What Interests Are Represented

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Chapter 7: Interest Groups and Corporations

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What Interests Are Represented

What kinds of interests find a voice in American politics? A useful place to start is with political scientist E. E. Schattschneider's distinction between "private" and "public" interests. Although the boundaries between the two are sometimes fuzzy, the distinction remains important: Private interest associations are those that try to gain protections or material advantages from government for their own members rather than for society at large.¹ For the most part, these are economic interests of one kind or another. Public interest associations are those that try to gain protections or benefits for people beyond their own members, often for society at large. These include a diverse set of associations. There are associations, for example, that are motivated by an ideology or by the desire to advance a general cause-animal rights, let us say, or environmental protection-or by the commitment to some public policy-gun control or an end to abortion. There are also associations that represent the non-profit sector, and even some that represent government entities.

Private and public interest groups come in a wide range of forms. Some, including the AARP, are large membership organizations with sizable Washington and regional offices. Some large membership organizations have passionately committed members active in its affairs-such as the National Rifle Association-while others have relatively passive members who join for the benefits the organization provides-such as the American Automobile Association with its well-known trip assistance. Other groups are trade associations whose members are business firms. Still others are rather small organizations, without members, run by professionals and sustained by foundations and a sizeable mailing list for soliciting contributions-the Children's Defense Fund and the National Taxpayers Union come to mind. We examine these in more detail below (also see Table 7.1).

Table 7.1 The Diverse World of Interest Associations

Interest	Interest subtypes	Association examples
Private Interests (focus on protections and gains for its members)
Business
	Corporations that lobby on their own behalf	Microsoft Boeing
	Trade Associations	Chemical Manufacturers Association National Cattlemen's Beef Association
	Peak Business Organizations	Business Round Table Federation of Small Businesses
Professions
	Doctors	American Medical Association
	Dentists	American Dental Association
	Accountants	National Society of Accountants
	Lawyers	American Bar Association
Labor
	Union	International Brotherhood of Teamsters
	Union Federation	AFL-CIO
Public Interests (focus on protections and gains for a broader public or society in general)
Ideological and Cause
	environment	The Sierra Club
	pro-choice	National Abortion Rights Action League
	pro-life	Focus on the Family
	anti-tax	Americans for Tax Reform
	civil rights	National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Human Rights Campaign
Non-Profit sector
	Medical	American Hospital Association
	Charitable	American Red Cross
Governmental entities
	State	National Conference of State Legislatures
	Local	National Association of Counties

Private Interest Groups

Many different kinds of private interest groups are active in American politics.

Business

Because of the vast resources at the disposal of business and because of their strategic role in the health of local, state, and national economies, groups and associations representing business wield enormous power in Washington. Large corporations such as Boeing and Microsoft are able to mount their own lobbying efforts and join with others in influential associations such as the Business Roundtable. Medium-sized businesses are well represented by organizations such as the National Association of Manufacturers and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Even small businesses have proved to be quite influential when joined in associations such as the National Federation of Independent Business, which helped stop the Clinton health plan in 1994. Agriculture and agribusinesses (fertilizer, seed, machinery, biotechnology, and food-processing companies) have more than held their own over the years through organizations such as the American Farm Bureau Federation and the Farm Machinery Manufacturer's Association and through scores of commodity groups, including the American Dairy Association and the American Wheat Growers Association. We will look at business power in American politics in more detail later in this chapter.

The Professions

Several associations represent the interests of professionals, such as doctors, lawyers, dentists, and accountants. Because of the prominent social position of professionals in local communities and their ability to make substantial campaign contributions, such associations are very influential in the policymaking process on matters related to their professional expertise and concerns. The American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Dental Association (ADA), for instance, lobbied strongly against the Clinton health care proposal and helped kill it in the 103rd Congress. The Trial Lawyers Association has long been a major financial contributor to the Democratic Party and active in blocking legislation to limit the size of personal injury jury awards. Trial lawyers suffered a blow in 2005, however, when the Republican-dominated Congress passed legislation shifting consideration of large, multi-state class action suits to the federal courts, thereby restricting trial lawyers' ability to shop for sympathetic state courts for their clients.

Labor

Although labor unions are sometimes involved in what might be called public interest activities (such as supporting civil rights legislation), their main role in the United States has been to protect the jobs of their members and to secure maximum wages and benefits for them. Unlike labor unions in many parts of the world, which are as much political and ideological organizations as economic, American labor unions have traditionally focused on so-called bread-and-butter issues. Union lobbying activities are directed at issues that affect the ability of unions to protect the jobs, wages, and benefits of their members and to maintain or increase the size of the union membership rolls. As an important part of the New Deal coalition that dominated American politics well into the late 1960s, labor unions were influential at the federal level during the years when the Democratic party controlled Congress and often won the presidency.

Although organized labor is still a force to be reckoned with in electoral politics, most observers believe that the political power of labor unions has eroded in dramatic ways over the past several decades.² Organized labor's main long-range problem in American politics and its declining power relative to business in the workplace is its small membership base; in 2004, only 12.5 percent of American workers-and only 7.9 percent of private-sector workers-were members of labor unions compared with 35 percent in 1954.⁴ (see Figure 7.2) The long but steady decline in union membership is strongly associated with the decline in the proportion of American workers in manufacturing, the economic sector in which unions have traditionally been the strongest. Frustrated by what they considered to be organized labor's leadership's unwillingness to put enough resources into efforts to unionize service workers (such as hospital, home-care, and hotel workers, and hourly employees at large retailers such as Wal-Mart and Home Depot), the fastest growing section in the American economy, a number of union's, following the lead of Andrew Stern's Service Employees International Union and James Hoffa's Teamsters Union, quit the AFL-CIO in 2005 to form their own labor federation, Change to Win. They were soon joined by the United Farm Workers, the carpenter's union, and others. Whether the new federation's competition with the AFL-CIO will revitalize or further damage organized labor remains to be seen.

Public Interest Groups

Public interest groups or associations try to get government to act in ways that will serve interests that are broader and more encompassing than the direct economic or occupational interests of their own members. Such groups claim to be committed to protecting and advancing the public interest. ³

One type of public interest group is the advocacy group. People active in advocacy groups tend to be motivated by ideological concerns or a belief in some cause. Such advocacy

groups have always been around, but a great upsurge in their number and influence has taken place since the late 1960s.⁵ Many were spawned by social movements. In the wake of the civil rights and women's movements (see Chapter 8), it is hardly surprising that a number of associations have been formed to advance the interests of particular racial, ethnic, and gender groups in American society. The National Organization of Women advocates policies in Washington that advance the position of women in American society, for example; the League of Latin American Citizens has been concerned, among other things, with national and state policies that affect migrants from Mexico and other Latin American countries. Similarly, the NAACP and the Urban League are advocates for the interests of African Americans.

The environmental movement created organizations such as the Environmental Defense Fund, the Nature Conservancy, Clean Water Action, and the Natural Resources Defense Council, for example. The evangelical Christian upsurge led to the creation of such organizations as the Moral Majority, the Christian Coalition, the National Right-to-Life Committee, Focus on the Family, and the Family Research Council. The gay and lesbian movement eventually led to the creation of organizations such as the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). Some have been around for many years, for example, the American Civil Liberties Union, committed to the protection of First Amendment freedoms, and the Children's Defense Fund, an advocate for poor children.

Most advocacy groups retain a professional, paid administrative staff and are supported by generous donors (often foundations), membership dues, and/or donations generated by direct mail campaigns. While some depend on and encourage grassroots volunteers, and some hold annual membership meetings where members play some role in making association policies, most advocacy associations are organizations without active membership involvement (other than check writing), and are run by lobbying and public education professionals.⁶

Two other types of public interest groups play a role in American politics, though usually a quieter one. First, there are associations representing government entities at the state and local levels of our federal system that attempt to influence policies made by lawmakers and bureaucrats in Washington. The National Association of Counties is one example, as is the National Governors Association. Second, there are non-profit organizations and associations who try to influence policies that advance their missions to serve the public interests. Examples in include the Red Cross and the National Council of Non-Profit Associations.

¹E. E. Schattschneider, The Semi-Sovereign People (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1960).

² Berry, The New Liberalism; Thomas Byrne Edsall, The New Politics of Inequality (New York: Norton, 1984); Michael Goldfield, The Decline of Organized Labor in the United States (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987); Edward S. Greenberg, Capitalism and the American Political Ideal (Armonk, NY: Sharpe, 1985); David Vogel, Fluctuating Fortunes: The Political Power of Business in America (New York: Basic Books, 1989), ch. 8.

³ U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2005.

⁴Jeffrey M. Berry, Lobbying for the People (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1977), p. 7; Berry, The New Liberalism, p. 2.

⁵Berry, Lobbying for the People; David Broder, Changing the Guard (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1980); Hugh Heclo, "Issue Networks and the Executive Establishment," in Anthony King, ed., The New American Political System (Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute, 1978); Schlozman and Tierney, Organized Interests; Jack L. Walker, Jr., "The Origins and Maintenance of Interest Groups in America," American Political Science Review, 77 (1983), pp. 390-406; Skocpol, Diminished Democracy.

⁶Skocpol, Diminished Democracy; Theda Skocpol, "Associations Without Members," The American Prospect, 10, no. 4 (July/August 1999), pp. 66-73; Skocpol, "Voice and Inequality."

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