StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...

Private interest groups and their role in Washington - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
What effect does the timing and targeting of money have on their effectiveness? How exactly might we go about measuring such influence, in both contributions and results?
It is an open secret…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER92.1% of users find it useful
Private interest groups and their role in Washington
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Private interest groups and their role in Washington"

Download file to see previous pages

Each law or amendment has a bunch of monetary transactions behind it. While a conventional market place sells commodities and services, the Congress sells legislative favors. It is a pitiable condition, but nevertheless true. Numerous empirical studies have been conducted on understanding the nature of influence of interest groups. As far as studies on interest groups’ ability to influence legislative voting, the results are mixed. It is fairly clear that cultural issues such as gay rights, abortion, school prayer, etc have minimal interference from interest groups.

The reason is obvious – they have no overt commercial bearing. For general socio-cultural topics “legislative voting is driven by partisanship, ideology, religious beliefs, and constituency opinion, with interest group influence occurring at the margins. Interest group influence on culture war issues is conditional, but may be more visible simply because support has been relatively low.” (Haider-Markel, 1999) Amid the generic fear over the influence of interest groups, a particular concern has risen over the notion that Political Action Committees (PACs) are buying the allegiance of politicians.

The flow of money into PAC’s reveals a blatant misuse of campaign financing. For example, the PAC leadership has been found to allow special interests and big business to sway key decisions. One can garner this from an analysis of receipts and expenditure incurred by PACs in the last decade. The spirit behind limits to campaign donation is to pre-empt any undue pressure from large donors. But this regulation is easily circumvented “by giving to a members personal campaign fund and to his or her leadership PAC”.

(Public Citizens Congress Watch, 2004) So, legal loopholes such as these have effectively made election campaigns sophisticated quid-pro-quo affairs. To cite an example, during the 1991-92 Congressional elections, the maximum personal campaign fund cap

...Download file to see next pages Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Private interest groups and their role in Washington Essay”, n.d.)
Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/social-science/1653809-private-interest-groups-and-their-role-in-washington
(Private Interest Groups and Their Role in Washington Essay)
https://studentshare.org/social-science/1653809-private-interest-groups-and-their-role-in-washington.
“Private Interest Groups and Their Role in Washington Essay”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/social-science/1653809-private-interest-groups-and-their-role-in-washington.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Private interest groups and their role in Washington

Formation of Groups of Interest

Despite the fact that interest groups and political parties are separate institutions in terms of the functions they perform, today they have formed joint associations.... This paper defines an interest group and gives examples, discusses the relationship between interest groups and political parties, and explains how interest groups try to influence the president and Congress as the two branches work together to make policy.... Bardes, Shelley, and Schmidt (2008) point out that “the major sectors that seek influence in washington, D....
8 Pages (2000 words) Essay

Organizing in a Virtual World

has played a phenomenal role in improving the quality of social networking sites and increasing the number of individuals who use these networks.... They allow users to create a profile online, make a list of users they share an interest and visit these connections made within the system (Boyd & Ellison, 2007).... This kept the use in a close-knit and private community....
8 Pages (2000 words) Essay

Competing Political Interests And Poverty Reduction

olitical interests and competitions play a major role in eliminating poverty from the nations.... Poverty is a universal term and poverty elimination is a universal motto.... The paper "Competing Political Interests And Poverty Reduction" discusses how governments and political parties try to bring progress to the society and stability to the economy by eliminating the curses like poverty....
7 Pages (1750 words) Essay

One of the Most Powerful Interest Groups in the US Capital Washington

The paper gives detailed information about several ethnic, economic, and cultural interest groups exist with a primary purpose of protecting and advancing the interests of another sovereign state even at the express cost of their own domestic country.... hellip; The predominant lobby group among the pro-Israel supporters is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which together with other powerful Israel friendly groups have been accused of adversely influencing US foreign policy 'dominating American foreign policy while disguised as a domestic lobby....
11 Pages (2750 words) Research Proposal

The Impact of Lobbying on Standard Setting in Accounting

Standard setting therefore implies a balancing act in terms of its effect among different interested individuals or groups.... , FASB is an independent, private and not-for-profit organization and recognized authoritative by the SEC (Financial Accounting Standards Board, n.... While the first is a government agency which implements laws enacted by congress and the second a private and non-profit organization, both must be independent....
9 Pages (2250 words) Essay

Internet and Mobile Phones

This is a survey on people's perception of privacy and private information in the use of new technology.... The internet and cell phones are becoming to get more computerized.... The essay "Internet and Mobile Phones" seeks to explore the forms of surveillance facilitated by mobile phones and the Internet and discuss issues of control over personal information and privacy in these contexts....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay

The Effect of Lobbying on Public Opinion

washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.... However, a role of lobbying is inherent and part of the American political process (Woodstock, 2002, p.... On the other hand, the legislator has gotten a good idea of how public opinion stands on certain issues as relayed to him or her by the lobbyist or advocacy groups.... Lobbyists and Public Opinion – while advocates argue that lobbyists in fact are reflective of public opinion, critics point out that lobbyists often represent a very narrow special interest....
2 Pages (500 words) Research Paper

Traditional View of Government and Public Interest

From the work "Traditional View of Government and Public interest", it is clear that public sector organizations are always acting in the public's interest.... It also does not make governments evil for distorting the meaning of public interest.... Self-interest is the prime driver in this dynamic.... his model of choice and competition is necessary to establish the grounds for validating the argument that the government is not solely operating in the interest of the public....
8 Pages (2000 words) Essay
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us