Politics of Interest Groups Spring 2023
MW 11:00 AM-12:15PM
Bauer 2
J.J. Pitney
Office: Kravis 232
Student Hours:
Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu 1-2 pm and by appointment
This course examines the role of interest groups in American politics, with particular attention to their influence on public policy. It asks these questions:
- What are interest groups, and how do they form?
- Are there real differences between economic and "public" interest groups?
- How do interest groups try to influence elections?
- By what legal and extralegal means do foreign interests play a part in American politics?
- What strategies and tactics do they use in the "outside" game of public relations and the "inside game" of lobbying?
- Is there a general public interest apart from group interests? If so, do interest groups advance or undercut it?
Classes
Class sessions will include lecture and discussion. Finish each week's readings before class because our discussions will involve those readings. We shall also talk about breaking news stories about Congress, so you must read a good daily news source such as Politico or Axios.
Our class blog is at https://gov116.blogspot.com/. I shall post videos, graphs, news stories, and other material there. We shall use some of this material in class, and you may review the rest at your convenience. You will all receive invitations to post to the blog. (Please let me know if you do not get such an invitation.) I encourage you to use the blog in these ways: - To post questions or comments about the readings before we discuss them in class;
- To follow up on class discussions with additional comments or questions.
- To post relevant news items or videos.
Grades
The following will make up your course grade:
- Two four-page essays 20% each
- One three-page essay 15%
- One six-page essay 30%
- Participation, reflections, & presentation 15%
Details
- The papers will develop your research and writing skills. In grading, I will take account of the quality of your writing, applying the principles of Strunk and White’s Elements of Style. If you object, do not take this course, or anything else that I teach.
- Class participation will hone your ability to think on your feet, as I shall call on students at random. If you often miss class or fail to prepare, your grade will suffer. I shall use the cold calls to judge how well you are keeping up with the material. If you object to this approach, do not take this course.
- In addition to the required readings (below), I may also give you handouts, emails, and web links covering current events and basic factual information.
- Check due dates for coursework. Do not plan on extensions.
- Plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty are not victimless offenses, because they hurt fellow students. Please study our Statement of Academic Integrity, which reads in part: "The faculty of Claremont McKenna College is firmly committed to upholding the highest standards of academic integrity. Each faculty member has the responsibility to report cases of academic dishonesty to the Academic Standards Committee."
- This class welcomes viewpoint diversity. See: https://heterodoxacademy.org/library/advice-on-syllabus-language/
- Your experience in this class is important to me, and I have a particular interest in disability. If you have set up accommodations with Accessibility Services at CMC, please tell me about your approved accommodations so we can discuss your needs in this course. You can start by forwarding me your accommodation letter. If you have not yet established accommodations but have a temporary health condition or permanent disability (e.g., mental health, attention-related, learning, vision, hearing, physical or health), please get in touch with Assistant Dean for Academic Success and Accessibility Services, Maude Nazaire, at Accessibilityservices@cmc.edu to ask questions or begin the process.
Required Books (Make sure to get the correct edition).
Thomas T. Holyoke, Interest Groups and Lobbying, 2d ed. (New York: Routledge, 2021).
- Allan J. Cigler, Burdett A. Loomis, and Anthony Nownes, eds, Interest Group Politics, 10th ed. (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield, 2020)
Henrik M. Schatzinger and Steven E. Martin, Game Changers: How Dark Money and Super PACS are Transforming U.S. Campaigns (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield, 2020).
Schedule (subject to change, with advance notice). In addition to the readings below, I may also supply you with various Internet links.
Jan 18: Introduction
Is everyone part of a special interest? Is there a constitutional right to lobby? What is the proper role of organized interests in a democracy?
Jan 23, 25: Movements, Groups, Factions
"Up to now, America has not been a good milieu for the rise of a mass movement. What starts out here as a mass movement ends up as a racket, a cult, or a corporation." -- Eric Hoffer
We hear of "movements," "interest groups" and "factions." Do these terms mean different things, or are they variations of the same thing?
Jan 30, Feb 1: Lobbying and Lobbyists
"[Tom] Daschle, a `policy adviser' to a range of corporate interests and a close confidant of many top Democrats, has become one of the most famous unregistered lobbyists in the city. In fact, his activities as a consigliere and go-between for business leaders and politicians, including President Obama, are so well known that among ethics watchdogs, the technicality in the law that allows lobbyists to evade registration has become known as the `Daschle Loophole.'" -- Lee Fang, The Nation, February 19, 2014.
Who are lobbyists? How do they work?
FIRST ESSAY ASSIGNED BY FEB 1, DUE FEB 17.
READ STRUNK AND WHITE FIRST.
Feb 6, 8: Lobbying Congress and the Executive
"Former Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.) is joining Cozen O’Connor as a managing director...Davis, who is barred from lobbying the Hill for one year, said he expects he’ll register to lobby eventually, or sooner if a client `think[s] I can have influence with' the Biden administration. `I've realized that there's opportunities to be effective in public policy if you were effective as a member.” --
Politico Influence, January 11, 2022.
How do lobbyists try to influence lawmakers, political appointees, and career civil servants? What is the difference between the inside game and the outside game?
Feb 13, 15: Lobbying, Coalitions, and Litigation
“`In the final analysis,' Stevens concluded, his argument boiled down to `who should decide”' whether affirmative action should continue — `the nine of us sitting in the chambers of the Supreme Court,' as he put it, or `the accumulated wisdom of the country’s leaders.' That wisdom, he said, was convincingly shown by `the powerful consensus of the dark green briefs.' -- Legal Times, October 6, 2003.
How do interest groups form coalitions? How do they use the legal process?
- Holyoke, ch. 8-9
- Excerpts from David Enrich (CMC `01), Servants of the Damned (New York: Mariner, 2022). On Sakai.
Feb 20, 22: Election Money I
"This fundraising avenue is almost completely shut off for outsiders. It’s not that I didn’t try. Several times I was told by third house leaders I met with that I presented an `interesting campaign,' but because the organization `had a piece of legislation before my opponent’s committee the next day,' they could not be seen supporting my run with a donation." -- Pete Peterson
Why do interest groups make contributions and independent expenditures in campaigns?
SECOND ESSAY ASSIGNED BY FEB 22, DUE MAR 10.
Feb 27, Mar 1: Election Money II
"Day 1, I'd sign an executive order that says if you want to contract with the federal government — I can't tell you that you can't spend or donate, but you have to disclose every single dollar that you are either spending or donating to influence our elections. Think about it. The federal government contracts with dang near every company in the country. Adding that sunshine and transparency will make a difference." -- Steve Bullock
How have dark money groups and super PACs changed the relationship between interest groups and campaign finance?
- Schatzinger, ch. 4-6.
- Cigler, ch. 7
Mar 6, 8: Business
How did corporations and trade associations become players? When do they seek public and private goods?
- Cigler, ch. 10, 11.
- Eric Lipton and Kenneth P. Vogel, "Cigars, Booze, Money: How a Lobbying Blitz Made Sports Betting Ubiquitous," New York Times, November 20, 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/20/business/sports-betting-lobbying-kansas.html
- Selections from Lee Drutman, The Business of America Is Lobbying (New York: Oxford, 2015). On Sakai.
Mar 13, 15: Spring Break
Mar 20, 22: Foreign Policy, Foreign Interests
"What did Manafort do for his money? All his clients, notwithstanding their abysmal human rights records, received foreign aid from the U.S. government. They wanted more. They hired Manafort to help them get more. Having more, they could in the future afford (among other things) to pay Manafort more to get the U.S. government to give them still more." -- Andrew Ferguson
Who influences foreign and military policy? What is the role of foreign governments and interests? What economic and ethnic groups have a stake in foreign affairs?
- Ben Freeman, "Foreign Funding of Think Tanks in America." Center for International Policy, Jan 2020, https://static.wixstatic.com/ugd/3ba8a1_4f06e99f35d4485b801f8dbfe33b6a3f.pdf.
- Jesse Mesner-Hage et al., "The Foreign Consultant" (video documentary), Washington Post, July 30, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/national/the-spectacular-rise-and-fall-of-paul-manafort/2018/07/29/1ca3f246-8b0f-11e8-9d59-dccc2c0cabcf_video.html
- Tim Mak, Misfire: Inside the Downfall of the NRA (New York: Penguin Random House, 2021), excerpts on Sakai.
- Jan. 6 Comm. report, Appendix 4, (pp. 806-811), "Malign Foreign Influence," https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-J6-REPORT/pdf/GPO-J6-REPORT-4-4.pdf
- News stories on foreign influence operations On Sakai.
Mar 27, 29: Public Employees and Intergovernmental Lobbying
"Since their own services have to do with the functioning of the Government, a strike of public employees manifests nothing less than an intent on their part to prevent or obstruct the operations of Government until their demands are satisfied. Such action, looking toward the paralysis of Government by those who have sworn to support it, is unthinkable and intolerable." -- Franklin D. Roosevelt
How do government employees try to influence the policies of elected officials? And how do American governments lobby one another?
Apr 3, 5: Oral Presentations
April 10, 12: Protest, Civil Rights, Disability Rights
"Get in good trouble." -- John Lewis
How is protest a political resource? How did the movement for African American civil rights serve as a template for other civil rights movements?
- Garrett Chase, "The Early History of the Black Lives Matter Movement, and the Implications Thereof," Nevada Law Journal 18 (2018), https://scholars.law.unlv.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1757&context=nlj
- Eric Garcia, We're Not Broken: Changing the Autism Conversation (New York; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2021), ch. 1. On Sakai.
- Linda Villarosa, "Pollution Is Killing Black Americans. This Community Fought Back," New York Times Magazine, July 28, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/28/magazine/pollution-philadelphia-black-americans.html
- Marie Berry and Erica Chenoweth, "Who Made the Women's March?" in The Resistance: The Dawn of the Anti-Trump Opposition Movement, ed. David S. Meyer and Sidney Tarrow (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018). On Sakai.
RESEARCH PAPERS DUE APRIL 14.
Apr 17, 19: Culture Wars
"Behind the scenes, a group of influential Republican donors and operatives, including some of the party’s most prominent gay leaders with long experience prodding their party to embrace L.G.B.T.Q. rights, banded together with the bill’s proponents in Congress for a coordinated, $1.7 million campaign to persuade G.O.P. senators that backing it would give them a political edge." -- Annie Karni
Political issues sometimes revolve around culture and identity. How do activists navigate this dangerous terrain?
FOUR-PAGE ESSAY ASSIGNED BY APR 17,
DUE MAY 3
Apr 24, 26: Reform
Can we reform interest group politics while preserving constitutional rights?
"Money, like water, will always find an outlet." -- Justices Stevens and O'Connor in McConnell v. FEC
- Cigler, ch. 13, 15
- Schatzinger, ch. 7
May 1: Reconsiderations
"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war. God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless." -- Not Abraham Lincoln.
In light of the political and legal upheavals of recent years, how will interest group politics evolve?
- Holyoke, conclusion.
- Cigler, ch. 16
