. 11 - Interest Groups
● Overview of Interest Groups
○ Organizations that try to shape policy go by many names:
■ Loyists
■ Vested iterests
■ Pressure group
■ “peial iterests
■ Priate groups
■ Puli groups
■ “ei-priate groups
■ PACs/“uperPACs
● Characteristics of Interest Groups
○ Multiple individuals
○ Shared attitudes towards policy
■ Making claims on others
● E.g. state or local government, Congress, SCOTUS, society, etc.
○ What do they want?
■ To change current policy
■ To protect the status quo
● Types of Interest Groups
○ Issue Oriented/Citizen Groups
■ e.g. ACLU
○ Economic/Professional Groups
■ e.g. New York State Bar Association
○ Foreign policy or aid groups
■ NGOs
● How To Tell Groups Apart
○ Group parameters
■ Who can join?
○ Resource strength
■ Do they have more money or more people?
■ More eers → ore poer → ore oey
○ Organization
■ How centralized is the group
○ Scope of Policy Goal
■ Public or private goods
● Issue/Citizen Groups
○ Open parameters
■ Voluntary/open membership
find more resources at oneclass.com
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○ Resource strength
■ Personnel
○ Organization
■ Bottom-up
○ Policy Goal
■ Public goods
● Economic/Professional Groups
○ Closed membership
■ Mandatory membership/professional gatekeepers
○ Resource strength
■ Money and policy expertise
○ Organization
■ Centralized
○ Policy goal
■ Private goods
● Public Policy
○ Keystone of study of IGs: public policy
○ Iforally, puli poliy: hat goeret does ad does’t do to address soial
problems
■ Act of government passing & implementing laws
■ Also act of government not passing and implementing laws
■ Inaction is also policy
● An Example
○ Voting age in the US: 18
○ Legal drinking age in the US: 21
○ Voting age in the UK: 18
○ Legal drinking age in the UK: 18
○ The decision to set off the cutoff at 18 or 21 is arbitrary.
● Minimum Drinking Age Act (1984)
○ Prohibition ends in 1933
■ State set their own legal drinking age
■ Many states pick 18
○ Study shows that states that had higher minimum drinking ages had lower fatalities
○ In 1984, we get the National Minimum Drinking Age Act
● Policy Changes
○ National Minimum Drinking Age Act = Public Policy
○ 50 years of national government inaction = Public Policy too
○ What changed?
■ Interest groups like MADD
● Which lobbied a lot
● Lobbying
○ The act of trying to influence policy
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Organizations that try to shape policy go by many names: (cid:862)lo(cid:271)(cid:271)yists(cid:863) (cid:862)vested i(cid:374)terests(cid:863) (cid:862)pressure group(cid:863) (cid:862) pe(cid:272)ial i(cid:374)terests(cid:863) (cid:862)pri(cid:448)ate groups(cid:863) (cid:862)pu(cid:271)li(cid:272) groups(cid:863) (cid:862) e(cid:373)i-pri(cid:448)ate groups(cid:863) (cid:862)pacs/ uperpacs(cid:863) E. g. state or local government, congress, scotus, society, etc. More (cid:373)e(cid:373)(cid:271)ers (cid:373)ore po(cid:449)er (cid:373)ore (cid:373)o(cid:374)ey. Keystone of study of igs: public policy. I(cid:374)for(cid:373)ally, pu(cid:271)li(cid:272) poli(cid:272)y: (cid:449)hat go(cid:448)er(cid:374)(cid:373)e(cid:374)t does a(cid:374)d does(cid:374)"t do to address so(cid:272)ial problems. Act of government passing & implementing laws. Also act of government not passing and implementing laws. Legal drinking age in the us: 21. Legal drinking age in the uk: 18. The decision to set off the cutoff at 18 or 21 is arbitrary. State set their own legal drinking age. Study shows that states that had higher minimum drinking ages had lower fatalities. In 1984, we get the national minimum drinking age act. National minimum drinking age act = public policy. 50 years of national government inaction = public policy too. The act of trying to influence policy.
