Interest groups in the U.S. politics Essay

The coupled States is a pop country, which supports non-violent political relational and loving movements, attempting unalike improvements in the U. S. domestic and international policies. That is to say, the requirements of fire groups be not forever and a day met, beca uptake whereas various types of engross groups be acknowledged, there still exist those factions, which concord narrow well-disposed base and whose political presentation is limited in scope, as a rule, to financial interests of their members.For instance, the loot lobbies (such as SIG) represent the flavour of 10, 000 -15,000 farmers, who call for the restriction of import of sugar and for the special social programs for sugar farmers. Such factions argon usually intended as those with narrow interests and their founders and members solicit these interests in special moments and periods, when the atmosphere suits more conductive for promotion for instance, when they point out out that the importe d sugar does not fir into the international fiber standards, or before the elections (Elhauge, 2002).Special interest groups are usually stately from constituency-representing organizations, which have a broad social base, address a large range of issues, and balance members interests with a strong commitment to the commonwealth (Etzioni, 1990, p. 172). These organizations aptitude pursue such non-financial interests as those related to social status, value issues in addition to financial singles, for instance the Urban League represents the interests of urban residents and seek environmental, social and political changes in large cities.While the open views interest groups as threatening pluralistic democracy, the conventional wisdom of political erudition has seen them as beneficial (ibid). In fact, it is possible to assume from the present situation, that the most(prenominal) beneficial activity is related to the constituency-representation. Furthermore, special interest groups are plausibly to bring problems to larger factions, due to dynamic interactions between political parties, movements and non-profit organizations. niggling factions pursuing narrow goals are likewise more likely to use black PR technologies, directed to changing public attitudes towards certain political parties and either to increase or to decrease loyalty rates. On the early(a) hand, the eradication of small narrowly-specialized factions is neither possible nor useful, as the statement that competing factions (Mcwilliams, 1988) are likely to reduce severally other, is valid totally for small groups, whose interests are temporary.On the contrary, constituency-representing organizations are more likely to produce coherent-term programs including political, economic, social and cultural dimensions of human life. The balance between interest groups and the shared jurisprudence is of importtained most effectively when the pro-community forces rise up, scarce not higher( prenominal) than, the level they are able to contain but not restrict 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 growing of their number, it is a great deal more difficult nowadays 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 grievous to mention the functions of interest groups. First of all they resolve as a supplementary force that intensifies the public opinion representation, particularly during the electoral process.Moreover, they claim the political process more receptive canvas 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 stand up between the person and the state. Interest groups are known to improve the disproportionate separation of the legislative and the executive branches, because their pro locates of legislative changes are logically supplemented by similar propositions for the executive branch.Another important cultural function is associated with the growth of political reason 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, particularly in the most critical periods for instance, during the Vietnamese military invasion, Carters position were really weakened by interest groups, including the most peaceful juvenility movements, dissatisfied with the reso lution of Iranian 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 bulge out from original 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 right enforcement and the adoption of certain legal acts as well as rifle 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 local authorities put additional tax on enterprises, dealing with t oxic substances or with oil and natural 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 unscathed 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 visible resources are limited, so the U. S. government today can provide simply partial gratification of political claims.Furthermore, the issue of representation is also kind of contradictory on the one hand, the growth of diversity among political parties signifies peremptory dynamics in this sense, on the other hand, due to the increase of public consciousness, the diversity in worldviews has grown disproportionably to the number of existing factions, so that pull down small groups (families, local communities) seek social or economic support, but in this case we cannot speak about true representation, since their influence is scant(predicate) 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 speech production figuratively. Furthermore, it is important to note that the complete representation is inhibited by the demands of the epoch, to which self-respectful factions are supposed to adjust.For instance, the ISN movement, whose leaders several years ago (in 2000-2001) called for the changes in the U. S.immigration policy and were representing the viewpoints of national and ethnic minorities, who live and work in the country (Elhauge, 2002), has changed its directions and now are trying to create more constructive tush 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 vi olations 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 remote 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 overlooked or underrepresented, whereas the most swanky sociopolitical trends (gender equality) are overstated and therefore prioritized.Works cited 1) Elhauge, E. Does interest group possibleness justify more intrusive judicial review? Yale Law Journal, 2002, Vol. cx 2) Etzioni, A. Special interest groups versus constituency representation Research in social movements. engagement and Change, 1990, Vol. 8. 3) Mcwilliams, R. The best and the worst of pu blic interest groups from lifting up the poor to shiver down the elderly, Washington Monthly, March 1988, Vol. 20.