The Benefits Of Interest Groups

Interest groups have been and are still an essential part of American politics. Without them we wouldn’t have had many of the improvements that Americans have seen in quality of life, work, and pay. Although these groups are sometimes difficult to understand, in whom they benefit or what their interests really represent. An interest group, also known as a pressure group, “is a collection of people who share certain views on public matters and work to shape public policy to their benefit” (McClenaghan 242).
These groups put pressure on public officials to influence public policy, and come with many different titles such as: leagues, associations, clubs, federations, unions, and committees to name a few. In general interest groups are good, for instance labor unions and issue-oriented groups. One of the largest labor unions in the United States is the AFL-CIO (the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations) with 10 million members today, as it was formed in 1886. The AFL-CIO is now comprised of more than 50 different unions for example the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, also the International Union of Automotive, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers.
Some of the larger
issue-oriented groups would be the NRA (National Rifle Association) and Planned Parenthood of which I am a member of neither but support both. They each support people and their rights and interests. Hundreds of other interest groups seek to improve the welfare of certain groups of people like Older Americans, Inc., and AARP are both very active in medical care for senior citizens and things such as pensions (McClenaghan 252). Other examples would be the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), and the National LGBT Task Force (The Task Force) which fight to support and improve the the rights of Colored People and those of the LGBT community. Along with many separate smaller groups supporting the same groups of people, perhaps trying to make or improve public policies on different specific issues.
Other types of interest groups are public-interest, and business groups.
Public-interest groups, rather than focusing on the narrow interests of its members, work for the broader purpose of the overall community called the “common good” (McClenaghan 252). While business groups operate to protect the interests of corporations, not to say they’re all bad, but they’re the ones with all the money so what they say goes. Groups with the most money can out-fund other things such as public health and safety causing them to be stopped and that is one downfall of interest groups. For instance, we all know that tobacco contains an addictive drug that causes cancer and diseases but “big tobacco” can lobby with congress so it can still be sold and taxed
highly.
George Washington warned us about the two-party political system. He nearly said “the more factions (interest groups) the better”. Everyone knows that we cannot fight for everyone’s interests with just one or two groups, even some public-interest groups don’t represent an entire community but “most” of it. Which is why there are so many thousand or maybe millions of interest groups and continue to be more, and that’s how interest groups help make democracy great. Every person can have a voice in what happens in parts of their government.