Interest Groups

Interest groups are private organizations that try to shape public policy. Examples include American Medical Assoc. (AMA), American Bar Assoc. (ABA) and possibly even the Republican and Democratic parties. Interest groups lobby (attempt to influence) policymakers to adopt policies they endorse. These policymakers include elected and appointed officials at the federal, state and local levels.

Public interest groups lobby to secure policies that serve the general welfare of the community (collective goods) rather than policies that serve the specific interests of a particular group (private goods). Collective goods benefit all people -- including those outside the interest group -- and include clean air and consumer protection. However, an organization such as NRA is a private interest group because not all people support guns.

Public interest groups benefit and privilege everybody. Since even people who are not proactive will benefit, there is less incentive to get involved. This leads to public interest groups suffering from free riders -- a struggle to get people involved due to a lack of material incentive for joining the group.

Conversely, private interest groups work to secure benefits for some fraction of the community. Private interest groups are usually economic groups interested in protecting or advancing the interests of their members. Examples include corporations, businesses, professional organizations and labor unions.

Private interest groups have many advantages over public interest groups, including:

1. Representational inequalities: private interest groups have more lobbyists.

2. Resource inequalities: private interest groups have more money.

3. Informational inequalities: more knowledge of specific industries. A public interest group knows much less about oil than a refinery would.

4. Familiarity: private interest groups hire former policy makers. Former policy makers have face recognition and know the ins and outs of commerce, policy and administration.