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


			Sputnik illustrates interest group activity inside political parties.

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Interest Groups and Political Parties

Interest groups may not seem much different from political parties. They are both organizations of individuals sharing some common attitudes and opinions, and they both seek to influence elections, government officials and public policy choices. But there are crucial differences between the two types of organizations.

Interest groups generally do not explicitly sponsor their own members as candidates for elected public office (though they often do seek to put their own members into appointed public office, particularly where economic regulation is concerned). Interest groups generally do not embrace explicit party labels that voters use as cues to identify their political orientation. However, some groups of voters may associate specific interest groups with particular parties in a more general way. Also, recent years have witnessed an increasing number of ideologically driven and public interest groups (Citizens for Tax Justice, Christian Coalition, Moveon.org, and others), whose orientation is either explicitly spelled out, or otherwise widely known. Narrowly focused private interest groups, in contrast, tend to downplay ideological labels.

Interest groups also tend to be much more narrowly focused on a specific area of public policy or social concern than are political parties. Interest groups form around specific concerns like the environment, free speech, tax reform, agricultural subsidies, free trade, school funding and labor standards, to name a few. Meanwhile, political parties tend to bring together some of these groups under one "big tent."

Interest groups compete, sometimes fiercely, within political parties. Both of the major political parties in Texas have experienced internal struggles between moderates and less centrist elements. In the 2000 general elections, many environmentalists in the Texas Democratic Party voted for Green Party candidate Ralph Nader, perceiving that Al Gore was not "green enough." And conservative members of the Republican Party have actively worked against some fellow Republicans in order to steer the party in more conservative direction.