After reading this chapter, you should be able to:

• Explain what James Madison meant by the mischief of factions.
• Describe what interest groups are, what role they play in American politics, and how they try to shape public policy.
• Identify the various types of interest groups and determine what we can learn by looking at the organizational form or type of interest.
• Describe how interest groups lobby Congress, the executive branch, and the courts.
• Assess the extent of corporate political power and the privileged place of the corporation in policymaking.
• Contrast the position of the corporation with that of public interest groups in the American political culture.
• Understand why your authors say the interest group system in its present form makes political equality less likely and thus helps to diminish democracy in the United States.
• Identify the "insiders" and "outsiders" in the American political system.
• Identify key terms and concepts used in Chapter 7.