Interest groups in the U.S. politics Essay

The United States is a parliamentary bucolic, which supports non-violent political and sociable movements, seeking different remediatements in the U. S. domestic help and international policies. That is to say, the requirements of interest sort outs atomic number 18 not always met, because whereas various types of interest groups atomic number 18 acknowledged, there motionlessness exist those religious sects, which arrive narrow amicable base and whose political dumbfoundation is limited in scope, as a rule, to financial interests of their members.For instance, the refined scratch lobbies (such as SIG) represent the opinion of 10, 000 -15,000 farmers, who c all told for the restriction of import of sugar and for the finicky social programs for sugar farmers. Such factions be usually intended as those with narrow interests and their founders and members dorm these interests in special moments and periods, when the atmosphere becomes more conductive for promotion for i nstance, when they find out that the imported sugar does not fir into the international quality standards, or before the elections (Elhauge, 2002).Special interest groups are usually distinguished from constituency-representing organizations, which have a broad social base, address a wide range of unwraps, and counterbalance members interests with a strong commitment to the commonwealth (Etzioni, 1990, p. 172). These organizations might pursue such non-financial interests as those related to social status, value issues in addition to financial unitys, for instance the Urban League represents the interests of urban residents and seek environmental, social and political changes in large cities.While the public views interest groups as threatening pluralistic democracy, the schematic wisdom of political science has seen them as beneficial (ibid). In fact, it is possible to assume from the present situation, that the nearly beneficial activity is related to the constituency- patter n. Furthermore, special interest groups are liable(predicate) to bring problems to larger factions, due to dynamic interactions mingled with political parties, movements and non-profit organizations.Small factions pursuing narrow goals are also more likely to use black PR technologies, directed to changing public attitudes towards certain political parties and either to increment or to decrease loyalty rates. On the other hand, the eradication of small narrowly-specialized factions is neither possible nor useful, as the allegement that competing factions (Mcwilliams, 1988) are likely to reduce each other, is valid only for small groups, whose interests are temporary.On the contrary, constituency-representing organizations are more likely to produce long-term programs including political, frugal, social and cultural dimensions of human life. The balance between interest groups and the shared polity is maintained nearly effectively when the pro-community forces rise up, but not higher(prenominal) than, the level they are able to contain but not suppress interest groups (Mcwilliams, 1988, A9). Moreover, the role of factions is viewed in the context of the historical development of the United States.Over the last three decades, the American political institutions have become less integrated, and the power of factions has increased. On the other hand, due to the growth of their number, it is much more uncorrectable promptly to maintain the balance between the main political course and the consent between the state and narrower interest groups (Etzioni, 1990). It would be also Copernican to mention the functions of interest groups. First of all they function as a supplementary force that intensifies the public opinion representation, especially during the electoral outgrowth.Moreover, they make the political process more receptive comparing to the electoral process, which is intended as a domination of majorities, while factions are more likely to have goals, which are cohesive with the main wishes of social and national minorities and thus they serve as a mediating force standing between the person and the state. Interest groups are known to improve the disproportionate separation of the legislative and the administrator branches, because their pro sights of legislative changes are logically supplemented by similar propositions for the executive branch.Another important cultural function is associated with the growth of political consciousness and political culture as well as the amount of political information in media, which represents a number of standpoints. At all times interest groups and political parties served an indicator of public consciousness and diversity as well as intensified political antagonism, especially in the most critical periods for instance, during the Vietnamese military invasion, Carters position were actually weakened by interest groups, including the most peaceful youth movements, dissatisfied with t he resolution of Persian hostage crisis.As a rule, interest groups arise in the most conductive atmosphere (liberal or democratic regime), in which human rights and freedoms are declared. Political, economic and social factions can originate from professional unions or leagues (like social workers professional organization), which seek to represent the opinions of their professional group or their customers viewpoint (for instance, social workers nowadays initiate law enforcement and the adoption of certain legal acts as well as get directly involved in lobbyist activities).The discontent with government policies is another important recondition for the arousal of an interest group political activity is actually determined by the existing economic and social policies, so its easy to predict, for instance, the activation of industrial unions, when under the pressure of ecological groups, the U. S. government or certain topical anesthetic authorities put additional taxation on enter prises, dealing with toxic substances or with oil and innate gas.It is also important to note that interest groups will exist as long as the democratic system exists, because it is impossible to satisfy the needs of the whole society with respect to its diversity. Consequently, those concerns, which have already been satisfied, are likely to be replaced by new demands. This means, human needs are immeasurable and never-ending, whereas material resources are limited, so the U. S. government today can provide only partial gratification of political claims.Furthermore, the issue of representation is also quite contradictory on the one hand, the growth of diversity among political parties signifies positive(p) dynamics in this sense, on the other hand, due to the increase of public consciousness, the diversity in worldviews has expectant disproportionably to the number of existing factions, so that even small groups (families, local communities) seek social or economic support, but i n this case we cannot speak about true representation, since their influence is insufficient to initiate the changes at legislative or executive levels.The representation of each citizens interests is a utopia, as at the present time only large (more than 100,000 members) interest groups can achieve representation, can be heard, if speaking figuratively. Furthermore, it is important to note that the complete representation is inhibited by the demands of the epoch, to which self-respecting factions are supposed to adjust.For instance, the ISN movement, whose leaders some(prenominal) years ago (in 2000-2001) called for the changes in the U. S.immigration policy and were representing the viewpoints of national and social minorities, who live and work in the country (Elhauge, 2002), has changed its directions and now are trying to create more constructive basis for the U. S. foreign policy. On the one hand, it is associated with the events of September 11, which were close followed by the violations of Muslim minorities human rights. On the other hand, political changes forced this faction to make a more profound inquiry into the current state of affairs and to find the most acute concerns of the society.Similar dynamics can be noticed in a number of special and constituency-representing interest groups which removed irrelevant concerns and posed new questions, such as those related to womens rights, ethnic minorities human rights, social security and intellectual property. As one can assume, certain interests remain miss or underrepresented, whereas the most fashionable sociopolitical trends (gender equality) are overstated and therefore prioritized.Works cited 1) Elhauge, E. Does interest group guess justify more intrusive judicial review? Yale Law Journal, 2002, Vol. 110 2) Etzioni, A. Special interest groups versus constituency representation Research in social movements. Conflict and Change, 1990, Vol. 8. 3) Mcwilliams, R. The best and the worst of public interest groups from lifting up the misfortunate to shaking down the elderly, Washington Monthly, March 1988, Vol. 20.