Research Paper on "Interest Groups"

Research Paper 5 pages (1556 words) Sources: 5

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Interest Groups

It is easy to gather that Americans want a future that has economic prosperity and a safe climate that will be more abundant for future generations to come. This is because the American life consists of material prosperity, political democracy and environmental issues as what people believe then to be. Therefore, America has interest groups that help with keeping democracy going so that people can live how they want to. "Both the formal structure and the informal traditions of American politics provide fertile ground for interest groups. One feature of the American system that enhances their influence is the relative weakness of U.S. political parties, which stems, in part, from the separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches. In a parliamentary system such as Great Britain, where the prime minister's hold on office depends on majority support in Parliament, parties exert considerable control over legislators and, as a consequence, over policy making. In contrast, elections of the U.S. president and Congress are politically separate events, even when held at the same time. Each legislator must construct a winning coalition in his or her state or district, and the nature of these coalitions is quite different from the majority coalition that the successful presidential candidate assembles" (The Role of Interest Groups). With that, it is apparent that interest groups have a lot to do with democracy, considering the fact they are about what democracy stands for, which is freedom.

Interest Groups and Popular Sovereignty

In the twenty-first century, economic changes were threatening the third American middle class because U.S. corporations started to transfer production jobs and service jobs to low-wage workers. Along with that, in many Third World countries of export-oriented development strategies made the global market for both skilled and unskilled labor to grow bigger. Reducing the cost of such imports as toys from China and shoes from Indonesia, it destroyed the jobs. Unfortunately, every sector from foreign competition, an ever growing number of manufacturing and service jobs were eliminated by technological innovations, which is a trend that will probably prove even more important than globalization over time (Are We Still a Middle Class Nation). This is due to the fact that America has popular sovereignty, meaning that interest groups/people have the right to say what passes for laws in the United States even though the government has the final say so in which laws pass. However, in order for the government to be popular and democratic, political figures have to let the people change any laws that they see fit. Therefore, interest groups have everything to do with democracy since they see to it to make the laws to change or stay the same for the American people.

According to the New Columbia En-cyclopedia, sovereignty is "the supreme authority in a political community." It is that individual or group that has absolute power to make law. The term popular sovereignty is supposed to mean that this ultimate power belongs to the people, but what is the most common contemporary interpretation? Most Western democracies claim to base their government on popular sovereignty, but in reality the people has little ultimate authority short of revolution. Most decisions, even fundamental decisions, are left to the legislatures. It is usually the legislature that controls the constitution, the most basic instrument of government, and the extent of popular authority is usually at this body's discretion. Even where popular consent is required, the legislature usually has the sole authority to propose amendments. In reality this means that sovereignty is most commonly placed in the legislature. It is this body, rather than the people, that has the ultimate power to make law. On the other hand, in order for a government to be truly popular it would have to provide the people with at least as much authority as any other body, and in addition a right to overrule that body. This is how I define popular sovereignty and it is this definition that forms the basis for the proposed governmental system (Popular Sovereignty 2003).

Due to technologically driven increases in productivity, advances in manufacturing and automation have slashed the prices of consumer appliances such as televisions and personal computers. However, productivity growth threatens the middle class and other social classes in three ways due to the poor structure of globalization, which could increase economic growth if reconstructed correctly (Are We Still a Middle Class Nation). From there, it is very important that interest groups can make sure that the globalization issue is cut down to size and changed for the better for American society. This is because a cow in a foreign country makes more money than anyone in the world, which most economists cannot realize as a problem. With that fact, globalization needs to be restructured in order to benefit everyone, which would cause interest groups to get involved so that they can push to reconstruct globalization to benefit the American society.

by raising the costs of certain labor-intensive services necessary for a middle-class lifestyle;

by changing the occupational structure;

increasing inequality

America is the melting pot of the whole world, the New World, seen by the rest of the world as the land of opportunity, the land of the free, the green pastures and the crossroads where virtually all nationalities and races meet since it lets American people have their democracy by a way of having interest groups to project their freedom of speech in society. Interest groups would not have aroused studies and researches a few centuries ago. This study would not have been conducted in other countries because almost all the world's countries and their people possess unifying attributes that make them distinct and unmistakable for any other nationality, race, culture and language. Only America possesses the probability of encountering the benefits of having interest groups to project democracy because of countless causes -- immigration, preservation of heritage of immigrants, racial and ethnic differences, and cultural differences to name a few. With that, in the Federalist Papers, Hamilton states within the new constitution men have to fight any changes that might harm their society so that they can be safe. Therefore, interest groups are very important to democracy so that they can help fight for laws that make society better.

The type of interest group experiencing the most rapid growth since 1970 is the "public interest group." Political scientist Jeffrey Berry defines a public interest group as one that supports goals that are not of direct material benefit to its members but rather express their values pertaining to society as a whole. The first public interest groups were spawned by the civil rights, women's rights, and environmental movements of the 1960s. Supporters of these causes often went through an evolution over time that transferred the expression of their views from street protest to organized action within the political system. Later, public interest groups mobilized on new issues, such as the rights of the disabled, prevention of child abuse or domestic violence, and gay/lesbian rights. These groups have also been major advocates for programs benefiting the poor. Some leading groups of this type include the National Low Income Housing Coalition, the Children's Defense Fund, and Public Citizen (the group led by consumer activist Ralph Nader) (The Role of Interest Groups).

Conclusion

Being an American individual does not necessarily mean that you are of white, black, red, brown, or yellow complexion, which signify race. It means that people have freedom of speech and have the right to fight for what they want the government to do with the laws that surrounds them. In the Constitutional Convention, "The Committee of Style wrote the final draft of the Constitution. It included a Preamble and an obligation of contracts clause, both written by Gouverneur Morris, and an enumeration of the powers of… READ MORE

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