Interest Groups:
Interest groups are formal organizations whose members seek to achieve the same goal(s), and who work together to gain and keep this value(s).
2. Lobbying: the influencing of Congress and the Executive, including agencies
3. Political Action Committees (PACs): legal means by which a certain interest group can devote its collected funds to influence an electoral campaign(s), or legislation directly.
Interest Groups at Home
Interest Groups try to influence the Legislative and Executive Branch...
Intermestic Politics: Convergence of Foreign and Domestic Issues-Congress is mostly concerned with domestic issues
Legislative and Executive Branch: Liberal Democracy-Interest Groups use various means to influence the legislature and bureaucracy (i.e. large corporations and trade unions)
- Legislative v. Executive Branch-Structure and Constitutional Rights
- Security v. Non-Security Issues-Effectiveness of Interest Groups
- Motivation of Financial Interest of each Interest group
- Impact of Financial Disposal & Economic Interest to exert influence
- Interest Groups: Attempts to Influence Operation Desert Shield and Operation Joint Endeavor
Foreign Policy application,
and Interest Groups
- Most discretionary foreign policy ability lies in the president
- Second-most lies in the Senate, via treaty-ratification power
- However, the means IGs take are effective to altering Congressional policy- not the executive policy
How are these listed criteria a means of effectiveness?
Effective interest groups need at least one of two things, if not both:
1) Money
2) American votes to influence congress
*The listed criteria affects this possession
Constitution of the Immigrant Community
Hard factors: geographic concentration of said immigrants, size of the community, socioeconomic aspects (wealth and education)
Soft factors such as identity and political behaviors form the community
Characteristics Displayed by the Group
- Organizational strength / interests pursued
- Coalition building for policy
- Implementation of the agenda
- Competitors are as significant as alliances to the group’s lobbyist power
Why is their means our means in Foreign Policy?
We don’t know any other viewpoints: sometimes it’s NOT in our interests, but a lack of any opposing groups means they are highly influential on convincing the public and congress that we do share the same interests
Special groups get special treatment: the media is more likely to give them attention because they are a big group, they have more unified numbers with a louder voice, the public believes that it’s THEIR voice
Domestic and International Political Context
- In other words, they need to balance the two effectively
- Interest groups do this by looking at how the international interests and interactions (usually economic) affect domestic interests, institutions, and information in ways that reflect national policies, and vice versa (domestic -> international)
The Means of
Interest Groups
1. Educational
Campaigns
Ethnic and State Actors:
Bosnian Conflict: Bosnian Genocide spurring Human Rights Watch, Serbnet, etc.
Gulf War: US Public Relations firm Hill & Knowlton, AIPAC
Bosnian Crisis, Operation Joint Behavior
- Public relations firms in the U.S. campaigned in the drive for intervention in Bosnia
- Helsinki Watch and Human Right Watch lobbying for Bosnian intervention
- Serbian lobby and Congressman Lee Hamilton
First Gulf War
and the foreign interest groups
- AIPAC and the authorization of US troops for combat
- AIPAC appealing to coinciding interests between the US and Israel (AIPAC success in Congress)
- "Free Kuwaiti" campaign at $10.8 million cost to Kuwait government, and the "incubator atrocity"
President Bush, Sr. 's actions,
given these campaigns:
- Pressuring Israel not to respond to Iraq's missile attacks
- Choosing not to occupy Baghdad
- Promises to America's Arab allies on the Palestinian issue
- Speech to American Jewish leaders on the conflicting interests between American security needs and Israel's position on the coalition against Saddam Hussein
3 Listed Criteria for Effectiveness
1) Domestic and International Political Context
2) Constitution of the Immigrant Community
3) Characteristics Displayed by the Group
- Humanitarian Interest with the Bosnian Genocide
- Clinton had 3 years to decide
- Domestic Interest Groups-Human Rights Watch
- Economic Interest with Oil
- Interest Groups with financial means and resources
- I.e. Oil Lobby, BP
- George H. W. Bush had his mind made up from the beginning
Interest Groups & American Foreign Policy
Foreign Policy and Interest Groups:
The power to enact foreign policy measures lies mostly within the executive - a position which is not sensitive to the means of interest groups, with issues of foreign policy.
Presidential actions in both George Bush Sr.'s administration and Bill Clinton's demonstrate this, despite the differences between them and the issues that each faced abroad.
Presented by: Connie Choe, Josh Corona, Emiro Olivares, Haley Paschen