Interest Groups, by Shea Nolan

Pluralism is the idea that democratic politics consists of various interest groups working against each other, balancing one another out so that the common good is achieved. It is necessary to good government to have interest groups because they allow people the ability to contribute to the democratic process. Also, they prevent any one minority from imposing its will in the majority. Therefore interest groups are a vital part to a healthy democracy.

Some believe that pluralism is flawed because there are so many conflicting interests in society. They argue that the interest groups interfere with democracy because they seek benefits for a minority of people rather than the greater good of the majority. Furthermore, other critics argue that interest groups only benefit an economic group, which allows them to have greater financial resources for their use. Nearly two-thirds of lobbyists in Washington represent economic groups. Therefore, interest groups tend to ignore the poor in favor to middle and upper class Americans. Charges of unfair influence are often vague and unsupported by facts. Large organizations put forth the effort to create a correlation between donations and votes, but that is not real evidence that votes have been purchased. It’s against the law to actually buy votes and if found guilty of doing so a vigorous prosecution will acre. But just recently both a lobbyist and politician have been found guilty and punished for giving and receiving bribes. This shows the system works and will deter others from acting in the same way. Not able to buy votes, special interest groups instead give money to politicians’ election campaigns. Special interest groups give money to those candidates who have already supported their policies.  

Since the 1960’s the number of voters has substantially declined in the US, but the number of interest groups activity in lobbying the government has increased dramatically. The main objective of an interest group is to try to influence every branch and every level of government that best fits their policy goals. Though interest groups serve an importance to democratic government, they’ve had gained a negative standing in America, due to the fact of dishonest lobbying. The influence of special interest groups is increasing. New campaign finance laws are needed to check this growth and give politics back to the people. We should follow the British system, which puts severe limits on individual candidates’ spending and bans political television ads, but gives political parties free access to the national media for regulated political broadcasts.