WHY ARE THERE SO MANY INTEREST GROUPS?

• Huge increase in the late 1960s
• There are 22,000 interest groups today with the goal of trying to influence the government
• Many more lobbyists
  • Person who influences politicians on behalf of a certain group
  • Upwards of 12,000 in and around Washington DC
    • Perhaps more, as lobbying moves “underground”
  • A 3.3 Billion US Dollar industry
  • The Constitution
    • actively encourages interest groups
      • The First Amendment
      • Free Speech and assembly
    • Division of government
      • More places where influence can be effective

Picture: Graph of Number of Lobbyists and Total Lobbying Spending

–        RED LINE: Number of Lobbyists; BLUE LINE: Total Lobbying Spending

–        This is misleading, as there are a significant number of unrecognized lobbyists who don’t technically act as lobbyists

WHY ARE THERE SO MANY INTEREST GROUPS?

• Diverse interests, and they all want to be heard by society
  • many different interests in the society we live in
  • these spawn organizations to promote these interests
    • Computer industry spawned agencies to protect their interests
  • A more active government
    • The government does more today than it did at its conception
    • As the government affects more things, people want it to act in their favour rather than in some other way
    • Government decisions affect more people; which is why more people want to be involved in decision-making
    • Global society means that American companies compete in large numbers, so they want the most favourable conditions in America
    • Expansion of government means government needs to buy more things, so companies want more of this money

WHY ARE THERE SO MANY INTEREST GROUPS?

• Disturbance Theory
  • When something gets threatened, an interest group rises to protect it.
  • This threat can be social action, governmental action or even another interest group.