Texas Politics - Interest Groups

1	Introduction
	1.	Looking Ahead
2	Interest Group Types
	1.	Public Interest Groups
	2.	Private Interest Groups
3	Interest Groups, Political Parties
4	How Interest Groups Form
	1.	Private vs. Public Goods
	2.	Concentrated Benefits vs. Diffuse Costs
	3.	Changes in Technology
5	What Interest Groups Do
	1.	Bringing Individuals Together
	2.	Informing the Public and Elected Representatives
	3.	Organizing Electoral Competition
	4.	Organizing (Sub)Government
	5.	Linking to National Politics
6	How They Do It: Techniques
	1.	Lobbying
	2.	Petitions, Letter Writing, Phone
	3.	Public Demonstrations
	4.	Media Campaigns
	5.	Attending Public Meetings
	6.	Legal Action
	7.	Illegal Action
7	Conclusion

Appendices
	1.	Print-friendly format
	2.	Key words and phrases
	3.	Multimedia resources

Distinguishing Interest Group Types

Interest groups are most commonly distinguished by the types of interests they serve. Some attempt to serve wider public interests, while others serve narrower private interests. We adopt the conventional terms – public interest groups and special interest groups – typically used to describe these two basic types. Note that the essence of the distinction lies not so much in the characteristics of the groups themselves (e.g., membership, resources) as in the nature of their objectives.

2.1

Public Interest Groups

Public interest groups seek to achieve results that may be enjoyed by the general population. They promote policies that produce widely distributed benefits that anyone can enjoy – for example, clean air or improvements in public health. Unlike a private interest group, if a public interest group achieves its goals, the benefit to any one persons tends to be quite small. Hence, public interest groups tend to rely on numerous small donations and contributions of goods and services to maintain their staffs and programs. As public interest groups have grown and proliferated, the more successful groups have imitated narrower special interest groups to the extent that they can afford to do so, by utilizing specialized professional help from lawyers, consultants, marketers, and lobbyists. But in general, most public interest groups tend to have fewer resources at their disposal than special interest groups.