Is It A Democracy When Special Interest Groups Give Money To Candidates

Learning Objectives

Past the finish of this section, y'all will be able to:

• Depict how involvement groups influence the government through elections
• Explain how involvement groups influence the regime through the governance processes

Many people criticize the huge amounts of money spent in politics. Some fence that interest groups take likewise much influence on who wins elections, while others suggest influence is also problematic when interests try to sway politicians in office. In that location is little doubt that interest groups oftentimes try to achieve their objectives by influencing elections and politicians, but discovering whether they take succeeded in changing minds is actually challenging considering they tend to support those who already agree with them.

Influence in Elections

Interest groups support candidates who are sympathetic to their views in hopes of gaining admission to them once they are in part.^[1] For example, an organization similar the NRA will back candidates who back up Second Amendment rights. Both the NRA and the Brady Entrada to Forbid Gun Violence (an interest grouping that favors background checks for firearm purchases) have grading systems that evaluate candidates and states based on their records of supporting these organizations.^[two]

To garner the support of the NRA, candidates must receive an A+ rating for the group. In much the same mode, Americans for Democratic Action, a liberal interest grouping, and the American Conservative Matrimony, a bourgeois involvement group, both charge per unit politicians based on their voting records on bug these organizations view as of import.^[3] These ratings, and those of many other groups, are useful for interests and the public in deciding which candidates to support and which to oppose. Incumbents have electoral advantages in terms of proper name recognition, experience, and fundraising abilities, and they often receive support because interest groups want access to the candidate who is likely to win. Some interest groups will offering back up to the challenger, especially if the challenger ameliorate aligns with the involvement's views or the incumbent is vulnerable. Sometimes, involvement groups even hedge their bets and give to both major party candidates for a particular role in the hopes of having access regardless of who wins.

Some interests groups grade political activeness committees (PACs), groups that collect funds from donors and distribute them to candidates who support their issues. As the chart below makes apparent, many large corporations like Honeywell International, AT&T, and Lockheed Martin form PACs to distribute money to candidates.^[iv] Other PACs are either politically or ideologically oriented. For example, the MoveOn.org PAC is a progressive group that formed following the impeachment trial of President Pecker Clinton, whereas GOPAC is a Republican PAC that promotes state and local candidates of that party. PACs are limited in the amount of coin that they can contribute to individual candidates or to national party organizations; they tin contribute no more than than $v,000 per candidate per election and no more than $15,000 a year to a national political party. Individual contributions to PACs are besides limited to $5,000 a year.

Corporations and associations spend large amounts of money on elections via affiliated PACs. This chart reveals the amount donated to Democratic (blue) and Republican (red) candidates by the elevation ten PACs during the about recent election cycle.

PACs through which corporations and unions tin spend nearly unlimited amounts of money on behalf of political candidates are called super PACs.^[5] As a result of a 2010 Supreme Court decision, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission , there is no limit to how much money unions or corporations can donate to super PACs. Dissimilar PACs, yet, super PACs cannot contribute money directly to individual candidates. If the 2014 elections were whatever indication, super PACs volition continue to spend large sums of money in an endeavor to influence future election results.

Influencing Governmental Policy

Interest groups support candidates in lodge to have access to lawmakers once they are in office. Lawmakers, for their part, lack the time and resources to pursue every issue; they are policy generalists. Therefore, they (and their staff members) rely on involvement groups and lobbyists to provide them with data about the technical details of policy proposals, too as about fellow lawmakers' stands and constituents' perceptions. These voting cues give lawmakers an indication of how to vote on issues, especially those with which they are unfamiliar. Only lawmakers also rely on lobbyists for information well-nigh ideas they can champion and that will benefit them when they run for reelection.^{[half dozen]}

Interest groups likely cannot target all 535 lawmakers in both the House and the Senate, nor would they wish to do so. At that place is little reason for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence to foyer members of Congress who vehemently oppose whatsoever restrictions on gun access. Instead, the organization will often contact lawmakers who are amenable to some restrictions on access to firearms. Thus, interest groups kickoff target lawmakers they think will consider introducing or sponsoring legislation.

Second, they target members of relevant committees.^[7] If a company that makes weapons systems wants to influence a defense bill, information technology will lobby members of the Armed Services Committees in the House and the Senate or the House and Senate appropriations committees if the bill requires new funding. Many members of these committees represent congressional districts with military bases, and then they often sponsor or champion bills that allow them to promote policies pop with their districts or state. Involvement groups attempt to use this to their reward. But they too behave strategic targeting considering legislatures part by respectfully considering beau lawmakers' positions. Since lawmakers cannot possess expertise on every result, they defer to their trusted colleagues on issues with which they are unfamiliar. Then targeting commission members as well allows the lobbyist to inform other lawmakers indirectly.

Third, interest groups target lawmakers when legislation is on the floor of the House and/or Senate, but once more, they rely on the fact that many members will defer to their colleagues who are more familiar with a given consequence. Finally, since legislation must past both chambers in identical course, interest groups may target members of the conference committees whose job it is to iron out differences across the chambers. At this negotiation stage, a 1 percent difference in, say, the corporate income taxation charge per unit could mean millions of dollars in increased or decreased revenue or taxation for various interests.

Interest groups too target the monetary process in social club to maximize benefits to their group. In some cases, their aim is to influence the portion of the budget allocated to a given policy, program, or policy area. For instance, interests for groups that represent the poor may lobby for boosted appropriations for various welfare programs; those interests opposed to authorities assistance to the poor may vestibule for reduced funding to certain programs. It is likely that the legislative liaison for your university or college spends time trying to advocate for budgetary allocations in your state.

Interest groups also endeavor to defeat legislation that may be detrimental to their views. For example, when Congress considers legislation to better air quality, it is not unusual for some industries to oppose it if it requires additional regulations on factory emissions. In some cases, proposed legislation may serve as a disturbance, resulting in grouping formation or mobilization to help defeat the pecker. For instance, a proposed tax increase may effect in the formation or mobilization of anti-revenue enhancement groups that will lobby the legislature and try to encourage the public to oppose the proposed legislation. Prior to the election in 2012, political activist Grover Norquist, the founder of Americans for Revenue enhancement Reform (ATR), asked all Republican members of Congress to sign a "Taxpayer Protection Pledge" that they would fight efforts to raise taxes or to eliminate any deductions that were not accompanied by tax cuts. 90-five percent of the Republicans in Congress signed the pledge.^[8] Some interests arise solely to defeat legislation and go dormant later on they achieve their immediate objectives.

In one case legislation has been passed, interest groups may target the executive branch of regime, whose job is to implement the law. The U.Southward. Section of Veterans Diplomacy has some leeway in providing intendance for war machine veterans, and interests representing veterans' needs may pressure this department to address their concerns or issues. Other entities within the executive co-operative, like the Securities and Exchange Commission, which maintains and regulates financial markets, are not designed to be responsive to the interests they regulate, because to brand such a response would be a disharmonize of interest. Interest groups may lobby the executive co-operative on executive, judicial, and other appointments that crave Senate confirmation. Every bit a effect, involvement grouping members may be appointed to positions in which they tin influence proposed regulation of the manufacture of which they are a part.

In addition to lobbying the legislative and executive branches of government, many involvement groups also lobby the judicial branch. Lobbying the judiciary takes 2 forms, the get-go of which was mentioned higher up. This is lobbying the executive co-operative about judicial appointments the president makes and lobbying the Senate to confirm these appointments. The second form of lobbying consists of filing amicus briefs, which are too known every bit "friend of the court" briefs. These documents present legal arguments stating why a given court should have a case and/or why a court should dominion a certain way. In Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), the Supreme Court instance that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, numerous interest groups filed amicus briefs.^[ix]

For case, the Human being Rights Campaign filed a brief arguing that the Fourteenth Amendment's due process and equal protection clauses required that same-sex couples be afforded the aforementioned rights to marry as opposite-sex couples. In a 5–4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed.

Members of the Human being Rights Campaign, an interest that supports LGBT rights, march toward the Supreme Courtroom on June 26, 2015, the day that the Obergefell v. Hodges conclusion is announced. (credit: modification of work by Matt Popovich)

The briefs submitted in Obergefell v. Hodges are available on the website of the U.Due south. Supreme Court. What arguments did the authors of these briefs make, other than those mentioned in this chapter, in favor of Obergefell's position?

Measuring the effect of interest groups' influence is somewhat difficult because lobbyists support lawmakers who would likely have supported them in the first place. Thus, National Correct to Life, an anti-abortion interest group, does not generally lobby lawmakers who favor abortion rights; instead, it supports lawmakers and candidates who have professed "pro-life" positions. While some scholars note that lobbyists sometimes endeavour to influence those on the fence or even their enemies, most of the time, they support similar-minded individuals. Thus, contributions are unlikely to sway lawmakers to change their views; what they do buy is admission, including time with lawmakers. The trouble for those trying to appraise whether involvement groups influence lawmakers, then, is that we are uncertain what would happen in the absence of interest group contributions. For instance, we can simply speculate what the ACA might accept looked like had lobbyists from a host of interests not lobbied on the upshot.

Examine websites for the American Bourgeois Union and Americans for Autonomous Activity that compile legislative ratings and voting records. On what issues do these organizations choose to have positions? Where do your representatives and senators rank according to these groups? Are these rankings surprising?

Summary

Interest groups support candidates sympathetic to their views in hopes of gaining access to them once they are in part. PACs and super PACs collect coin from donors and distribute it to political groups that they support. Lawmakers rely on interest groups and lobbyists to provide them with data nearly the technical details of policy proposals, equally well as about swain lawmakers' stands and constituents' perceptions, for cues most how to vote on issues, particularly those with which they are unfamiliar. Lobbyists also target the executive and judiciary branches.

Practice Questions

1. How practice interest groups lobby the judicial branch?
2. How do interest groups and their lobbyists decide which lawmakers to lobby? And where practise they practice and then?

Show Selected Answer

2. Involvement groups and lobbyists frequently try to gain access past starting time supporting candidates when they run for function. Since incumbents have an advantage, lobbyists often contribute to them. Second, once legislative members are in office, interest groups and their lobbyists try to encourage them to sponsor legislation the groups wants. They may target sympathetic lawmakers, legislative leaders, and members of important committees.

Show Glossary

voting cues sources—including fellow lawmakers, constituents, and involvement groups—that lawmakers frequently use to help them decide how to vote, especially on unfamiliar issues

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Source: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/atd-monroecc-americangovernment/chapter/pathways-of-interest-group-influence/

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