Interest Groups and Lobbying

Review the following Sparknotes on interest groups and lobbyists.  

Sparknotes information on interest groups and lobbyists

Directions:  Use the spark notes to answer the following questions.  

1. Define the term interest group.
2. What are some of the different types of economic interest groups that exist in the US?  Give an example and explain it.
3. What are some of the different types of non-economic interest groups that exist in the US?  Give an example and explain it.
4. What are some of the strategies or tactics interest groups use to lobby influence public policy?
5. What do lobbyists do?
6. What does the “inside game” of lobbying refer to?  Give an example.
7. What does the “outside game” of lobbying refer to?  Give an example.
8. What is a PAC?  Explain what they do?
9. What are some of the Pros and Cons of interest groups?
10. Choose an interest group (it can be from the list below if you choose but it must be a currently active group.  Several on the list below are no longer active) and answer the questions that follow for your specific interest group/lobbyist.

Some Famous Current & Former Interest Groups/Lobbyists throughout history

• American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the American Israel lobby, which is described by the New York Times as the "most influential Lobby impacting US relations with Israel.
• British Medical Association, which formed at a meeting of 50 doctors in 1832 for the sharing of knowledge; its lobbying led to the Medical Act 1858 and the formation of the General Medical Council which has registered and regulated doctors in the UK to this date.
• Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, which has advocated for the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and unilateral nuclear disarmament in the UK since 1957, and whose logo is now an international peace symbol.
• Center for Auto Safety, an organization formed in 1970 which aims to give consumers a voice for auto safety and quality in the United States.
• Drug Policy Alliance, whose principal goal is to end the American "War on Drugs".
• Electronic Frontier Foundation, an international non-profit digital rights advocacy and legal organization based in the United States.
• Energy Lobby, an umbrella term for the representatives of large oil, gas, coal, and electric utilities corporations that attempt to influence governmental policy in the United States.
• Financial Services Roundtable, an organization representing the banking lobby.
• Greenpeace, an organization formed in 1970 as the Don't Make a Wave Committee to stop nuclear weapons testing in the United States.
• The Human Rights Campaign, an LGBT civil rights advocacy and lobbying organization seeking to advance the cause of LGBT rights in America.
• National Rifle Association, an organization that formed in New York in 1871 to protect the rights of gun-owners.
• Oxfam, an organization formed in 1942 in the UK as the 'Oxford Committee for Famine Relief'.
• Pennsylvania Abolition Society, which formed in Philadelphia in 1775 with a mission to abolish slavery in the United States.
• People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, an animal rights organization that focuses primarily on animal treatment on factory farms, in the clothing trade, in laboratories, and in the entertainment industry.
• Sierra Club, which formed in 1892 to help protect the Sierra Nevada.
• Stop the War Coalition, an organization against the War on Terrorism which included a march of between 750,000 and 2,000,000 people in London in 2003.[30]
• Suffragettes, which sought to gain voting rights for women through direct action and hunger strikes from 1865-1928 in the United Kingdom.
• Tories, which formed in 1678 to fight the British Exclusion Bill and developed into one of the first political parties, now known as the Conservative Party.
• Pro-Life Movement (support a ban on abortion)
• Pro-Choice Movement (support the right to an abortion)
• Tobacco Institute (support the tobacco industry)
• Action on Smoking and Health (oppose the tobacco industry)
• NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)
• AARP (American Association of Retired Persons)
• ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union)
• AFL (American Federation of Labor)
• The American Cancer Society
• The Better Business Bureau

*Questions over your specific interest group...

1. What is the name of your interest group?
2. Does your interest group go by an acronym?  If so what is it?
3. Who are they?
4. What do they want?
5. Where are their members located?
6. When was this lobby born?

*Finally, Develop an intelligent question to ask our guest speaker Lobbyist Justin McCaulley on Friday.  Post your question on edmodo and bring your computer with you to the presentation.