The Pros And Cons Of Interest Groups

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READING RESPONSE #3 1. Chapter 12 – What are interest groups? How do they influence government? Are interest groups good or bad for democracy? Defend your answer. - Interest groups are organizations of people with the same interest intended to influence the government. (410) One of the most influential interest groups is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) which focuses on acquiring American aid and weapon deals for Israel and stimulating sanctions against Israel’s Middle East opponents. (410) Interest groups influence the government by hiring lobbyists, which are individuals that contact government officials on behalf of a particular issue or cause. (410) The hired lobbyists support government officials who agree with their …show more content…

By establishing this relationship, the interest groups are indirectly helping the executive agencies get their funds and the interest groups gains favorable regulations and contracts from these agencies in exchange. (429) Although some critics argue that interest groups can result to Corruption such as the case with Jack Abramoff (438), Demosclerosis that slows down government functions (439), and Inequality by tilting democracy to the wealthy and powerful since they are the ones who can afford lobbying services (440), I believe that Interest groups are good for democracy. We define democracy as a government in which the people rule and make decisions for themselves, and through interest groups the people are given the chance to be better represented and become actively involve in decision-making. Interest groups represent the people specially the minority, arguably expand the range of perspectives that government officials hear, facilitate a two-way communication between the people and the government by conveying citizen views to government officials and providing information about government activities to the people, encourage

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