Read chapter 6: "Interest Groups and Lobbying" in your "Governing Texas" book.

familiarize yourself with the following concepts and answer the questions below.

Interest Groups in the Political Process

An interest group is an organization established to influence the government's programs and policies.

• Resources and Strategies of Interest Groups
  • Interest groups have members who vote, the ability to raise money to support or oppose an issue, and information about their membership and the problems that concern their membership. They use all three to influence government.
• Interest Groups and Democratic Politics
  • Interest groups organize those who share a common interest in ways that overcome the free rider problem, such as incentives and symbolic benefits, though more narrowly targeted and well-funded interest groups tend to have the most influence.
• Interest Groups and Policy Makers
  • Interest groups want something from policy makers: they want policy that is beneficial for their groups. Policy makers benefit from developing relationships with interest groups by gaining information about issues of concern to groups and voters, as well as campaign funds.
• Types of Interest Groups and Lobbyists
  • To accomplish their goals, interest groups usually maintain lobbyists to gain access to policy makers and communicate their objectives. Lobbyists work for both public and private interest groups, and interest groups can represent a single issue or a constellation of related issues.
• Getting Access to Policy Makers
  • While personal relationships and connections often help lobbyists gain access to policy makers, campaign contributions tend to be the most frequent—and notorious—means.
  • Many lobbyists are former legislators themselves, a practice known as the "revolving door."
  • Lobbyists do provide useful information and special expertise to legislators once they gain access to them.
  • While many criticize the role lobbyist money plays in politics, outright corruption is fairly rare.
• Who Represents Ordinary Texans?
  • Nearly all lobbyists represent corporate or business interests; the public-interest lobby is fairly small and nowhere near as well funded.

Another Side to Lobbying

Interest groups often make contributions to lawmakers through political action committees (PACs). PACs may give money directly to a candidate or engage in issue advocacy that supports the candidate but is independent of the candidate's control.

• Getting Out the Vote
  • Interest groups are playing a larger role in voter mobilization, but their main efforts still tend to be campaign contributions.
• Defeating Opponents
  • Because of the incumbency advantage, it is far safer for interest groups to try to work with incumbents than with challengers, and interest groups devote the vast majority of their campaign contributions to incumbents.
• Interest-Group Capture
  • Interest groups can sometimes have such influence over an agency of government that it is said that the interest group has "captured" that agency—meaning that the agency primarily serves the objectives of the interest group.

Individuals as Lobbyists

Ordinary Texans can have impact on legislators, but because relatively few Texans are engaged in the neighborhood, in their community, or in politics, much lobbying is left to organized interest groups with professional lobbyists.

1. Do you think there should be clear legislation regulating and restricting the benefits that interest groups can provide to policy makers? Why? What should the legislation include? (The first Practicing Citizenship exercise is designed to improve the quality of this discussion.)
2. Why are interest groups so influential in Texas politics? What sorts of institutional reforms could the legislature enact to reduce the influence of interest groups? What sorts of demographic or cultural changes might reduce the influence of interest groups "naturally"?
3. Why and under what circumstances would interest groups focus attention on state and local politics rather than using their resources to influence national policy makers?