What Is an Interest Group? Learning Outcomes By the end of this section, you will be able to: Define interest group. Discuss types of interest groups. Explain and differentiate among different theories about how and why interest groups form. Explain and differentiate among different theories about how and why interest groups influence government. In the early 1980s at the start of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in America, government response to the increasing need for medical research and assistance to HIV/AIDS patients was scant. In the absence of a federal or state-run public health response, public interest advocacy groups such as The Gay Men’s Health Project provided services for AIDS patients, gathering donations for food and securing shelter for those afflicted by the disease. Almost a decade later, with still no public health response from the federal government, a group named the Lavender Hill Mob vocally criticized the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s handling of the epidemic, storming the agency’s planned convention on the epidemic and demanding research into drugs and treatment. Soon other groups such as ACT UP formed, calling on the government to respond to the need for more public education to prevent the disease and more resources for further research into ending it. Lillian Faderman, “Remembering the Activists Who Helped Make HIV/AIDS Research Possible,” Washington Post , March 12, 2019. President Ronald Reagan ultimately created the Presidential Commission on the HIV Epidemic in 1987 in response to citizen activism and public calls for governmental involvement. The history of group mobilization around HIV/AIDS illustrates how interest groups can harness the cooperation and collaboration of individuals in pursuit of a common goal, but also how multiple groups can work in concert to pressure the government to act. ACT UP protests the National Institutes of Health (NIH) (credit: modification of “ACT UP Demonstration at NIH” by NIH History Office/Flickr, Public Domain) Interest groups are groups of people who organize in order to seek to influence a political outcome or seek to alter public policies on the basis of a common interest or concern. The universe of interest groups is as vast in number as it is in scope. For example, in the United States, AARP has nearly 38 million members and advocates on behalf of Americans aged 50 and older on issues such as drug prices, health insurance, taxes, and retirement. “Social Impact,” About AARP, AARP, accessed March 1, 2021, https://www.aarp.org/about-aarp/company/social-impact/. An example of a much smaller interest group is the San Francisco Democratic Party , which has 250,000 members and seeks to “engage, inform, and mobilize San Francisco Democrats.” “Our Party,” San Francisco Democratic Party, accessed March 1, 2021, https://www.sfdemocrats.org/our-party. Interest groups are not unique to American politics. In Britain, UK Youth is a group, founded in 1911, that works with 4,000 youth organizations and reaches four million youths, lobbying for investment in a variety of youth-oriented leadership, skill acquisition, and health and wellness programs. “2019/20 Impact Review,” Publications and Resources, UK Youth, accessed June 10, 2021, https://impact.ukyouth.org. The French organization La Quadrature du Net works for a “free, decentralized, and empowering Internet” “About Us,” La Quadrature du Net, https://www.laquadrature.net/about/. and was part of a complaint filed against Amazon in Europe that led to an $888 million fine against the Internet commerce site for violation of customer privacy and data protection measures. Stephanie Bodoni, “Amazon Gets Record $888 Million EU Fine Over Data Violations,” Bloomberg , July 30, 2021, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-30/amazon-given-record-888-million-eu-fine-for-data-privacy-breach. Types of Interest Groups Interest groups can be organized into two general categories: economic groups and public interest or noneconomic groups . Economic groups focus on issues such as wages, industry protections, job creation, and profit maximization, to name a few, and can be further sorted into subcategories such as business, labor, agricultural, and professional. For example, the United States Chamber of Commerce is a business group that describes itself as the world’s largest business organization, representing companies of all sizes and advocating for policies that help create jobs and grow the economy. “About the US Chamber of Commerce,” US Chamber of Commerce, accessed March 1, 2021, https://www.uschamber.com/about/about-the-us-chamber-of-commerce. In Canada, the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses lobbies for lower tax rates on small businesses and credit card rate reductions, among other issues. “Latest News,” Advocacy, Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses, accessed June 10, 2021, https://www.cfib-fcei.ca/en/advocacy. Other types of economic groups include labor groups like the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) , Service Employees International Union (website), accessed March 1, 2021, https://www.seiu.org. which represents the interests of workers in health care, public services, and property services. In Germany, which has a long history of labor groups in politics, the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB - Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund) acts as an umbrella organization for eight labor groups and represents the interests of close to six million German workers. It is the largest labor group in Germany and one of the largest trade organizations in the world. DGB—German Trade Union Confederation (website), accessed June 10, 2021, https://en.dgb.de. Interest groups like the Irish Farmers Association , “Who We Are,” About Us, Irish Farmers Association, accessed March 1, 2021, https://www.ifa.ie/who-we-are-what-we-do/. which works on behalf of agricultural workers in Ireland, are referred to as agricultural groups . In the United States, the National Farmers Union has worked with Congress to make school lunches permanent and to increase country-of-origin labeling protocols, to name a few of their policy initiatives. “About NFU,” National Farmers Union, accessed June 10, 2021, https://nfu.org/about/. Other types of interest groups include professional groups like the American Medical Association (AMA) , “About,” American Medical Association, accessed March 1, 2021, https://www.ama-assn.org/about. which promotes the interests of working medical professionals such as surgeons and physicians in the United States, and the Japan Medical Association , “About JMA,” Japan Medical Association, accessed June 10, 2021, https://www.med.or.jp/english/about_JMA/overview.html. which, with 170,000 members, is considered the largest and most politically powerful medical lobby in Japan. Noneconomic groups do not organize themselves around economic or business-oriented purposes, instead working to advance noneconomic issues such as the environment or education. One example is Greenpeace International , an umbrella organization representing Greenpeace offices in 27 regions and 55 countries that all work together to promote environmental protections. “Our Network,” About Us, Greenpeace International, accessed March 1, 2021, https://www.greenpeace.org/international/explore/about/worldwide/. Varieties of noneconomic groups include public interest groups, single-issue groups, civil rights groups, and ideological groups. The Trust for Public Land , a registered nonprofit that creates public parks and preserves outdoor spaces for public use, can be considered a public interest group . The Trust for Public Land (website), accessed March 1, 2021, https://www.tpl.org. The Toronto Public Space Committee , another public interest group, advocates for ecologically responsible, advertisement-free public spaces in Toronto. Toronto Public Space Committee (website), accessed June 10, 2021, https://www.publicspace.ca. As their name suggests, single-issue groups champion solitary policies or issues. The Japan Rice Millers Association focuses on just that—the milled rice industry. Founded in 1969, it promotes the interest of rice producers in Japan and advocates for government assistance in ensuring increased production and distribution. “About Us,” Japanese Rice Millers Association, accessed August 2, 2021, http://www.jrma.or.jp/eng/index.html. Groups such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (website), accessed March 1, 2021, https://naacp.org. and the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples (CAP) “About Us,” Who We Are, Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, accessed March 1, 2021, http://www.abo-peoples.org/en/about-us/. are civil rights groups that work to champion the rights of specific minority groups. Because the tenets of democratic socialism drive its work and focus, the Democractic Socialists of America is considered an ideological group . Another example of an ideological group was the Civil Human Rights Front , a pro-democracy group in Hong Kong that protested for democratic representation and voting rights in Hong Kong. Members of the Civil Human Rights Front were arrested and prosecuted by the Beijing government, which claims that pro-democracy protesters are “inciting violence.” Ken Moritsugu, “Hong Kong Democracy Activists Get Bail, Protest Marches Banned,” PBS News Hour , August 30, 2019, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/hong-kong-democracy-activists-get-bail-protest-march-banned. In the face of an intensified crackdown on dissent, the group was forced to disband in August 2021. “Hong Kong Democracy Group Behind Massive Protest Disbands,” AP News , August 15, 2021, https://apnews.com/article/hong-kong-democracy-c65fa4bf3cda740dee680bc2db23e977. The Assembly of First Nations works to protect and advance the rights and interests of First Nations people in Canada. In this photo, A-in-chut (Shawn Atleo), hereditary Chief of the Ahousaht First Nation, returns to his home village on July 31, 2009, after being elected Grand Chief of the Assembly of First Nations. (credit: “A-in-chut (Shawn Atleo) returns to his home village of Ahousaht” by Ecotrust Canada/Flickr, CC BY 2.0) Theories of Interest Group Formation How and why do interest groups such as the NAACP or La Quadrature du Net form? Three major theories about interest group formation allow us to better understand how interest groups form and how they function within the political sphere. The first of these, pluralist theory , posits that multiple and diverse interests compete for attention and resources and that political power is distributed amongst these various interests. Competition among interests allows for the representation of a diversity of views rather than solely those of elite interests, and it prevents single issues from dominating public discourse. In other words, individual interests can be advanced through collective action This concept is also covered in Chapter 6: The Fundamentals of Group Political Activity. (e.g., “You and I both want more open spaces in the city; let’s get together and advocate.”), and multiple groups compete for attention to promote change. Thus, according to pluralist theory, interest groups form as a means for individuals to engage in collective action in support of common goals. Columbia University professor David Truman ’s work on disturbance theory suggests that interest groups form in response to the changing complexity of government and society. In other words, external factors, or “disturbances,” cause people to form new groups. These factors can be changes in social norms, environmental factors, or changes in technology. Robert H. Salisbury, “An Exchange Theory of Interest Groups,” Midwest Journal of Political Science 13, no. 1 (1969): 1–32, www.jstor.org/stable/2110212. For example, 50 years ago, the idea of legalizing marijuana was unthinkable. As social and medical norms around the use of cannabis have changed, groups such as NORML , the Marijuana Policy Project , and the Drug Policy Alliance have formed to promote the legal use of marijuana in a controlled market and to reduce “the harms of both drug use and drug prohibition.” “Vision & Mission,” About Us, Drug Policy Alliance, accessed August 5, 2021, https://drugpolicy.org/about-us. As global climate change continues to make media headlines, newer and more radical groups also continue to form, such as Britain’s Extinction Rebellion , which engaged in “the biggest act of peaceful civil disobedience seen in London for decades.” Matthew Taylor, “The Evolution of Extinction Rebellion,” The Guardian, August 4, 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/aug/04/evolution-of-extinction-rebellion-climate-emergency-protest-coronavirus-pandemic. The third major theory, transaction theory , refutes the idea of pluralism . In An Exchange Theory of Interest Groups , renowned political scientist Robert H. Salisbury argues that political actors are not influenced by groups that have mobilized to enact change so much as they are responding to the interests of narrowly focused elites, and that the relationship between interest groups and government is that of an exchange. Salisbury, “An Exchange Theory of Interest Groups,” (1969). As University of Maryland professor Mancur Olson has argued, this idea rests on the notion that, because of the idea of collective goods and the free rider problem , individuals will not exert extra energy to mobilize into groups. See also Chapter 6: The Fundamentals of Group Political Activity. In other words, while an interest group works to provide its members with collective goods (goods or services that all members can share), there is no incentive for all members to work for those goods. Free riders gain the benefits of membership without action. An interest group is an organized collection of individuals who work to influence government and policy. There are several different types of interest groups. Economic groups can be divided into categories such as business groups, labor groups, agricultural groups, and professional groups. Noneconomic groups include public interest groups, single-issue groups, civil rights groups, and ideological groups. Various theories explain why interest groups form. Pluralism suggests that diverse interests represent a variety of views and demands and that political powers are distributed among these various groups. Disturbance theory, on the other hand, asserts that interest groups change in response to complex issues in society and calls on the government to react to these changes. Transaction theory refutes pluralism, arguing that government actors only respond to a narrow set of interests. agricultural groups economic interest groups that work on behalf of agricultural interests business group an economic interest group that works on behalf of business interests civil rights groups noneconomic interest groups that work to promote and defend the civil rights of a particular group collective goods goods or services that all members of a group can share disturbance theory a political theory that suggests that interest groups form in response to the changing complexity of government and society economic groups interest groups that focus on economic issues such as wages, industry protections, job creation, and profit maximization free rider problem the phenomenon that occurs when individual members of an interest group benefit from the group’s activities even if they do not personally participate ideological group a noneconomic interest group that focuses on promoting interests that align with a particular ideology interest group a group of people who organize in order to seek to influence a political outcome labor groups economic interest groups that work on behalf of workers’ interests noneconomic groups interest groups that work to advance noneconomic issues such as the environment or education pluralist theory a political theory that posits that multiple and diverse interests compete for attention and resources and that political power is distributed among these various interests professional groups economic interest groups that work in the interests of a particular profession public interest group a group that benefits a narrow constituency or policy issue (such as the American Association of Retired People) and works to achieve benefits for the larger population, not just for their own members single-issue groups groups that focus their work on a single issue in order to acquire or maintain benefits for their members (for example, the National Rifle Association) transaction theory a political theory, espoused by Robert H. Salisbury, that argues that political actors are not influenced by groups that have mobilized to enact change so much as they are responding to the interests of narrowly focused elites, and that the relationship between interest groups and government is that of an exchange

Social Sciences


What Are the Pros and Cons of Interest Groups? Learning Outcomes By the end of this section, you will be able to: Discuss the pros and cons of interest groups. Discuss the role interest groups play in government. Explain how interest group activity is regulated. The next time you go to a restaurant, look at your waitstaff. They could be making less than minimum wage, or what is called a “subminimum wage” of $2.13. This is due to the assumption that diners will leave a 15 to 20 percent tip that will add to their pay. It doesn’t take a calculator or a genius to see how unstable this wage is. Some diners simply don’t tip, and tip distribution varies from restaurant to restaurant: while “front of house” workers (people who primarily work with diners) might receive an equal share from a pooled tip at the end of the evening, what about line cooks or dishwashers? What if you are a server who provides excellent service—why should you split your tip with someone who barely bothered to say hello to their customers? The advocacy group One Fair Wage points out that the restaurant industry is the fastest growing sector of the economy but the lowest paying and that subminimum wage practices disproportionately hurt women and minority workers. “Fact Sheet,” One Fair Wage, accessed August 2, 2021, https://onefairwage.site/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/OFW_FederalFactSheet_3-1.pdf. During the global COVID-19 pandemic, One Fair Wage was quick to point out how the virus obliterated income for these workers and how, in order to protect the industry, the workers also needed protections. The group continues to advocate for strict health and safety measures for restaurant workers. Pros of Interest Groups Interest group participation in politics has its benefits. In Federalist Paper No. 10, James Madison argued that while the threat of factions exists, a healthy representative government will ensure that no single interest monopolizes the government’s attention and that competition among interests (pluralism) will ultimately enhance democracy. From this perspective, the model of interest group activity can be seen as an ideal way to serve the common good because it allows more voices to engage in the political process, which is part and parcel of self-governance . Ultimately, citizen participation in government is essential in part because political actors have difficulty discerning what is important to the public unless the public itself is involved in the process. Interest group activity is one way the people help the government understand which issues are of greatest concern. Additionally, the act of citizen mobilization is thought to produce social capital , whereby relationships forged in political and other social networks help citizens resolve collective problems. Finally, like HIV/AIDS activists in the early 1980s, interest groups can take up issues that are marginalized by traditional political actors. Cons of Interest Groups Theoretically, pluralism should work to protect the interests of the many: when multiple interests strive to be heard by governmental actors, multiple interests are also addressed. However, this can bring about problems of factionalism , where small groups of people with shared interests work to have their wishes represented in government despite majority interests. In other words, as Madison addressed in Federalist Paper No. 10, while a multitude of interests may be represented, not all are heard or responded to equally, and a narrow interest may hijack political attention at the expense of the majority’s needs. Further, the more socially, monetarily, or institutionally resourced an interest, the more influence it enjoys, regardless of how narrow or seemingly obscure it might be. This latter problem, known as economic bias , is a weakness of the interest group system. As Wesleyan University professor E. E. Schattschneider explains, “The flaw in the pluralist heaven is that the heavenly chorus sings with a strong upper-class accent.” E. E. Schattschneider, The Semisovereign People: A Realist’s View of Democracy in America (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1960), 35. Groups that represent business or professional interests tend to be better resourced, and though lower-class interests can be represented, interest group membership itself is mostly skewed toward those who make up the upper-middle and upper classes, as individuals who make up these groups tend to have more time and resources to commit to this type of political activity. In addition, there is a “chicken or egg” characteristic in interest group membership in that, as long as upper-middle-class and upper-class interests are represented, these groups naturally attract individuals from these populations and not those in more disadvantaged groups. The theory of interest group liberalism highlights another noted weakness of the interest group system. Theodore Lowi, “The Public Philosophy: Interest-Group Liberalism,” The American Political Science Review 61, no. 1 (1967): 5–24, www.jstor.org/stable/1953872. Instead of a pluralistic ideal whereby issues important to various groups jostle within the public realm for governmental response, interest group liberalism suggests that officials respond to well-organized groups not because they are good for society but because well-organized interests simply do a better job of demanding governmental action. What Is An Interest Group? Any group that shares an interest can form an interest group to try to advance their goals. How Do Interest Groups Influence Government, and How Are They Regulated? The formal work of interest groups is referred to as lobbying , the attempt by a group to influence a political outcome. Lobbying can take on different forms, and groups often lobby different branches and types of government. Lobbying itself can be further divided into two categories, inside lobbying and outside lobbying . Andy Chasin, Vice President of Federal Policy and Advocacy for Blue Shield of California Please explain what you do for your organization. I run federal policy and advocacy for Blue Shield of California, a nonprofit health insurer with more than four million members. My job is to provide strategic advice to the company on what’s happening in Washington, DC. I used to work in the Senate on health care policy and now lobby both houses of Congress and work to influence the constant flow of rulemakings coming out of administrative agencies like the Department of Health and Human Services. My company has a political action committee (PAC) that our employees voluntarily support to allow us to attend events with lawmakers. Giving money doesn’t mean that a member of Congress will do what you want, but it does often provide an opportunity to share your perspective on important issues. Ultimately my work is to ensure that health care is affordable and accessible for our members and to urge lawmakers to provide a way to get everyone in America covered in the least disruptive way possible. What did you study in school? I went to law school and studied politics, philosophy, and economics as an undergraduate. What did you learn as an undergraduate that helps you in this position? The ability to write, think critically, and understand the point of view of different stakeholders is something I use every day. Inside lobbying occurs when interest groups cultivate contacts and relationships within government. Examples of inside lobbying include lobbying the legislative branch of government, such as the United States Congress, in order to provide testimony, suggest items for consideration, aid in the crafting of legislation, or mobilize constituents to write their members of Congress to support or vote against certain bills. Interest groups also lobby other parts of government, including the executive branch. They do so by working with federal agencies, executive appointees, and in the case of the United States, even the White House to do much of the same work they do when lobbying Congress. This work includes identifying or introducing specific pieces of legislation that will further their cause, providing information for or writing drafts of policy proposals, and mobilizing constituent support. Groups such as the aforementioned One Fair Wage lobby state and local governments to raise state minimum wages for tipped workers, for example. Interest group lobbying of the judicial system differs from lobbying of other branches because the courts do not write or pass legislation. As such, groups work to influence the judicial branch in other ways. The first is connected to ways groups lobby the other two branches in that interest groups can try to influence judicial appointments by suggesting possible appointees for the other two branches to nominate and confirm. Interest groups also use amicus curiae , or friend of the court, briefs, to lobby the judiciary. Using amicus curiae briefs, groups file official positions to make known to judges and justices their official positions on cases being heard before a court. Depending on the case and the group, interest groups can also use their resources to file cases in lower courts or have appeals heard in higher courts such as the Supreme Court. A recent example is Sierra Club v. Trump , in which the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) , acting on behalf of the Sierra Club and Southern Border Communities Coalition , filed suit against President Trump for his use of executive power to fund and build a wall on the southern border of the United States. “Trump v. Sierra Club,” Oyez, accessed June 10, 2021. https://www.oyez.org/cases/2020/20-138. In this instance, three interest groups joined in a case against the executive branch of the government. “Sierra Club v. Trump—Challenge to Trump’s National Emergency Declaration to Construct a Border Wall,” Court Battles, Our Work, ACLU, updated July 20, 2021, https://www.aclu.org/cases/sierra-club-v-trump-challenge-trumps-national-emergency-declaration-construct-border-wall. The case, which started in a lower district court, was appealed and made it to the Supreme Court, though the case was dismissed after President Biden rescinded Trump’s executive order to divert funding for the wall. Ian Millhiser, “Two Major Supreme Court Immigration Cases Just Went up in Smoke,” Vox , February 3, 2021, https://www.vox.com/2021/2/3/22264190/supreme-court-immigration-border-wall-remain-in-mexico-trump-biden-sierra-club-innovation-law-lab. Interest groups also utilize tactics such as outside lobbying , also known as indirect lobbying or grassroots lobbying , which entails rallying public support in order to pressure political actors to consider their causes. In outside lobbying, groups call upon their own members as well as the general public to take up the mantle of their cause through a show of public support. The movement to recall California Governor Gavin Newsom is an example of this type of grassroots lobbying. Nellie Bowles, “Hurt by Lockdowns, California’s Small Businesses Push to Recall Governor,” New York Times , February 19, 2021. The arrest and conviction of the Kings Bay Plowshares 7 , a group of activists who entered Kings Bay military facility in the state of Georgia to protest the use of the government’s nuclear arsenal, is an example of how protests and radical activism can be considered a more extreme form of grassroots lobbying. Sam Husseini, “Religious Beliefs Are Struck Down as Defense for Nuclear Protest,” The Nation, October 31, 2019. Members of Extinction Rebellion go to extreme measures such as gluing themselves to planes in order to call attention to the climate crisis. Joe Middleton, “Extinction Rebellion: Ex-Paralympian Convicted of ‘Public Nuisance’ After Gluing Himself to Plane,” The Independent , July 29, 2021, https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/extinction-rebellion-ba-plane-protest-b1892577.html. Inside and outside lobbying can look different in Europe. In Switzerland, for example, ballot initiatives , where constituents vote directly on pieces of legislation, alter how interest groups work. The recall effort of California Governor Newsom is also an example of a ballot initiative. Interest groups may be less reliant on policy makers and inside lobbying when they have the option to appeal directly to the public, though studies have shown that the work of lobbying groups tends to be more negative than positive in nature. In other words, instead of lobbying for legislative change, interest groups in Switzerland can act as gatekeepers, working to block laws that are not in the group’s interests. Florian Weiler and Matthais Brändli, “Inside versus Outside Lobbying: How the Institutional Framework Shapes the Lobbying Behaviour of Interest Groups,” European Journal of Political Research 54, no. 4 (November 2015): 745–766, https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6765.12106. In addition to lobbying, interest groups also work to raise and donate funds to directly decide the outcomes of elections. A group’s official fundraising arm is called a political action committee (PAC) . PACs can accept up to $5,000 from any single individual and can contribute the same amount to a single candidate or $15,000 to a party. PACs, like interest groups, cover all sorts of interests. For example, when you bite into a hard taco or a gordita from Taco Bell, did you know that you could be contributing to a political candidate? Between 2018 and 2020, the political action committee for Taco Bell, called TACO PAC , raised and donated over $100,000 dollars to Republican candidates and $2,500 to Democrats. “PAC Profile: TACO PAC,” PACS, Influence and Lobbying, Open Secrets, accessed March 10, 2021, https://www.opensecrets.org/political-action-committees-pacs/taco-pac/C00330118/summary/2020. The PAC describes itself this way: “TACO PAC provides a way for individuals to join their contributions and voice with those of other supporters in the quick-serve franchise restaurant industry including owners and operators.” TACO PAC (website), accessed March 10, 2021, http://taco-pac.com. Taco Bell is not the only fast food franchise to contribute to political candidates. In the same election cycle, Wendy’s contributed over $100,000, while McDonald’s gave $500,000. Vince Dixon, “Red Chains, Blue Chains: Which Politicians Are America’s Largest Fast Food Chains Donating To?” Eater, October 21, 2020, https://www.eater.com/2020/10/21/21505080/mcdonalds-wendys-political-donations-trump-biden. PACs such as TACO PAC are regulated in how much they can give to candidates and parties, and they are required to fully disclose their donors. Unlike PACs, super PACs are fundraising groups that can raise and spend unlimited funds provided they do not explicitly coordinate with a candidate. In the 2020 election cycle, super PAC spending totaled over $2 billion. “2020 Outside Spending, by Super PAC,” Politicians and Elections, Outside Spending, Federal Election Spending, Open Secrets, accessed March 1, 2021, https://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/summ.php?chrt=V&type=S. Super PAC Spending 2010 $125 Million 2012 $1.2 Billion 2014 $390 Million 2016 $1.5 Billion 2018 $822 Million 2020 $2.1 Billion Total $6.5 Billion Year-over-year super PAC spending (source: Center for Responsive Politics) Super PACs are not without controversy. Also referred to as independent expenditure-only committees, super PACs can raise unlimited sums of money from corporations, unions, associations, and individuals and then spend the money to campaign for or against candidates or ballot initiatives. The “birth” of super PACs came about in 2010 as a result of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission , “Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission,” Oyez, accessed August 2, 2021. https://www.oyez.org/cases/2008/08-205. when the Supreme Court ruled that “limiting ‘independent political spending’ from corporations and other groups violates the First Amendment right to free speech.” Tim Lau, “Citizens United Explained,” December 12, 2019, The Brennan Center for Justice, https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/citizens-united-explained. Critics of this ruling complain that it has led to the rampant rise of super PACs, which empower the wealthiest donors and receive dark money , which is when super PACs receive donations from shell corporations (companies or corporations that exist only on paper for monetary purposes and that, while they have no office and no employees, may have bank accounts) or donors who do not disclose their identities. Super PAC and dark money donations have only grown since the Citizens United ruling. Interest groups and their lobbyists—as well as wealthy elites—fuel PAC and super PAC activity. As such, part of regulating interest group activity means monitoring lobbyists and the work they perform, be it inside or outside lobbying. However, the number of lobbyists that work to influence the government is a point of contention. Between 2009 and 2019, the number contracted from roughly 13,000 to around 11,000, but American University professor James Thurber refutes these numbers, explaining that they represent registered lobbyists rather than the entirety of the lobbyist population, which he calculates to be closer to 100,000. Karl Evers-Hillstrom and Dan Auble, “‘Shadow Lobbying’ in Trump’s Washington,” News, Reports, Open Secrets, October 3, 2019, https://www.opensecrets.org/news/reports/shadow-lobbying-2019. The latest attempt to reform lobbying practices, the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 , placed tighter restrictions on campaign contributions through PACs and on campaign travel and adjusted definitions of what constitutes a lobbyist, whether an “in-house” lobbyist who works within an organization or an “outside” lobbyist who is hired to represent interest groups. Among other changes, the act included so-called “ revolving door bans ,” which require elected officials to wait at least a year after serving in government before joining a lobbying firm, and limited the monetary value of gifts lobbyists can receive. Jeff Maskell, Lobbying Congress: An Overview of Legal Provisions and Congressional Ethics Rules , CRS Report No. RL31126 (Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, 2007), https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL31126.pdf. On January 20, 2021, President Biden signed an executive order further strengthening lobbying regulations, pledging an executive branch “revolving door ban” of two years and banning golden parachutes , exit bonuses that reward executives leaving private companies upon entering federal government positions, among other restrictions. US President, Executive Order, “Ethics Commitments by Executive Branch Personnel, Executive Order 13989 of January 20, 2021,” Federal Register 86, no. 14 (January 25, 2021), https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2021-01-25/pdf/2021-01762.pdf. The United States is not the only government to contend with the ethics of lobbyists. While the EU developed the European Transparency Initiative (ETI) in 2005 to enhance transparency in EU policy making and boost confidence in decision-making processes, scholars like University of Pittsburgh law professor William Luneburg point out that these regulations are not enforced and require minimal information (who they represent, for example) on the part of the lobbyist, and in countries such as Germany, Georgia, Lithuania, and Poland, lobbyist registration is wholly voluntary and thus lacks teeth in terms of acting as an enforcement measure. Craig Holman and William Luneburg, “Lobbying and Transparency: A Comparative Analysis of Regulatory Reform.” Interest Groups & Advocacy 1 (2012): 75–104. Interest groups are important to the political process because they bring a diversity of views and demands before the popularly elected government. Interest groups also foster the development of social capital, or the maintenance of relationships and networks that allow citizens to solve collective problems. However, interest groups have their downsides. One is factionalism: while a multitude of interest groups may represent many problems, only a small number of them garner the government’s attention. This may be due to the economic bias in the interest group system, where moneyed interests are more likely to be represented and catered to. Interest groups work to influence government through inside lobbying, which is when groups create formal relationships with governmental officials. When interest groups rally public support for policies or political candidates, they engage in outside lobbying. The last attempt to reform lobbying activity was in 2007, though in 2021 President Biden signed a series of executive orders limiting lobbyist involvement in the executive branch. ballot initiative a mechanism by which voters can directly introduce pieces of legislation and vote to enact them dark money money received by super PACs from shell corporations or donors who do not disclose their identities economic bias a system in which interests that may be very narrow or seemingly obscure enjoy considerable influence the more socially, monetarily, or institutionally resourced they are factionalism when groups of individuals work collectively to promote a narrow, shared interest, possibly at the expense of the majority golden parachutes exit bonuses that reward executives leaving private companies upon entering federal government positions grassroots lobbying lobbying that involves groups utilizing public pressure to force governmental action; also called outside lobbying or indirect lobbying indirect lobbying lobbying that involves groups utilizing public pressure to force governmental action; also called outside lobbying or grassroots lobbying inside lobbying lobbying in which interest groups cultivate contacts and relationships within government in order to seek to influence a political outcome interest group liberalism the theory that officials respond to well-organized groups not because they are good for society, but because well-organized interests simply do a better job of demanding governmental action lobbying the attempt by a group to influence a political outcome outside lobbying lobbying that rallies public support in order to pressure political actors to consider a cause; also known as indirect or grassroots lobbying political action committee (PAC) an interest group’s official fundraising arm social capital relationships forged in political and other social networks, resulting from citizen mobilization, that help citizens resolve collective problems super PACs independent political action committees that can raise unlimited funds in order to campaign for candidates but are barred from directly coordinating with either candidates or parties

Social Sciences


Political Parties Learning Outcomes By the end of this section, you will be able to: Define political party. Explain the purpose and activities of political parties. Differentiate among different types of political parties and systems. The Scottish National Party (SNP) is Scotland’s largest political party. It describes itself as “center left and social democratic.” “About,” Scottish National Party, accessed August 2, 2021, https://www.snp.org/about/. The SNP supports policies such as expanding government-provided health care and removing Britain’s nuclear submarine program off the shores of Scotland, but it is also increasingly associated with a single focus, Scottish independence from Britain. Though a recent Panelbase poll indicated that support for Scottish independence has cooled, numbers also illustrate that 70 percent of Scotts under the age of 35 think Scotland should abandon the United Kingdom. Gina Davidson, “Poll Shows Drop for Scottish Independence Support as Sir John Curtice Claims Results Shows 'Cooling' over UK Split,” The Scotsman , June 27, 2021, https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/poll-shows-drop-for-scottish-independence-support-as-sir-john-curtice-claims-results-shows-cooling-over-uk-split-3287969; Ben Walker, “More Than Two-Thirds of Young Scots Now Back Independence,” The New Statesman, September 15, 2020, https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2020/09/more-two-thirds-young-scots-now-back-independence. After winning three consecutive majority terms in Scottish parliament, current SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon has promised a referendum , an election in which the voters decide whether to overturn existing law or policy, on Scottish independence in 2023. What Happens if Scotland Leaves Britain? This video from The Economist considers the movement for Scottish independence and the potential consequences if it is successful. What Are Political Parties? How do political parties work? Political parties are groups that organize around a shared political ideology , with the primary goal of electing party members to positions in government. Political parties have a lot in common with interest groups . Like interest groups, political parties operate to influence policy makers. However, political parties differ from interest groups in one crucial way. While PACs donate to certain candidates, interest groups ultimately work with any elected official if they feel doing so will meet their policy ends. In contrast, political parties seek to control the government from within by getting as many of their party members elected as possible. Like interest groups, parties form in response to the need for collective action . Their activities allow candidates to reach and mobilize individual voters, or as Indiana University professor Marjorie Randon Hershey writes, political parties are a means by which people agree to behave cooperatively over the long term so as to secure benefits that they would not have been able to gain as individuals. Marjorie Randon Hershey, “Political Parties as Mechanisms of Social Choice,” in Handbook of Party Politics, eds. Richard S. Katz and William J. Crotty (London: Sage, 2005), 75–88. Tufts University professor Jeffrey Berry and Georgetown University professor Clyde Wilcox contend that political parties act as counterweights to interest groups, curbing too much external influence over government. Jeffrey M. Berry and Clyde Wilcox, The Interest Group Society (New York: Routledge, 2018). Political parties and interest groups can be seen as partners in many of their activities when it comes to getting candidates elected. For example, the Republican Party in the United States has long maintained ties with conservative Christian groups in order to recruit and organize voters, and the election of President Trump was no exception; some claim that since the 1970s, no Republican candidate could win a nomination for president without the mobilization efforts of religious figures such as televangelist Jerry Falwell . Courtney Weaver, “Why U.S. Evangelicals Are Flocking to Trump,” Financial Times , October 2, 2020, https://www.ft.com/content/de8dcd60-4bbf-4f3b-a1d7-e9eefb936c7f. In the United States, political parties have taken different forms and different names, but the country has steadily maintained a two-party system. However, Japan, one of the oldest democracies in Asia, is an example of a party system where a single dominant party (the Liberal Democratic Party, or LDP) has been in place for decades despite a fully competitive electoral system. José Antonio Crespo, “The Liberal Democratic Party in Japan: Conservative Domination.” International Political Science Review 16, no. 2 (April 1995): 199–209, doi:10.1177/019251219501600206. This contrasts with China, which has one ruling party (the Chinese Communist Party ) but has no democractic elections. Women in the US Congress Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the US House of Representatives (credit: “IMG_5003” by Senate Democrats/Flickr, CC BY 2.0) Leading up to the general election in 2020, the United States saw a sea change in the makeup of candidates seeking political office, in which almost half of the candidates seeking congressional seats were women (204 of 435.) “Regular Primary Season Ends in Delaware, Adding One to Record Number of Women House Nominees,” Center for American Women and Politics, September 16, 2020, https://cawp.rutgers.edu/delaware-primary-results-2020. Considering the adage “You can’t win if you don’t run,” it is significant that so many female candidates sought elected office, reflecting trends in representation in society in general. Women now make up just over a quarter of the members of the 117th Congress, a record in American history and a 50 percent increase from a decade ago. Carrie Blazina and Drew Desilver, “A Record Number of Women Are Serving in the 117th Congress,” Pew Research Center, January 15, 2021, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/01/15/a-record-number-of-women-are-serving-in-the-117th-congress/. Additionally, the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi , is not only the first woman to hold the position, she is the only woman to hold it twice. Central Party Activities In addition to working to choose and elect candidates, parties serve other practical functions. Political parties , like interest groups and their PACs, raise money for campaigns. By electing members of their parties to government, parties work to garner a majority coalition in order to direct policy outcomes, and in the United States, money in elections continues to grow. In the 2020 election cycle, both parties raised close to $2 billion to distribute to various candidates and their campaigns. “Political Parties,” Politicians and Elections, Open Secrets, accessed March 2, 2021, https://www.opensecrets.org/parties/. In 2018, the aforementioned Liberal Democratic Party raised ¥2.46 billion (or roughly $22 million) to fund campaigns in Japan despite the assumption that the party would continue to dominate the political system. “Japanese Industry Donations to Liberal Democratic Party in 2018 Hit ¥2.46 Billion, Up for Seventh Straight Year,” The Japan Times , November 29, 2019, https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/11/29/national/politics-diplomacy/japanese-industry-donations-liberal-democratic-party-2018-hit-¥2-46-billion-seventh-straight-year/. Parties are instrumental in identifying potential members, and registering new voters is a key component of their work. Because American voters are not automatically registered to vote and, depending on their state of residence, may be required to register with a party in order to vote in a political primary , political parties shoulder the important burden of finding new voters to participate in elections. While close to half of voters in the United States register to vote in their states when they apply for a driver’s license, political parties try to make up the difference by registering as many members to their own parties as they can. In the 2020 election cycle, the Republican Party added close to 150,000 new voters in Florida and 30,000 additional voters in Arizona. Nicholas Riccardi, “Republicans See Bright Spot in Voter Registration Push,” AP News , October 20, 2020. However, the gains the party made during the run-up to the election were lost after the Capitol Hill riots on January 6, 2021, with the New York Times reporting that 140,000 members left the Republican Party in the 25 states that have readily available data. Nick Corasaniti, Annie Karni, and Isabella Grullón Paz, “‘There’s Nothing Left’: Why Thousands of Republicans Are Leaving the Party,” The New York Times , February 10, 2021. The death of George Floyd in early summer of 2020 may have spurred additional Democractic registration throughout several states including Michigan and Minnesota. Nick Corasaniti and Isabella Grullón Paz, “Did the George Floyd Protests Boost Democratic Voter Registration?” The New York Times , August 11, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/11/us/politics/democrats-voter-registration-george-floyd.html. However, the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School notes that overall registration pales in comparison to 2016 for both parties in large part due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The center found that voter registration decreased by 38 percent in 17 of 21 states it analyzed. Peter Miller, “Voter Registration Has Plummeted in 2020,” Brennan Center for Justice, September 21, 2020, https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/voter-registration-has-plummeted-2020. Minnesota voter registration rose in the summer of 2020 in reaction to the murder of George Floyd . (source: https://insights.targetsmart.com/september -15-2020-democrats-voter-registration-advantage-increases-in-midwestern-states-home-to-protests.html; attribution: Copyright Rice University, OpenStax, under CC BY NC-SA 4.0 license) Political parties also vet and recruit candidates for election, and a party that cannot nominate candidates is toothless in its power. Elmer E. Schnattschneider, Party Government , American Government in Action (New York: Routledge, 2014). Univerity of Illinois professor Lester G. Seligman echoed this sentiment, calling candidate recruitment a basic function of a political party. Lester G. Seligman, “Political Recruitment and Party Structure: A Case Study,” American Political Science Review 55, no. 1 (March 1960): 77–86. The extent to which parties perform this function varies by country. The United Kingdom is an example of a parliamentary system where parties play an important role in candidate recruitment, with elected officials often cutting their teeth in local government before being considered for a seat in Parliament . Jo Silvester, “Recruiting Politicians: Designing Competency-Based Selection for UK Parliamentary Candidates,” in The Psychology of Politicians (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 21–38. In the United States, candidate recruitment is increasingly seen as a responsibility political parties and interest groups share, with the latter taking on more of the gatekeeping role in recent years thanks to their organizational powers and ability to gather resources and mobilize supporters. Jonathan Rauch and Raymond La Raja, Re-engineering Politicians: How Activist Groups Choose Our Candidates—Long before We Vote (Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 2017), https://www.brookings.edu/research/re-engineering-politicians-how-activist-groups-choose-our-politicians-long-before-we-vote/. Contemporary Party Systems Throughout its political history, the United States has had what is considered a two-party system . Over time the two parties have taken on different forms and names, starting with the Federalists and the Democratic Republican parties, then the Whigs and the Democrats, and now the Democrats and Republicans. While third parties like the Green Party and Democratic Socialists certainly exist, the United States is considered a two-party system since only two parties have a realistic chance of wielding political control. Similarly, in the United Kingdom, the Conservative Party (Tories) and the Labour Party enjoyed long-standing dominance throughout the 20th century. However, the emergence of the Liberal Democrats , Reform UK (or the “ Brexit Party”), and smaller influential parties at the local and regional level has altered the United Kingdom’s traditional two-party system, making it look more like a multiparty system . Philip Lynch, “Party System Change in Britain: Multi-Party Politics in a Multi-Level Polity,” British Politics 2 (October 2007): 323–46, https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.bp.4200071. Germany provides another interesting example of a multiparty system. Prior to Adolf Hitler’s rise, over a dozen political parties held seats in the German government. After the rise of Nazi Germany, the country became a single-party government ( Third Reich ), and this single party structure remained in place from 1933 to 1945, until the end of the Second World War. Gerhard Loewenberg, “The Remaking of the German Party System: Political & Socio-economic Factors” Polity 1, no. 1 (1968): 86–113, www.jstor.org/stable/3233977. Germany subsequently broke into two separate countries, East and West Germany. A single party, the Socialist Unity Party of Germany , ruled East Germany. During this era, several parties grew in West Germany, including the Christian Democratic Union, and after the reunification of Germany in 1990, Christian Democratic Union majority party leader Helmut Kohl led the government. Then, in 2016, the outcome of the German election led to a “six-party government,” Isabelle Rousel and Biodun Iginla, “German politics is turning into a six-party system,” The Economist , September 19, 2016, https://www.economist.com/europe/2016/09/19/german-politics-is-turning-into-a-six-party-system. with power sharing between the Social Democrats, Alternative for Germany (AfD), the Christian Democrats, the Left, the Green, and the Free Democrats. Single-party systems still exist today; though China has multiple registered minority parties, it is considered a single-party system where the Communist Party has controlled all levers of government since its rise to power in 1949. “China Anniversary: How the Communist Party Runs the Country,” BBC , September 30, 2019, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-49631120. Similarly, Cuba has been a single-party Communist state since 1959. US Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United States , 1958-1960, Cuba, Volume VI, eds. John P. Glennon and Ronald D. Landa (Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1991) Document 278, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1958-60v06. Eritrea, in Northeast Africa, has also been ruled by a single party, The People’s Front for Democracy and Justice, and a single leader, President Isaias Afwerki, since 1993. US Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, Executive Summary, 2018 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Eritrea, (Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 2018), https://www.state.gov/reports/2018-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/eritrea/. A political party is a group of people who share a common political ideology and work to get their members elected into government. In addition to scouting and electing candidates, political parties raise money and work to influence governmental policy. Parties are also heavily involved in registering new voters. Party systems take on different forms. In the United States, we have what is called a two-party system, where there are two major political parties involved in government activity. In contrast, much of Europe uses a multiparty system where the government is made up of multiple parties that must share power. Single-party systems, like those in China and North Korea, are political systems that consist of only one party. multiparty system a system of government where multiple political parties take part in national elections political parties groups that organize around a shared political ideology, with the primary goal of electing party members to positions in government single-party system an electoral system where one party makes up the government two-party system an electoral system where two main parties control power in government

Social Sciences


What Are the Limits of Parties? Learning Outcomes By the end of this section, you will be able to: Explain trends showing the decline of the party system. Discuss the weaknesses of the party system in the United States. Describe patterns of party decline around the world. Historically, political parties have held considerable power in recruiting candidates, mobilizing voters, and securing funds for nominees. Many Americans’ image of party politics involves William Tweed , or “Boss Tweed,” a 19th-century Democratic Party operative who used corrupt methods to exert power and influence within New York City politics. He remains a significant figure in American political history as an example of the height of both the potential corruption and power of the party system, a system that some argue has begun its descent in terms of its ability to fulfill its basic roles. The Decline of Parties and the Rise of Candidate-Centered Campaigns in the United States What is the current state of political parties? University of California professor Martin Wattenburg and Harvard University professor Thomas E. Patterson argue that since the late 1980s, the United States has seen a rise in what is called the candidate-centered campaign . This is the idea that the declining influence of political parties and their decreased ability to mobilize voters’ opinions and actions has set voters politically adrift, and that candidates themselves have stepped in to fill the power vacuum. Martin P. Wattenburg, The Rise of Candidate-Centered Politics: Presidential Elections of the 1980s (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1991). These types of “entrepreneurial” candidates further weaken party influence in that they do not need to depend on the party for resources in order to launch a campaign or reach voters. Thomas E. Patterson, We the People (New York: McGraw Hill, 2014), 258. There is no better example of a candidate-centered campaign than that of Ross Perot , a self-made billionaire who funded his own run for president as a third-party candidate against George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton in 1992. Gerald Seib and James Hagarty, “H. Ross Perot, Texas Billionaire Who Twice Ran for President, Dies at 89,” The Wall Street Journal , July 9, 2019. Perot did not win the election, but he managed to take 20 percent of the popular vote . Yale University professor Ian Shapiro bemoans this trend in candidate-centered campaigns and the weakening party system. According to Yale News reporter Mike Cummings, “the transfer of political power to the grassroots has eroded trust in politicians, parties, and democratic institutions, culminating in the rise of divisive, populist politics in the United States and abroad.” Mike Cummings, “Polarization in US Politics Starts with Weak Political Parties,” Yale News , November 17, 2020. Former President Donald J. Trump is also an example of a candidate who ran outside of the traditional Republican Party platform, who was able to garner media attention despite his inexperience with politics, and who very much manifested this idea of the candidate-centered campaign. Ross Perot (right), shown here with Presidents Bill Clinton (left) and George H. W. Bush (center), was a third-party candidate for president in 1992. (credit: “P37161-12” by George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, Public Domain) The Decline of Political Parties Around the World Political parties have weakened not just in the United States, but across the globe. European University Institute professor Peter Mair and Leiden University professor Ingrid van Biezen found both that levels of party membership have declined as a proportion of the electorate and that there has been a major decline in the absolute numbers of party members across all the long-established European democracies. Peter Mair and Ingrid van Biezen, “Party Membership in Twenty European Democracies, 1980–2000,” Party Politics 7, no. 1 (January 2001): 5–21. University of Essex professor Paul Whiteley likewise describes a well-documented, long-term decline in party activism across Europe and attributes this trend to parties being too close to the state and no longer working to recruit and rely on membership for their work. Paul Whiteley, “Is the Party Over? The Decline of Party Activism and Membership across the Democratic World,” Party Politics 17, no. 1 (June 2010): 21–44. Other reasons for the global decline of parties include the rise of candidate-centered campaigns (as in the United States), economic factors like deindustrialization, and the rise of communications technologies as an alternative to traditional groups. Patrick Liddiard, Are Political Parties in Trouble? (Washington, DC: Wilson Center, 2018), https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/are-political-parties-trouble. The declining salience of class as an identity in political mobilization is also a factor in the decline in party identification, as seen in the United States and in countries like France and Britain, where left-wing parties have seen a decline in working-class voters. In all three countries, voters with low incomes and lower levels of education had tended to support left-of-center parties, while high-income, highly educated voters had aligned with those of the right; however, as London School of Economics and School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences professor Thomas Piketty has pointed out, this is no longer the case. Party alliance has flipped: those with higher education and income levels tend to be more liberal and support candidates on the left while working-class and less educated voters support conservative policies. Thomas Piketty, “Brahmin Left vs. Merchant Right: Rising Inequality & the Changing Structure of Political Conflict,” World Inequality Database, March 2018, http://piketty.pse.ens.fr/files/Piketty2018.pdf. The outgrowth of this trend has, according to Piketty, also led to a rise in populism , or the appeal on the part of public leaders to the belief by ordinary people that established elite groups disregard their concerns. Ibid., 2. In countries such as Venezuela and Peru, the collapse of the party system is attributed to a myriad of causes including but not limited to corruption, lowered party identification, weakened party organizations, and ideological underrepresentation. Jason Seawright, Collapse: The Roots of Crisis in Peru and Venezuela (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2012). Seawright notes that in the case of Venezuela, traditional parties dominated politics throughout the 1980s before losing power in the 1990s and culminating in the rise of Hugo Chávez , a charismatic, populist leader who took the country from moderate US ally to “confrontational populist leftism.” Ibid, p. 2. Similar party weakening has occurred in Indonesia. While party coalitions were meant to facilitate cooperation among different parties, the party system in Indonesia was ultimately weakened by its reliance on patronage (giving government jobs to family and supporters), an institutional failing that academics suggest led to the rise of populist leaders such as President Joko Widodo . Eve Warburton and Edward Aspinall, “Explaining Indonesia’s Democratic Regression: Structure, Agency and Popular Opinion,” Contemporary Southeast Asia 41, no. 2 (August 2019): 255–85, www.jstor.org/stable/26798854. Some scholars argue that political parties play a decreasing role in US politics due to the rise of the candidate-centered campaign. In candidate-centered campaigns, candidates are increasingly less reliant on parties to run for office. These candidates may be independently wealthy, and in recent years there has been a rise of populist candidates who are less reliant on traditional political structures. Lower voter registration rates, declines in party activism, economic factors, and the rise of communication technologies illustrate a weakening of party systems around the world. candidate-centered campaign the idea that the declining influence of political parties and their decreased ability to mobilize voters’ opinions and actions has set voters politically adrift and that candidates themselves have stepped in to fill the power vacuum patronage the act of hiring or using state resources in a partisan manner in order to reward political support populism the appeal on the part of public leaders to the belief of ordinary people that established elite groups disregard their concerns

Social Sciences


What Are Elections and Who Participates? Learning Outcomes By the end of this section, you will be able to: Define the term election. Explain why elections are important to democracy and popular participation. Describe some weaknesses of popular elections. Discuss who votes in elections. Elections take many forms, from student body elections where a group of peers elect one of their own to represent their interests within their school, to a national election that selects a country’s president. An election is a formal decision-making process in which groups determine which individuals will hold public office. In certain states and countries, elections are a means for citizens to select among policy preferences. As Rutgers University professor Gerald Pomper writes, elections are a positive means by which groups can seek particular goals. Gerald Pomper, “The Concept of Elections in Political Theory,” The Review of Politics 29, no. 4 (October 1967): 478–91, www.jstor.org/stable/1405722. Why Are Elections Important to Representative Democracy? Frequent elections are a hallmark of any representative democracy because they allow elected members of government to understand the will of the people and they give people the opportunity to select these representatives and policies based on their preferences. From an American perspective, as Madison writes in Federalist Paper No. 52, “Frequent elections are unquestionably the only policy by which this dependence and sympathy can be effectually secured.” James Madison, “Federalist No. 52,” in The Federalist Papers (New Haven, CT: The Avalon Project), https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed52.asp, first published 1788 by the New York Packet . In other words, if voters are expected to depend upon and trust their representatives, frequent elections are necessary to ensure the government understands the electorate’s needs. Elections can also be seen as competitions where interest groups and political parties use their resources to convince groups of voters to vote for certain candidates over others. Theodore J. Lowi, Benjamin Ginsberg, Kenneth A. Shepsle, and Stephen Ansolabehere, American Government: Power and Purpose (New York: W. W. Norton, 2017), 428. The competitive nature of elections allows voters to “comparison shop” and forces candidates to be open about their objectives and plans. Competitive elections encourage voters to make electoral decisions, and these collective decisions should work to move elected officials in one direction over another in order to maintain their roles. Social Responsibility and Elections “I Voted” sticker (credit: "I Voted" by The Marmot/Flickr, CC BY) As students of political science, we are often challenged with explaining how the various fields, theories, and topics we study can translate into something tangibly relevant to the world outside of political science. This link is particularly clear when studying elections since elections give us the opportunity to directly take part in the democratic process through a particular form of civic engagement: voting . Voting, however, is not the only form of civic engagement related to elections. Individuals can also volunteer to work at the polls on Election Day , they can work to help register voters, and they can also volunteer to support the campaign of a preferred candidate. By participating in elections, we each have a chance to have our own voice heard within the halls of power through the selection of elected officials as well as voting on referenda and constitutional amendments. Each of us should strive to understand the role we play in our own community, how our communities intersect with other communities, and the importance of engaging in the civic life of all levels of government. What Are Some Problems with Elections? Elections are not without their problems. In economics, the theory of adverse selection refers to the idea that sellers, not buyers, have the upper hand when it comes to information, especially when it comes to product quality. For example, when a family goes to a shelter to select a puppy, they tend to know relatively little about the puppy’s lineage, what kind of environment it was born or raised in, and what the puppy is like day to day. The family has only limited information to help them decide which puppy to select, much as limited information impairs voters’ ability to make choices about policies and candidates. For example, a recent ballot initiative in California asked voters to decide if drivers of rideshare services such as Uber and Lyft are employees or contractors. The two companies spent $205 million dollars to persuade voters to exempt them from treating their drivers as workers. Michael Hiltzik, “With Prop 22, Uber and Lyft Used Their Wealth to Reshape Labor Law in Their Sole Interest,” Los Angeles Times , November 4, 2020. Since voters cannot fully educate themselves on everything they must vote on, the information asymmetry can often benefit the candidate or, in this case, the companies that can spend the most on communicating with potential voters. This example also sheds light on the problematic costs of elections. As mentioned, the last presidential election cost $14 billion, all to persuade voters to cast a ballot a certain way. As we will discuss later in the chapter, how and when elections occur varies around the world, but the high cost of elections is a uniquely American problem. Elections also shed light on the problems of moral hazard . In terms of elections, a moral hazard is the risk a voter takes that a chosen candidate may not, once elected, act in the way the voter hopes, or as Pomper notes, “Elections have been held harmful because they actually promote the unqualified.” In this way, voting is an act of faith and one that may bring you, the voter, risk or disappointment down the road, particularly if a voter decides to take a chance on a candidate without experience or a candidate who performs well in an election but is not necessarily equipped to govern. Voters may consciously or subconsciously react to the problems of adverse selection and moral hazards by not voting at all. Voter suppression is defined as election practices or policies that discourage or prevent specific groups of people from voting and is another problem voters face in elections around the globe. For example, 17 million EU citizens live and work in another EU country, yet “voting patterns in Italy, Hungary, Poland, and Greece show the extent to which EU expatriates’ political rights have been eroded. Illiberal ruling parties know that these diaspora groups could hurt them electorally and avoid encouraging, or have taken steps actively to discourage, their political participation.” Federico Fubini, “Voter Suppression Comes to Europe,” International Politics and Society , January 15, 2020, https://www.ips-journal.eu/topics/european-integration/voter-suppression-comes-to-europe-3999/. The United States has a regrettable history with voter suppression, as illustrated with Jim Crow laws in the South that barred minorities from voting through the use of literacy tests , poll taxes , and mass purges of Black voters from registration lists. States continue to engage in voter suppression, and the Brennan Center for Justice reports that between January and May of 2021, 14 states enacted 22 new laws that restrict access to the polls, including restrictions on mail-in ballots , making mail-in ballot deadlines earlier, and making voter ID laws stricter. “Voting Laws Roundup: May 2021,” Brennan Center for Justice, May 28, 2021. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/voting-laws-roundup-may-2021. Opponents of these laws explain that minorities are often the targets of such laws, as they do not have the time or resources to fulfill the necessary voter ID requirements or onerous time deadlines imposed by such laws. Voter suppression has been cited as a cause for lower turnout among minorities in states that enact these regulations. Who Participates in Elections? The number of eligible voters who cast a ballot in an election is referred to as voter turnout . Note that there is a difference between eligible voters and registered voters . In the United States, the voting eligible population (VEP) is all citizens who have reached the minimum age to vote, regardless of registration status, excluding people who are not eligible to vote, such as noncitizens and, in certain states, convicted felons. Registered voters, on the other hand, are voters who have reached the legal voting age, have their names on a voter registration list, and meet the requirements set by their state or jurisdiction in order to vote. The number of registered voters in the United States is lower than the number of eligible voters, and the number of registered voters who actually vote is lower still. The number of adults who participated in elections in the United States in the last 20 years hovered between a low of 52 percent and a high of 66 percent in the 2020 presidential election. Drew Desilver, “Turnout Soared in 2020 as Nearly Two-Thirds of Eligible U.S. Voters Cast Ballots for President,” Pew Research Center, January 28, 2021, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/01/28/turnout-soared-in-2020-as-nearly-two-thirds-of-eligible-u-s-voters-cast-ballots-for-president/. America has low voter turnout relative to other democratic countries, ranking 30th out of 35 OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries. Drew Desilver, “In Past Elections, U.S. Trailed Most Developed Countries in Voter Turnout,” Pew Research Center, November 3, 2020, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/11/03/in-past-elections-u-s-trailed-most-developed-countries-in-voter-turnout/. Country-by-country comparison of voter turnout (source: Pew Research and Global News Reports; attribution: Copyright Rice University, OpenStax, under CC BY NC-SA 4.0 license) Who votes in American elections? In short, wealthy, older, educated Whites are the most likely demographic group to turn out to vote, while Asians, Hispanic Americans, those with less than a high school degree, and voters under the age of 24 have among the lowest turnout rates. Though the number of eligible voters has grown throughout the nation’s history, the disparity among groups still exists for many reasons. Voting in the United States by demographic group (source: US Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, November Supplement, 2008 to 2020; attribution: Copyright Rice University, OpenStax, under CC BY NC-SA 4.0 license) In his seminal work on voter participation, University of California professor Arend Lijphart provides insights into the multiplicity of reasons for low voter turnout in the United States. These include the frequency of elections, off-year elections, holding elections on weekdays, and voter registration rules. Arend Lijphart, “Unequal Participation: Democracy’s Unresolved Dilemma,” The American Political Science Review 91, no. 1 (March 1997): 1–14, http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~iversen/PDFfiles/Lijphart1997.pdf. The frequency of elections leads to what some call voter fatigue , whereby the demands of multiple elections leave voters feeling apathetic or disengaged. With presidential elections every four years, congressional elections every two years, plus a multitude of local, state, and special elections, Americans face too many choices too many times. Subsequent studies have supported the claim that the frequency of elections depressed voter turnout in other countries as well. Robert R. Jackman and Ross A. Miller, “Voter Turnout in Industrial Democracies during the 1980s,” Comparative Political Studies 27, no. 4 (January 1995): 467–92, https://doi.org/10.1177/0010414095027004001. In the United States, there is also a marked drop-off in participation during off-year elections, when there is no presidential race, only state and local races. Election frequency is also posited as the reason for low voter turnout in Switzerland, which at roughly 40 percent turnout and despite compulsory voting, has one of the lowest percentages of voting-eligible people in a developed country who cast ballots in a national election. Sintia Radu, “Americans Don’t Show Up at the Polls, but Neither Do the Swiss,” US News & World Report , November 2, 2018. https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2018-11-02/the-us-isnt-alone-in-low-voter-turnout. Some suggest that an Election Day holiday , where voting day is a national holiday or voters vote on a weekend, would boost turnout in the United States. Typically, US elections are held during the week, when most people have work or school commitments, whereas countries such as Japan vote on Sundays. The set of conditions voters must meet and be able to prove in order to be eligible to vote, known as voter registration requirements , are also often cited as a reason for low voter participation in the United States. Unlike in other countries, such as Japan, China, and most of Europe and South America, where voter registration is automatic, voter registration is not compulsory in the United States. Many argue that leaving the onus of registration on the voter prevents easy access to the polls. Voter registration requirements also vary widely across states. Twenty-one states allow individuals to register and vote on the same day, while five states have automatic voter registration systems. The remaining states require voters to register anywhere between a week and 30 days prior to the election. “Same Day Voter Registration,” Research, Elections and Campaigns, National Conference of State Legislatures, October 6, 2020, https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/same-day-registration.aspx. In addition to institutional barriers, there are other explanations for why people do not vote, including declines in social capital and trust of government. Communities with higher social capital, or relationships forged in political and other social networks that help citizens resolve collective problems, enjoy lower levels of crime and higher levels of trust in government. Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2000). Higher levels of social capital are also associated with the willingness to vote. Researchers argue that encouraging individuals to join groups leads to increased community involvement and thus civic participation, “Thickening the Culture of Participation: Archon Fung on Why Tinkering around the Edges of Voting Won’t Get Us to a Truly Participatory Democracy,” Policy Topics, Harvard Kennedy School, November 1, 2018, https://www.hks.harvard.edu/research-insights/policy-topics/democracy-governance/thickening-culture-participation. and this has been shown in studies of Italy, Nadia Fiorino, Emma Galli, and Nicola Pontarollo, “Does Social Capital Affect Voter Turnout? Evidence from Italy,” Social Indicators Research 156, (February 2021): 289–309. as well as multiple democratic countries. Maneesh Arora, Hannah Kim, and Mary Mendoza, “A Cross-National Study of the Effects of Social Capital on Voter Turnout” (paper presented at the Midwest Political Science Association Annual Conference, Chicago, April 10, 2016). As levels of trust in the government have fallen, participation has fallen, and the perception of the lack of integrity in the electoral system has also been correlated with lower turnout. Changing levels of trust in government among US adults (source: Survey of US adults conducted July 27-Aug. 2, 2020; trend sources: Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel (2020), Pew Research Center phone surveys (2019 and earlier), National Election Studies, Gallup, ABC/Washington Post, CBS/New York Times, and CNN Polls; attribution: Copyright Rice University, OpenStax, under CC BY NC-SA 4.0 license) Elections are formal decision-making processes in which groups determine which individuals will hold public office. Elections are a vital part of democracy that rests on the idea of popular will since they are the mechanism by which people express their preferences, and they are one of the most important ways people influence politicians to move in one direction or the other in terms of policy. Elections face problems in that sometimes voters do not have all the required information to make decisions that best represent their interests. Moneyed interests can have a heavy influence on election outcomes, and the people’s will can be misrepresented when political actors choose to make decisions that differ from voters’ intentions. Relative to other countries, America has low voter turnout; a significant number of people registered to vote do not actually turn out on Election Day to cast a ballot. There are a variety of reasons for this, including voter fatigue, the lack of an Election Day holiday, onerous registration requirements, and low levels of social capital. adverse selection the concept, borrowed from economic theory, that voters cannot fully educate themselves on everything they must vote on and that this information asymmetry can often benefit the candidate or issue group that controls the distribution of information elections formal group decision-making processes that elect individuals to public office or, in certain states and countries, allow citizens to select among policy preferences Election Day holiday where voting day is a national holiday or voters vote on a weekend eligible voters those United States citizens who are aged 18 and older and meet state residency requirements and rules for voting moral hazard the risk a voter takes that a chosen candidate may not, once elected, act in the way the voter hopes registered voters voters who have fulfilled the necessary requirements set by the government in order to be able to cast a vote voting eligible population (VEP) the population that is eligible to vote, regardless of registration status, not including persons that are not eligible to vote, such as noncitizens and, in certain US states, convicted felons voter fatigue a phenomenon in which the demands of multiple elections leave voters feeling apathetic or disengaged voter registration requirements a set of conditions voters must meet and be able to prove in order to be eligible to vote voter suppression a strategy or in some instances local laws that work to prohibit certain groups from voting voter turnout the number of eligible voters who cast a ballot in an election

Social Sciences