Interest Groups Research Paper

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Melissa A. Ford Professor Willbanks TX POLS 2306-061 October 2, 2015 Chapter 6- Short Assignment According to Jeffrey Berry from the ‘Interest Group Society,’ “an interest group is an organized body of individuals who share some goals and who try to influence public policy.” (2) In order to influence policies, interest groups show their support for the policies that are currently active, back the campaigns of legislators and help make policies by creating certain ideas. The political system in the United States is engineered in such a way that it supports the existence of interest groups. This is due to the separation of powers, which makes political parties and the branches in a government relatively weak. (4) Another characteristic which encourages the emergence of interest groups is federalism, the system where the national and state governments share and distribute the power in a country. Interest groups are not about having a common goal, but about acting in a group to do something regarding the goal and actively attempting to receive help and attention from the government. There are specific features in interest groups. Among many, these groups must have members, the capacity to raise money, must be credible and informed about memberships. (1) They are responsible for placing people who have similar…show more content…
The main difference is that public groups concern themselves with issues which affect the general public while private ones are made to solve issues that directly affect the members in a group. Texas is a state which is known for having very influential and powerful interest groups. The groups that have more members and money tend to have more power and therefore better chances of achieving their goals related to policy-making. In order to do so, interest groups sometimes have lobbyists. Lobbyists are people who attempt to influence the decisions of those who work for the government for the advantage of the

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