Texas Interest Groups Research Paper

Interest groups are groups of people who share common interest and get together in order to influence decision making in Texas. Interest groups are grouped into three categories. The groups can influence issues the economy, business, or labor. (laits.edu.ut, 2006, pp.1). Now, these groups have many ways to influence decision making in Texas. Although they might be seemingly insignificant, their power may be surprising. As a conservative state, we have always stood for keeping the government small to retain the people’s power. Because of this goal, the political parties in Texas have weak political power, but the interest groups in Texas have strong political power. Political parties have many ways to achieve the decision making changes that

Although illegal, it occurs frequently and causes interest groups to be thought of as suspicious. Interest groups have multiple ways of illegally persuading change in Texan decision making. Two of these ways are through bribery, and sit ins. Interest groups have been active in bribery and have been brought into the light through events dealing with bribery. In the 1970’s, the Sharpstown bank scandal erupted. It was a case where Houston banker Frank Sharp exchanged financial bribes with Gus Mutscher and other legislators to pass deposit insurance bills. This scandal resulted in the conviction of the house speaker Gus Mutscher and the other legislators. Another case of interest groups using illegal action took place at the university of Texas in the 1980’s. Students protested against the university’s investment in south Africa, because of the system of apartheid at the time. When the police attempted to remove the students, the students reacted by destroying and damaging office equipment which resulted in them getting criminal charges and suspended from the university for a year. Essentially to me, they got their point across by making a scene so that more attention would be brought to this issue at the expense of the charges that they