interest groups

Interest Groups
By: Nicole Jones
According to wikipedia.com interest groups are “an organized collection of people who seek to influence political decisions and policy, without seeking election to public office. They are a necessary component of a pluralist democracy.” In this essay I will be discribing the four different types of interest groups in America. I will also talk about which interest groups follows those four types of interest groups. I will then say which one I would be in. I will first start with the Economic Interests.
The American government does not determine wages, prices, and profits directly. Public policy in America has economic effects through regulations, tax advantages, subsidies and contracts, and international trade policy. The government regulations effect business, labor, and farmers more then anyone. The littlest of changes in these regulations can cause a business a lot of money. The government does give out aid to farmers, small businesses, railroads, minority businesses, and others, but this causes a big uproar because then everyone wants someone money. So the whole purpose of the economic interest groups is to affect the regulations. There are two main types of economic interest groups.
The first is Labor. These are mostly unions. There are fourteen million workers who are members of unions belonging to the AFL-CIO alone. Million others are members of non-AFL-CIO unions. There main issues are better working conditions and higher wages. Unions have fought hard to establish something called the union shop, which requires new employees to join the union representing them, but many companies are against this because of the right-to-work laws, which outlaw union membership as a condition of employment.
The second is business. This is where the union represents a business or corporation. Business interest groups have increased greatly, nearly seventy percent of all interest group organizations that have a Washington presence represent business. Two big interest groups are the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and the Chamber of Commerce. There are many different ones like B.I.G (Business Interest Group) and BIGOR (Business Interest Group of Oregon). There main thing is to try to help whatever business they are a part of by pushing for bills that will help the profit of those business.
The second main type of Interest Groups is the Environmental Interest group. There main purpose is of course to try to get bills that help the environment into laws. Environmental groups have promoted many different things like promoting pollution-control policies, wilderness protection, and pollution control. They have fought to ban strip-mining, supersonic aircraft, the Alaskan oil pipeline, offshore oil drilling, and nuclear power plants. There are tons of environmental interest groups some have been around for a very long time like the Sierra Club and the Audubon Society, but many others trace their origins to the first Earth Day, April 22, 1970.
The third main type of interest groups is the Equality Interest groups. These interest groups main fight is to push bills through legislation that are for minorities, women, minority religions, and equality at the polls, in housing, on the job, in education, and etc. There are a lot of interest groups from the Equality Interest group. The two best known ones are the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) and NOW (National Organization of Women). Each of these groups have fought for many things and have accomplished much. There are a lot of other groups out there for equality not just for women and minorities there also groups for gay marriage like GLAAD or the equal treat of the elderly like AARP.
The fourth and final group is the Consumers and Public Interest Lobbies. The public interest lobbies are an organization that seeks to help the consumer by making things safer. Consumer groups have won many legislative victories. Congress finally reacted to the lobbing of the consumer and public interest lobbies by creating the Consumer Product Safety Commission. There are many different groups like the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), New York Public Research Interest Group (NYPIRG), Vermont Public Research Interest Group (VPRIG), and many others fighting for the safety of the buyer.
The main type of interest group that I agree with is of course the Equality Interest group. I am all about equality in ever way. I feel this is THE most important thing to fight for in the United States. I am ok with almost every Equality Interest groups as long as they are not to extreme.