Politics of Interest Groups

CMC Government 106, Spring 2006
Monday and Wednesday  2:45-4:00  Classroom Bauer 35

John J. Pitney, Jr.

Office:  Pitzer 215   Telephone:  909/607-4224
E-mail:  jpitney@mckenna.edu or profpitney@yahoo.com

Office Hours:  MW 4-7 PM.  If these times are inconvenient, please make an appointment.

WWW: http://govt.mckenna.edu/jpitney

General

This courses examines the role of interest groups in American politics, with special attention to their influence on public policy.  It asks these questions:

• What are interest groups, and how do they form?
• Are there real differences between economic and "public" interest groups?
• How do interest groups try to influence elections?
• What strategies and tactics do they use in the "outside" game of public relations and the "inside game" of lobbying?
• Is there a general public interest apart from group interests?  If so, do interest groups advance or undercut it?

Classes

Classes will include lecture and discussion.  Finish the readings before class because our discussions will involve those readings.  We shall also talk about breaking news, so you must read a good news source such as the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times or
ABC "The Note" (http://abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/TheNote/TheNote.html)

Grades

The following will make up your course grade: 

• Three 4-page papers 20% each
• One sit-down final   30%
• Class participation  10%

• The papers will develop your skills in research, writing, and political analysis.  When grading, I do take the quality of writing into account, applying the standards of Strunk and White.  If you object to this approach, do not take this course – or anything else that I teach.

• The final examination will test your factual knowledge and comprehension of the readings.

• In addition to the required readings (below), I may also give you handouts and web links covering current events and basic factual information.  The final will cover this material.

• Class participation will hone your ability to think on your feet.  This grade hinges on class discussions.  I will call on students at random, and if you often miss sessions or fail to prepare, your grade will suffer.

• As a courtesy to your fellow students, please arrive promptly and refrain from eating in class.

• Check due dates for papers, as well as the date of the final exam.  Arrange your schedule accordingly.  Do not plan on seeking extensions or make-up work.

• Plagiarism or any other academic dishonesty will mean referral to the Academic Standards Committee.  See: http://registrar.claremontmckenna.edu/acpolicy/plagiarism.asp

Required Books

• Allan J. Cigler and Burdett Loomis, editors, Interest Group Politics, 6th ed. (Washington: CQ Press, 2002).

• Paul S. Herrnson, Ronald G. Shaiko, and Clyde Wilcox, The Interest Group Connection, 2d ed. (Washington: CQ Press, 2005).

• Jay Michael, Dan Walters, and Dan Weintraub, The Third House:  Lobbyists, Money, and Power in Sacramento (Berkeley: Berkeley Public Policy Press, 2002).

• Jonathan Rauch, Government's End: Why Washington Stopped Working (New York: Public Affairs Press, 1999).

• Theda Skocpol, Diminished Democracy: From Membership to Management in American Civic Life (Norman:  University of Oklahoma Press, 2003).

• Bruce C. Wolpe, Lobbying Congress: How the System Works, 2d ed. (Washington: CQ Press, 1996).
   

Schedule (subject to change, with advance notice).

In addition to the readings below, I may also supply you with various handouts and Internet links.

Jan 18:  Introduction

"This kind of problem is faced by all societies throughout all of history. It comes and goes in cycles, and becomes most prevalent when the activities are viewed as O.K. by the society where it's taking place."- Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21, on abuses.

Is everyone part of a special interest?  What is the proper role of organized interests in a democracy?

Jan 23, 25: Groups in Civic America

"In democratic countries knowledge of how to combine is the mother of all other forms of knowledge: on its progress depends that of all the others." -- Alexis deTocqueville

How did the United States become a nation of joiners?  How did mass membership organizations influence public policy?

• Skocpol, ch. 1-3.

"The more government takes the place of associations, the more will individuals lose the idea of forming associations and need the government to come to their help" -- Alexis deTocqueville

Theda Skocpol says that organizations have shifted from membership to management, or from grassroots to astroturf.  Why? What does this change mean for American civic life?  How does it affect government?

• Skocpol, ch. 4-5
• Cigler & Loomis, ch. 1.
• Herrnson, ch. 1.

FIRST ESSAY ASSIGNED JAN 30, DUE FEB 8 

READ STRUNK AND WHITE FIRST.

Feb 6, 8:  Economic and Public Interest Groups

"You can bet there have been lobbyists working Washington since the days when Daniel Webster pocketed retainers from the Second Bank of the United States and Stephen Douglas sponsored the Kansas-Nebraska Act--which led proximately to the Civil War--as part of his project to anchor the transcontinental railroad in Chicago. When government makes decisions that affect private individuals and firms and industries, the representatives of those individuals and firms and industries are going to exercise their constitutional right to try to get the decisions to come out their way." -- Michael Barone

How did corporations, trade associations, and unions become players?  When do they seek public and private goods?  What are "public" interest groups?  

• Cigler & Loomis, ch. 3 (NRA), 4 (breast cancer groups), 10 (corporations)
• Herrnson, ch. 11 (labor)
• Zachary Courser, "Wal-Mart and the Politics of American Retail" (Washington: Competitive Enterprise Institute, 2005), at http://www.cei.org/pdf/4992.pdf

Feb 13, 15:  Electoral Politics

"If that pitch sounds like a mixture of protection racket (nice little multinational you have there; too bad if anything should happen to it) and an offer to play ball, that's exactly how it was intended to sound."  -- Gregg Easterbrook on Rep. Tony Coelho's approach to PACs

What is the impact of interest group money and mobilization?  What do interest groups get in return?  What is the result of changes in campaign finance law?

• Herrnson, ch. 2 (electoral connections), 3 (federal campaign finance), 4 (congressional elections).

• Steve Weissman and Ruth Hassan, "BCRA and the 527 Groups," at http://www.cfinst.org/studies/ElectionAfterReform/pdf/EAR_Chapter5_WeissmanHassan.pdf

• Robert G. Boatright, Michael J. Malbin, Mark J. Rozell, Clyde Wilcox, "Interest Groups and Advocacy Organizations After BCRA," at  http://www.cfinst.org/studies/ElectionAfterReform/pdf/EAR_Chapter6_Boatrightetal.pdf

Feb 20, 22: The Outside Game

"Many supposedly `objective' thinkers and `independent' scholar/experts these days have blogs or consulting gigs, or they are starting nonprofit Centers for the Study of Whatever. Who funds their books, speeches, or other endeavors? Often it's those with an interest in the outcome of a related debate. The number of folks underwriting the pursuit of pure knowledge can be counted on one hand." -- Columnist Doug Bandow, acknowledging payments from Jack Abramoff

How do interest groups try to influence mass and elite opinion?  Do these efforts have an effect on policy?  Is Bandow right about think tanks and columnists?

• Cigler & Loomis, ch. 5 (internet), 12 (media), 13 (issue definition)
• James G. McGann, "Scholars, Dollars, and Policy Advice" (Washington:  Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program Of the Foreign Policy Research Institute, 2004), at http://www.fpri.org/research/thinktanks/200408.mcgann.scholarsdollars.doc

SECOND ESSAY ASSIGNED FEB 22, DUE MAR 8

Feb 27, Mar 1: Lobbying Congress I

"Congressmen don't know things; they're not experts in technology. In the mid-1990s, we were meeting with a Congressman about high-definition TV standards and we were talking about pixels and so on, and he said, 'Fellas, look, I'm trying to stay with you here, but one of the first times I ever took a ride on an airplane was when I came to Washington to take my seat and I remember looking out the window and I thought part of the wing was falling off when we landed, because the flaps came up.' " -- Joseph Tasker, senior vice president for government affairs of the Information Technology Association of America

What do lobbyists need to know?  How do they approach lawmakers?  How has lobbying evolved?

• Wolpe, Introduction, ch. 1-8.
• Cigler & Loomis, ch. 9 (history of lobbying)

Mar 6, 8: Lobbying Congress II

• Cigler and Loomis, ch. 11 (corporate lobbyists),
• Herrnson, ch. 7 (strategies), 8 (committee chairs), 9 (appropriations), 10 (religious right), 12 (coalitions)

Mar 13, 15: Spring Break

Mar 20, 22:  Both Ends of the Avenue

"Because our congressional representation is based on geographical boundaries, the lobbyists who speak for the various economic, commercial, and other functional interests of this country serve a very useful purpose and have assumed an important role in the legislative process." -- John F. Kennedy, 1956

Administrative rulemaking is important but obscure.  Does lobbying work best in such a shadowy realm?

• Herrnson, ch. 13 (executive branch lobbying), 14 (administrative policymaking), 15 (forms of contact), 16 (president, Congress, and the public interest)
• Wolpe case study 1 (health reform), 8 (family leave).

Mar 27, 29:  Legal Battles

"'In the final analysis,' Stevens concluded, his argument boiled down to `who should decide' whether affirmative action should continue -- `the nine of us sitting in the chambers of the Supreme Court,' as he put it, or `the accumulated wisdom of the country's leaders.' That wisdom, he said, was convincingly shown by `the powerful consensus of the dark green briefs.'" -- Journalist Tony Mauro, describing Justice John Paul Stevens's comments on amicus briefs

How do interest groups work the courts?  How do they seek to influence the selection of judges and justices?

• Herrnson, ch. 17 (organized interests in judicial process), 18 (smoking wars), 19 (Christian litigation)
• Cigler & Loomis, ch. 14 (high-tech)
• Wolpe case study 5 (Bork)

THIRD ESSAY ASSIGNED MAR 29, DUE APRIL 12.

April 3, 5:  Foreign Policy

"You certainly never felt the terrorism excited by Genet in 1793, when ten thousand people in the streets of Philadelphia, day after day, threatened to drag Washington out of his house and effect a revolution in government or compel it to declare war in favor of the French Revolution and against England." -- John Adams to Thomas Jefferson

How do foreign governments and interests seek to influence American policy?  What economic and ethnic groups have a stake in foreign affairs?

• Cigler & Loomis, 17 (foreign policy)
• Wolpe, case study 1 (NAFTA).

• Patrick O'Connor, "How Blunt Whipped CAFTA," The Hill, September 6-8, 2005, at http://www.texasfairtrade.org/article.php?story=20050913121349560

• Paul Starobin, "Crescent Conflict," National Journal, November 19, 2005, at http://www.umanet.org/politics.cfm?fuseaction=articles.viewThisArticle&articleID=86

• Marina Walker Guevara and Bob Williams, "China Steps Up Its Lobbying Game," Center for Public Integrity, September 13, 2005, at http://www.publicintegrity.org/lobby/report.aspx?aid=734

April 10, 12:  California

"Not surprisingly, then, politicians routinely submit legislative bills that would take money from various persons or groups, and then withdraw them once (constitutionally protected) payments are made. These bills go by different names. In California they are called `juice bills,' referring to their ability to squeeze those who would lose from taxation unless they pay up. -- Fred McChesney

Is interest group politics different at the state level?  Is California a unique arena?

• Michael, Walters, and Weintraub, all.

April 17, 19: Demosclerosis I

"How about putting limits on malpractice awards?"
"Well, you tell me."
"Well, if you're for them, I got money from the doctors and the insurance companies. If you're against them, I got money from the trial lawyers. Let's put you down
as 'against.'"
"Terry, tell me something. With all this money coming in from both sides, how could anything possibly ever get done?"
"It doesn't. That's the genius of the system."  -- Kevin McCarthy and Eddie Murphy in The Distinguished Gentleman

What is "hyperpluralism"?  Has it paralyzed Washington?

• Rauch, ch. 1-5.
• Herrnson, ch. 20.
• Cigler & Loomis, ch. 16 (gridlock), 18 (limits)

April 24, 26:  Demosclerosis II

"Social Security is a government program with a constituency made up of the old, the near-old, and those who hope or fear to grow old.  After 215 years of trying, we have finally discovered a special interest that includes 100 percent of the population.  Now we can vote ourselves rich."  -- P.J. O'Rourke

How have reformers tried to counteract interest groups?

• Rauch, ch. 6-8.
• Skocpol, ch. 6.

May 1, 3:  Reform

"There is $2.6 trillion spent in Washington, with the authority to regulate everything in your life. Guess what? People will spend unheard-of amounts of money to influence that. The underlying problems are big government and big money." -- Newt Gingrich

Short of radically reducing government, are there any effective reforms?  Or are we even asking the right question?

• Rauch, ch. 9-10.
• Skocpol, ch. 7.

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