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


	•	excludible
	•	free riders
	•	private goods
	•	public goods

How Interest Groups Form – and Perform

The conditions under which interest groups form and the characteristics of particular groups shape the opportunities for effective participation by individuals in organized groups.

Examining how interest groups form is critical to understanding how ordinary citizens participate through organized groups in the political system. Our discussion of the two basic types of interest groups has already suggested some of the dynamics of interest group behavior, particularly the importance of the nature of the objectives groups are attempting to fulfill.

In this section, we examine more closely the fundamental distinctions in the kinds of benefits that groups may seek, and the relationship between the costs of political participation and the benefits that participation may deliver.

4.1

Private Goods Versus Public Goods

Economists point out that not all goods or policies produced by either the economy or the government are the same. (Note that by goods here, we simply mean anything that might satisfy a person or group's wants or needs.) There are two major types of goods: private and public.

We all intuitively understand private goods. These goods are things like a car or stereo or your paycheck. The key quality to recognize in these is that the enjoyment of that "good" can be shared with or denied to anybody you choose. They are what economists call excludible.

You drive your car wherever you want (within the law) and you decide who can ride in it. The same goes for your stereo. It's your machine, so it's your choice of music, unless you decide to let someone use it. With your paycheck you can decide to invite your friends for a hamburger and coke, or you can keep all the money for yourself. As a result of the private nature of these and other goods, you make the decision to work hard to acquire and maintain them, and you can exclude others from enjoying them, at your discretion.

Public goods on the other hand are non-excludible. The enjoyment of these goods cannot be denied to others. For instance, you may form an interest group that fights for tighter airborne emissions standards for power plants in the state of Texas. If you're successful, the benefits of the cleaner air will be enjoyed by millions of your fellow citizens.

Many goods produced in and by the political system have the quality of public goods. These include environmental protection, better highways and roads, safer neighborhoods, fire protection, and more.

The example of clean air points to one of the political implications of the distinction between private and public goods: because public goods are non-excludible, people can enjoy public goods whether or not they contribute to the cost of obtaining those goods.

So those who did nothing (or less than you did) to achieve a public good are able to enjoy the benefits of the labor of those who did contribute to the costs of achieving those goods.

Say you spent months working evenings and weekends to pitch in on the effort to persuade lawmakers to pass clean air legislation. Then suppose that legislation passed, and actually improved air quality. Even if your best friend spent evenings and weekends watching cable television and going out on the town instead of working for cleaner air, you can't exclude your pal from enjoying the clean air. You both get to breath it – that air is non-excludible, a public good.

If a cause produces only (or primarily) a public good it is generally more difficult to get people to work for it. Free riders will conclude that they may enjoy the benefits of a group's success regardless of the extent of their own efforts – so why risk bearing the costs of what might turn out to be a failed investment of resources? In the absence of any other factors, people frequently calculate that they have no incentive to bear the costs of attempting to achieve public goods.

Some groups attempt to overcome the free-rider problem by offering individual incentives – private goods – to members. For example, the American Automobile Association is primarily concerned with promoting polices that make travel by car easy and cheap. Many people, of course, use automobiles and stand to benefit from the AAA's efforts, setting up the potential for drivers to "free ride" on the AAA's efforts. This is a classic free rider problem: as millions of drivers choose to let others bear the costs of the AAA's efforts, they undermine the AAA's efforts to recruit and retain members.

The AAA responds to this organizational concern by using the same tactic that many such groups employ, offering benefits that are available only to dues-paying members. These benefits include emergency roadside assistance (e.g., towing, battery jump), free maps, and discounted auto insurance. Many people join only for these benefits, not realizing that they have joined a special interest group. Thus the AAA successfully employs a common tactic used by groups seeking to achieve public goods: in addition to the public goods they pursue, they provide supplemental private goods to members in order to maintain contributions to the group effort.