American Bar Association: Interest Groups

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Interest Group Resources

-Different groups bring different resources. Some have millions of members and others have fewer members like the American Bar Association. But these members are wealthy and have professional expertise. Other groups like Common Cause and Congress Watch have strong leadership and a membership committed to the organization goals.

-Size of Membership. There are large groups such as American Association of Retired Persons (36 million members) and AFL-CIO (9 million members). These groups demand attention mainly because of their size. Still, American unions gave examples of how the size might influence a group. Sometimesc they can be compromised because they lack unity of a group.
-If the membership of a group is divided …show more content…
Money is critical to interest group success. Money helps groups to organize internally and exercise influence externally.
-Businesses, interest groups and labour unions spend $275 million a month on lobbying the federal government. In 2011, interest groups spent $3.3 billion on lobbying: pharmaceuticals and health products($495 million), finance, insurance and real estate ($470 million), energy and natural resources ($386 million).

-Prestige and Expertise of Members. Some groups -business, labor and professional groups are in better positions than other groups- consumer, wilderness,civil rights groups to claim decisive or exclusive expertise. Most members of Congress and citizens feel that they have enough experience to have opinions on whether they need more national forests or stronger affirmative action laws.

-Organization and Leadership. Interest groups are either as unitary organizations or as federations.
-Common Cause, the NRA, NAACP, and NOW are unitary; members belong directly to the organization and there ia a single level of administrative structure (a national office or head-quarters). They are all directed from the national …show more content…
The American Petroleum Institute has a Washington staff of 400 and the National Rifle Association (NRA) has a Washington staff of over 460 persons.

Strategic Alliances. Some groups are able to leverage their own resources by forming strategic alliances.
-Consumer groups supplement their resources by coordinating their activities with civil rights groups and organized labor.
-The Christian Coalition seek an alliance with right to life groups and anti-tax groups.
-In 2007, President George W.Bush, most Democrats, the Catholic Church, the United States Chamber of Commerce and many others lined up in favor of comprehensive immigration reform. On the other side were most Republicans, conservative groups like the Eagle Forum, the Heritage Foundation, and anti-immigrant groups led by Numbers USA. The opponents blocked comprehensive immigration reform but both sides stored ammunition for a new battle in 2009.

PRO & CON
“Interested” Money in American Politics

-Should the wealthy and powerful be able to use their money to influence politics and elections? The debate over this seems to put fair elections and free speech at odds with each
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