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Interest Groups Paper
Keyva Strickland
January 3, 2013
POL/443
Instructor Martha Kirchmer
Interest groups is an important mechanism through which citizens in the United States make his or her ideas, needs, and views known to elected officials; where they work hard in trying to influence government officials' decision-making by presenting his or her ideas and beliefs directly to them.
There are countless interest groups that exist in the United States today and there are many reasons behind there rapid growth and existence. One is being that there is a diversity of our nation and large amounts of immigrants from all over the world as well as developing different cultures and backgrounds, which led to different views and expectations of the government. Another factor playing a role in the power for interest groups to form is the nature of our decentralized political system and the manner in which the Constitution was written; giving citizens the freedom and countless rights that other countries do not have. Because the Constitution gives people the power to choose who and how the nation should be governed, it gives them access to politicians and those holding seats in office, to demand, and have the freedom to speak up about his or her expectations of our leaders. An interest group works directly with a strong political party to help them achieve a goal, whereas its approach would be directly with the government where political parties are weak.
There are two kinds of interest groups; Institutional Interests where organizations or individuals represent other businesses and firms for specific issues and goals, and Membership Interests where citizens who may decide to join groups, whether it is out of a sense of civic duty or for some type of incentive offered to them for joining and supporting their groups. The incentives some individuals may be seeking are Solidary, Material, or Purposive, and the members' involvement in pursuing certain goals a...