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Interest groups and policy making
Importance of interest groups to policy making
Interest group influence on policy
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The overall theme of Government's End, Why Washington Stopped Working by Jonathan Rauch is one of calling for a reform for the way in which the modern government is operated. I believe that the overall feel of the book is not so much that Jonathan Rauch has a problem with what the government can not get done, but rather what the government can not get undone. The feeling to the book is that the government is a slow giant that will not change its ways. His analyses of the government of being slow and not a whole bunch gets done is very correct. The Founders of this great country did not want a government where laws and regulations could be easily passed and put into place. The Founders had just fought with their lives against a government where the ultimate say, came down to a single person. This is the very reason why the Founders created a system of checks and balances, to ensure that no one person or group could influence and pass laws that would benefit just one group instead of the nation as a whole. So in short, with Rauch's belief that the government is a giant, he is very true.
Secondly, as far as the government not being capable of undoing what is has done, he is correct on this point. According to Dr. Michelle Chin, in order for a program to be "immortal" all it has to do is become a federal program. Once a program has become part of the federal government, it is very hard to get rid of that program. This is because that the programs impact a great number of people. Also, because people become accustomed to these types of programs and cannot remember what life was like before the programs existed. Also, the programs that were created then go out and hire lobbies to ensure that the program will not get cut and lobby for other programs to help the initial program, thus growing the government. This is part of the reason why the government has grown so large, because of the programs that have been created and cannot be terminated.
Rauch's biggest problem with organized interest groups participating in the policy process is that they are the ones that truly shape the government and not the policy makers themselves.
This book was a good read for me, but I also read book reviews to help me keep track on what I am reading. These book reviews just made a better understanding of what I was reading.
Killing Reagan is a book written by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard. The book’s focus is to take readers behind the scenes, through the life and times of Ronald Reagan. From his Hollywood days to his days in presidency, near-death experience, and the nearly impossible obstacles he had to overcome in order to carry out the duties as a man and as President of the United States. The authors wanted to create a portrait of a “great man operating in violent times”, and that they did.
Overall, the growth of the American government should have complimented American culture. Instead, -because of mass corruption, the influence big business, and foreign policy- the enormous growth of the federal government has hindered the great success America was meant to achieve.
Hamilton provides an inside look at how congress really works and clears up popular misconception that make members of congress look like wasteful bickering crooks that support gridlock and are only concerned with the needs of interest groups and lobbyists. Hamilton argues that Congress has changed for the better throughout the years and that they are held at higher standards than they were before. Hamilton states that Congress is not only working at keeping the public happy but that have recently become faced with a lot more issues than before, they are not only more issues but more complicated and technical that are very high risk policies that take a long time to produce a decision (Hamilton, 1988, 65). Hamilton states that Congress is a system in which the viewpoints of everyone are taken into account and make sure there is a consensus when it comes to defining decisions. Even though many of us acknowledge that lobbyist and special interest groups play an essential role in the law making party, Congress is making an effort to make sure that everyone’s voice is heard. Congress is making sure that the balance of power is distributed properly. In recent years, there has been a decline in mega-lobbies and interest groups so that not only the wealthy powerful get their voice heard, but the everyday american people get an opinion in things that affect them as well. In Gary Lee’s article, The NRA Has Lost some Firepower, we can see that interest groups are beginning to have less of an influence on larger political decisions (Hamilton, 1988, 65). For example, the National Rifle Association’s defeat in the battle over the “Brady bill” and their war towards trying to revamp Medicaid was a great loss for lobbyists and
Interest groups, lobbyists, large corporations, and PACs try to influence the congressional committees' bills so they can have a say in the legislative process. When an interest group hears about a bill that is being debated on in a committee, they try to influence a members vote and they try to get a part of the bill changed. For example, a lobbyist came to me on a bill I proposed on making health care plans have no minimum requirement on benefits the company gives to its patients. He told me about how he did not get the right treatments and tests done on diseases he has and now is suffering badly from them. It was because the health plan did not have to give him anything extra. He changed my mind on the bill, and I changed the bill to setting a minimum standard on benefits given to patients.
“The Logic of American Government,” written by Samuel Kernell, Gary C. Jacobson, Thad Kousser, and Lynn Vavreck has many interesting facts about the history of our government. The book has many differences, but also many similarities between the first five chapters. The first chapter, The Logic of Politics, is related to our independence and shift of government and the constitution was created as laws for the new country to abide by in chapter two, The Constitution. With rules we needed a system of government, which is taught in chapter three, Federalism. From the new system of federalism, the people of the country wanted to be treated as equals and have the same rights, as read in chapter four, Civil Rights. Although with the newly found civil
During 1776, the United States was at war to gain its own independence from the hands of the tyrant King George III and his kingdom. As the fightt continued, the spirits of the U.S. soldiers began to die out as the nightmares of winter crawled across the land. Thomas Paine, a journalist, hoped to encourage the soldiers back into the fight through one of his sixteen pamphlets, “The American Crisis (No.1)”. In order to rebuild the hopes of the downhearted soldiers, Thomas Paine establishes himself as a reliable figure, enrages them with the crimes of the British crown, and, most importantly evokes a sense of culpability.
Robert Dahl states his opinion towards the Constitution in his novel How Democratic is the American Constitution? He goes through multiple subjects such as our government compared to other countries, the framers of the constitution, and what is stated in it that can be improved or should remain unchanged. Dahl makes several intriguing cases about laws that our outdated, and things that should be changed because they might not be accurate or modern. This was an enjoyable read and on many topics Robert A. Dahl and I seem to have similar views. I believe the American Constitution is not democratic.
In my opinion, the relationship between the Federal government and the States is unclear whether which institution has the authority to implement legislations. The vagueness of the American constitution particularly in the 10th Amendment of the Constitution that quote ” The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” The ambiguous of the American Constitution may be the main cause of the over power of Federal government.
These pluralistic interest groups are free to operate and lobby in the political arena, fighting against the majority and other competing factions for voice in Congress. With the influence of multiple factions operating throughout the political system, a balance of power is created (Kernell 2000, 429). This is much like the international theory of sovereign states balancing each other’s power to create a political system that focuses on stability, yet is always in a constant flux of power. With this in mind, special interest groups are constantly contending for power by raising money, campaigning, and lobbying in Congress. When a special interest group is threatened by a competing policy, the group will organize efforts to balance, or transcend the power of the competing group.
The United States government is designed with checks and balances to ensure that no one branch can become more powerful than another. Though this may be the case, it is still possible that one branch of the our government can still be more powerful than the others. The equality of power in our government has constantly changed over the course of the life of the United States. Although these changes have occurred, we still have not made all of the branches equal and the inequality has been due to meet the demands of the time. For example, in 1938 our country was facing a depression and nothing was getting done. So, Roosevelt took it upon himself to give the Executive branch more power, to then in turn, help the country creep back out of the hole it had dug itself. After the country didn’t need the reform bills and the size of the government that Roosevelt had put it, things were then downsized and put into a more stable equilibrium. Though there were attempts to make everything equal, the Legislative Branch now holds the majority of the power, and is the most powerful branch that our government has.
The “advocacy explosion” in the United States in the 20th century has been caused by the extreme increase in the number of interest groups in the United States. The general public views the increase and the groups themselves as a cancer that has come to the body of American politics and is spreading. The explosion in the number of interest groups and interest group members and finances has had an effect on the decline of the American political party and partisanship, the effect on democracy and the public interest, and the bias that has come with interest group competition.
There is much-heated debate on the issues of Social Security today. The Social Security system is the largest government program of income distribution in the United States. People are concerned that they won't see a dime of what they worked so hard to contribute into the Social Security system for so many years. Social Security provides benefits to about forty-three million Americans. Not only to retired workers, but also to their spouses and dependents of the workers who die prematurely. It also provides benefits to disabled workers and their dependents. Social Security appears to most people like a simple retirement saving’s account. After all, you generally contribute through payroll deductions, then get money back after you retire. Nonetheless, Social Security is a complex and intricate communal program. By design, Social Security involves massive subsidies from the next generation of retirees to the present, from single workers to married couples. Now that the gigantic post World War II baby boomers generation approaches retirement age, there is concern about the consequences it will have on Social Security. There are basically three options, we can do nothing and allow Social Security to run it’s course, revise Social Security, or consider privatization of the system.
Those who feared that the federal government would become too strong were assured by Madison in Federalist No. 14 that “in the first place it is to be remembered that the general government is not to be charged with the whole power of making and administrating laws…The subordinate governments, which can extend their care to all those other objects which can be separately provided for, will retain their due authority and activity”