Public Interest Groups Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

The concept of a public interest group has varied operational definitions within the discipline of political science. Broadly defined, public interest groups represent diffuse, generally noneconomic, interests in society. Their primary focus is on representing causes that have no natural constituency, or advocating for people or groups that traditionally have not had a voice in the political process. Public interest groups are formed to counter the traditional lobbying community that focuses on procuring discrete material benefits for its membership.

Public interest groups have assumed a prominent role in the pressure group community since the 1960s. Prior to this time, groups seeking material gain from the political process were the primary forces lobbying government in the United States. Consequently, political scientists traditionally focused their attention on the interplay of interest groups attempting to further their own economic ambitions or agenda. This traditional ecology of lobbying included large organizations that represented business, labor, farmers, and various professions. Each of the groups had a material interest in the outcome of government decision making, and therefore focused their lobbying on gains for their members regardless of the larger social or economic costs to the nation as a whole.

Public interest groups existed prior to the 1960s. However, social movements related to civil rights, anti-Vietnam War (1959–1975) activities, the environment, and women’s rights all led to an increased belief that advocacy groups should be formed to provide a counter veiling power to the existing interest group system. Public interest groups emerged to represent what social scientists refer to as post material issues. These issues are based on the belief that there is a diminishing return for further economic growth in Western democracies. Consequently, their advocacy focuses on quality of life issues without tangible monetary value such as a clean environment, transparent government, and human rights. Public interest groups have thus added a noneconomic dimension to the materialism of debate among the traditional interest group community.

A great diversity exists in the agendas and ideologies of public interest groups. Some organizations, such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), target a single issue that they believe benefits all of society. Other groups focus on a number of issues within one area of policy, such as the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) with environmental issues. A final class of public interest groups lobbies on behalf of a broad range of issues facing a particular group that has been underrepresented in the political system, such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s (NAACP) advocacy for civil rights and racial equality.

There is a tendency to mistakenly associate public interest groups with a liberal ideology because they often oppose the material interests of conservative forces within society such as business. However, the ecology of public interest groups is very diverse. Many groups advocate for issues that are nonpartisan or no ideological in nature. One example is MADD’s support for strict drunk-driving laws. Other groups, such as the National Right to Life Committee and the Christian Coalition advocate for conservative causes such the rights of the unborn and the support of traditional moral values in society.

The concept of public interest groups has been subject to criticism on a number of counts. First, the notion of “the” public interest is nebulous. Given the broad diversity of society and complexity of most public policy issues, it is often difficult to determine what is in the best interests of the public. The trade-off between economic and post material benefits often presents a murky picture of the public good. This leads traditional lobbying groups to claim that policy outcomes advancing their own material benefits are in the public interest. Thus a business organization representing oil interests can argue that the public is best served by drilling for oil in a pristine wilderness because it will keep energy costs down. They present this argument as an alternative “public interest” to the claims of groups representing the environment. Further, even within the public interest community there can be diverging conceptions of the public interest.

The second criticism of public interest groups is that some organizations accept funding from corporations that represent traditional “material” interests. This creates the potential perception that corporations can use the public interest groups as proxies to lobby on behalf of their own material interests against opposing industries.

Finally, skeptics argue that every group, regardless of its claims, represents some type of self-interest rather than a diffuse public good. Consequently, a public interest group focused on providing access to the arts on the basis that cultural enrichment is essential to education can be seen as a front for art lovers who want their hobby to be subsidized by the government. Critics would argue that while the benefit the arts lovers get is not strictly material, it still is in the self-interest of the group’s members opposed to a broad public interest.

Bibliography:

Andrews, Kenneth T., and Bob Edwards. “Advocacy Organizations in the U.S. Political Process.” Annual Review of Sociology 30 (2004): 479–506.
Berry, Jeffrey M. Lobbying for the People: The Political Behavior of Public Interest Groups. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1977.
The New Liberalism:The Rising Power of Citizen Groups. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 1999.
Cigler, Allan J., and Anthony J. Nownes. “Public Interest Entrepreneurs and Group Patrons.” In Interest Group Politics, 4th ed., edited by Allan Cigler and Burdett Loomis, 77–100.Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 1995.
Schlozman, Kay Lehman, and John T.Tierney. Organized Interests and American Democracy. New York: Harper and Row, 1986.

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