Informative Essay: The Popular Kids
“The Popular Kids”
It’s hard to fathom how competently the United States of America has been able to develop as a country in all the years it has existed as a nation. The U.S. is held intact by a democracy that survives on the voices and idea’s of its people; the people being you and me. A supporting wall to the skyscraper that is our government are Special Interest Groups. SIG’s are created so that our rational selves can demand what we find is necessary to maintain, gain or change in our society, from small things such as entertainment/media to big things such as retirement plans. In the next life changing, emotion stirring paragraphs Special Interest Groups will be furthermore examined and exposed to show their true essence. All the information …show more content…
included in this work is from “American Government and Politics Today: The Essentials” by Barbara A. Bardes, Mack C. Shelley, Steefen W. Schmidt. Larry N. Gerston and Terry Christensen.
The American government is constantly writing and passing new laws and many times the roots of these new laws are planted by interest groups. An interest group begins when a group of people that have an idea or a belief that they wish to implement in their community, whether it be just in their local town or the whole country. Once the interest group is formed the main goal is to influence public policy and providing information to legislators. However interest groups are not political parties, they do not focus on getting certain politicians elected rather, they focus on gaining these officials support and confirmation that they’ll embrace the interest group's ideology. Interest groups mainly influence government policy through campaign contributions and helping members who are running for reelection in congress. Campaigns can be very expensive so only wealthy groups can contribute to policy with campaign support. Many times it’s the voices of oppressed groups that can’t develop to create or join an interest group that could benefit them.
It can be really hard to try to get people to care about anything government related but surprisingly many Americans these days are part of an interest group; if there are about 100,000 interest groups then one can imagine how many people are involved.
There is concept referred to as the “free rider problem” which exists because of the term “collective good” which means that everybody gains from a new law so it’s not necessary to be part of the process that makes the law possible. Incentives exist that could potentially convince people to join an interest group, there are specifically three incentives, a solidarity incentive, a material incentive, and a purposive incentive. The solidarity incentive could be the feeling of belonging to a group and the pleasure of associating which is one of the needs we have as humans; to feel that we belong. Second is the material incentive, when people do things we almost always expect something in return and interest groups do have something. It obviously depends which special group one refers to but one can gain a specific benefit from an interest group; whether its change, money or a right. The third incentive is the purposive incentive which is the feeling of taking action for example if one joins a interest group that is against abortion or gun possession, fighting these topics can make one feel fulfilled.
Interest groups focus on many different aspects of society, a few examples are economic interest groups and environmental interest groups. Some economic interest groups include business, agricultural, labor interest such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Farm Bureau, and the National Education
Committee.
Specific interest groups have different levels of power based on a few factors. Membership size is a huge factor to defining the power of an interest group, having a large number of members can create a strong financial base. The more financially privileged a group is the better chance it has to make a difference. Leadership is also an essential in an interest group, a great leader is needed to initiative tactical plans to advance the group. Lastly the motivation of a group is vital, everybody needs to authentically want to make a change.
Interest groups have specific strategies that they often use to pursue their goals. First, interest groups have to build relationships with legislators and public officials, these relationships have to be built on the idea that both sides are fully supporting each other. Groups provide information and assistance on specific topics because many times interest groups are the only ones who can gather reliable information about whatever topic. There are direct and indirect techniques interest groups use in order to gain supporters amongst government officials. A few example of a direct technique is lobbying, building alliances, and publicizing ratings of legislative behavior. A few examples of indirect techniques consist of implementing public pressure by publishing notices in newspapers or magazines also unconventional forms like marches and demonstrations.
I think that interest groups are beneficial for everybody however I feel that the system favors those groups whose goal lean toward positively affecting the wealthy. Therefore many voices are left unheard and the whole point of groups becomes pointless. For example oil companies who have millions of dollars are interest groups that support drilling and fracking. An environmental group from a small city could almost never take down companies with such wealth because it wouldn't benefit anybody on the wealthy side.
In conclusion, interest groups help shape our government and embrace our democratic build. They serve as a resource for people to initiate any change they want around them. It takes people from groups to convince officials that their ideas are vital to the election and provide information to destroy the ignorance of the topic. It’s a structure that has been pursued since the times our forefathers and now helps govern our society today.
It’s hard to fathom how competently the United States of America has been able to develop as a country in all the years it has existed as a nation. The U.S. is held intact by a democracy that survives on the voices and idea’s of its people; the people being you and me. A supporting wall to the skyscraper that is our government are Special Interest Groups. SIG’s are created so that our rational selves can demand what we find is necessary to maintain, gain or change in our society, from small things such as entertainment/media to big things such as retirement plans. In the next life changing, emotion stirring paragraphs Special Interest Groups will be furthermore examined and exposed to show their true essence. All the information …show more content…
included in this work is from “American Government and Politics Today: The Essentials” by Barbara A. Bardes, Mack C. Shelley, Steefen W. Schmidt. Larry N. Gerston and Terry Christensen.
The American government is constantly writing and passing new laws and many times the roots of these new laws are planted by interest groups. An interest group begins when a group of people that have an idea or a belief that they wish to implement in their community, whether it be just in their local town or the whole country. Once the interest group is formed the main goal is to influence public policy and providing information to legislators. However interest groups are not political parties, they do not focus on getting certain politicians elected rather, they focus on gaining these officials support and confirmation that they’ll embrace the interest group's ideology. Interest groups mainly influence government policy through campaign contributions and helping members who are running for reelection in congress. Campaigns can be very expensive so only wealthy groups can contribute to policy with campaign support. Many times it’s the voices of oppressed groups that can’t develop to create or join an interest group that could benefit them.
It can be really hard to try to get people to care about anything government related but surprisingly many Americans these days are part of an interest group; if there are about 100,000 interest groups then one can imagine how many people are involved.
There is concept referred to as the “free rider problem” which exists because of the term “collective good” which means that everybody gains from a new law so it’s not necessary to be part of the process that makes the law possible. Incentives exist that could potentially convince people to join an interest group, there are specifically three incentives, a solidarity incentive, a material incentive, and a purposive incentive. The solidarity incentive could be the feeling of belonging to a group and the pleasure of associating which is one of the needs we have as humans; to feel that we belong. Second is the material incentive, when people do things we almost always expect something in return and interest groups do have something. It obviously depends which special group one refers to but one can gain a specific benefit from an interest group; whether its change, money or a right. The third incentive is the purposive incentive which is the feeling of taking action for example if one joins a interest group that is against abortion or gun possession, fighting these topics can make one feel fulfilled.
Interest groups focus on many different aspects of society, a few examples are economic interest groups and environmental interest groups. Some economic interest groups include business, agricultural, labor interest such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Farm Bureau, and the National Education
Committee.
Specific interest groups have different levels of power based on a few factors. Membership size is a huge factor to defining the power of an interest group, having a large number of members can create a strong financial base. The more financially privileged a group is the better chance it has to make a difference. Leadership is also an essential in an interest group, a great leader is needed to initiative tactical plans to advance the group. Lastly the motivation of a group is vital, everybody needs to authentically want to make a change.
Interest groups have specific strategies that they often use to pursue their goals. First, interest groups have to build relationships with legislators and public officials, these relationships have to be built on the idea that both sides are fully supporting each other. Groups provide information and assistance on specific topics because many times interest groups are the only ones who can gather reliable information about whatever topic. There are direct and indirect techniques interest groups use in order to gain supporters amongst government officials. A few example of a direct technique is lobbying, building alliances, and publicizing ratings of legislative behavior. A few examples of indirect techniques consist of implementing public pressure by publishing notices in newspapers or magazines also unconventional forms like marches and demonstrations.
I think that interest groups are beneficial for everybody however I feel that the system favors those groups whose goal lean toward positively affecting the wealthy. Therefore many voices are left unheard and the whole point of groups becomes pointless. For example oil companies who have millions of dollars are interest groups that support drilling and fracking. An environmental group from a small city could almost never take down companies with such wealth because it wouldn't benefit anybody on the wealthy side.
In conclusion, interest groups help shape our government and embrace our democratic build. They serve as a resource for people to initiate any change they want around them. It takes people from groups to convince officials that their ideas are vital to the election and provide information to destroy the ignorance of the topic. It’s a structure that has been pursued since the times our forefathers and now helps govern our society today.