Neighbors or Adversaries?
Theorists from Alexis de Tocqueville to Robert Putman have praised voluntary associations as training grounds for citizen involvement. De Tocqueville saw collective action as evidence of democracy at work. Putnam extols organized interests for creating social capital, the glue that binds the citizenry so they can achieve collective goals. Not all political theorists, however, share these views. In The Federalist No. 10, James Madison warned against factions—groups of individuals, “whether amounting to a majority or minority of the whole, who are united by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community.” Although opposed to factions, Madison felt that they could not be eliminated since they expressed the innately human drive for self-interest. Instead, he argued, the government must dilute their influence by filtering their views through elected officials and submerging their interests in a sea of competing interests. Only by countering the ambition of such groups with the ambition of others, he believed, could government fashion the compromise necessary to accommodate interests common to all.
Distinctive Features
Like the political movements of the past that advanced causes such as abolition or civil rights, interest groups seek to use the power of government to protect their concerns. However, although political movements promote wide-ranging social change, interest groups are more narrowly focused on achieving success with regard to specific policies. Where the Women's Movement of the 1960s sought to change Americans' views about the role of women at home and in the workplace, interest groups like the National Organization for Women (NOW) focus on solving specific problems faced by women in a world that has already grown more accepting of the diverse roles women play.
Interest group causes may be purely economic, as in the case of a business seeking tax breaks or a union seeking negotiating clout; they may be ideological, as in the case of those favoring or opposing abortion rights. Some, known as public interest groups, advocate policies they believe promote the good of all Americans, not merely the economic or ideological interests of a few. Environmental groups such as the Sierra Club fall into this category. Some interest groups, such as trade associations and labor unions, have mass memberships; others represent institutions and have no individual membership at all. One example of the latter is the American Council on Education (ACE), a collective institution of higher education that promotes policies that benefit colleges and universities. Write a question for the first and second headings
Write a question for the first heading.
Write a question for the second heading.
