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Monday, May 1, 2023

The End, 2023

Papers from graduating seniors are due at 11:59 pm on Wednesday.

All others are due 11:59 pm on Friday.

Questions on the paper?

Course evals: Seniors may access their surveys until May 4th at 5 pm, in order to accommodate their early completion schedule. All other students may access their surveys until 11:59 pm May 7th.  

The rest of the story:

Reviewing:

Interest group politics is inevitable.


Madison again:
As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed. As long as the connection subsists between his reason and his self-love, his opinions and his passions will have a reciprocal influence on each other; and the former will be objects to which the latter will attach themselves.
 ...
Those who hold and those who are without property have ever formed distinct interests in society. Those who are creditors, and those who are debtors, fall under a like discrimination. A landed interest, a manufacturing interest, a mercantile interest, a moneyed interest, with many lesser interests, grow up of necessity in civilized nations, and divide them into different classes, actuated by different sentiments and views. The regulation of these various and interfering interests forms the principal task of modern legislation, and involves the spirit of party and faction in the necessary and ordinary operations of the government. 
And the First Amendment specifically protects the right to petition government:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Summing up

Everybody has interests, both economic and cultural.

The ubiquity of business (Cigler 285) and the dominance of the top tier

  • "Privileged position" of business

Much of interest-group influence is far upstream from high-profile votes and executive actions (Cigler 285-288)

Influence is not just "lobbying" campaign finance

  • Influencing ideas and mass communication
  • Mobilizing civil society
  • Litigating
Three faces of power
  • Decision
  • Agenda
  • Ideas about what constitutes an issue

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Wednesday, April 26, 2023

Reform II

 For Monday:

  • Holyoke, conclusion.
  • Cigler, ch. 16

Florida Update  and the court document

House revolving door rules (Cigler 273)



Lobbying, Influence, and the states

FEC 

Campaign Finance

  • Brennan Center: "In fact, the idea of a tax credit to encourage political participation is nothing new. Between 1972 and 1986, millions of Americans claimed a federal tax credit to subsidize hundreds of millions of dollars of contributions.13 And over the last few decades, several states have allowed their residents to do the same."
  • State laws
  • Super PAC insurance
Recusal and conflicts of interest

Government  Capacity




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Monday, April 24, 2023

Reform I

  For Wednesday:

  • Schatzinger, ch. 7

Hamilton argues against representation by occupational category:
It is notorious that there are often as great rivalships between different branches of the mechanic or manufacturing arts as there are between any of the departments of labor and industry; so that, unless the representative body were to be far more numerous than would be consistent with any idea of regularity or wisdom in its deliberations, it is impossible that what seems to be the spirit of the objection we have been considering should ever be realized in practice.
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN DID LOBBYING.

And the First Amendment specifically protects the right to petition the government:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Ethics Code for Lobbyists

Justice and quid pro quo.

Jack Abramoff and a partner charged Indian tribes about $85 million. They overbilled the tribes and split the proceeds. CNN summary:
  • Starting in 2001, Abramoff persuaded a Louisiana tribe to pay nearly $30.5 million for "grassroots work" to a Scanlon company, which, in turn, kicked back nearly $11.4 million to Abramoff.
  • In 2001 Abramoff also persuaded a Mississippi tribe to give nearly $14.8 million to Scanlon, who funneled nearly $6.3 to Abramoff.
  • A Michigan tribe gave $3.5 million to Scanlon's firm in 2002; $540,000 ended up in Abramoff's pocket.
  • Also in 2002, a Texas tribe gave $4.2 million to Scanlon, and nearly $1.9 million found its way to Abramoff
  • According to e-mail obtained by a Senate committee, Abramoff made a fortune from the tribes while privately mocking tribal leaders as "monkeys" and "morons."
  • In one instance, [Assistant Attorney General Alice] Fisher told reporters, Abramoff took fees from one client, then worked for another client with competing interests. She did not identify the clients.
After Abramoff came reforms -- with loopholes, as National Journal reports:
The 2007 rules pre­vent a lob­by­ist for a cor­por­ate cli­ent from plan­ning or pay­ing for a law­maker’s trip. But the same rules al­low such a trip if it’s paid for by a for­eign gov­ern­ment. So while it does re­main il­leg­al for, say, a Google lob­by­ist to plan and ac­com­pany a law­maker on a free trip abroad, if that same lob­by­ist does so on be­half of Tur­key, it’s per­fectly leg­al. And if that lob­by­ist hap­pens to have both cor­por­ate and for­eign-gov­ern­ment cli­ents (as most do), they can still go abroad so long as it’s a coun­try and not a com­pany foot­ing the bill.
And that’s only one of the loop­holes the in­flu­ence in­dustry has ex­ploited to help law­makers score free travel. Today, a wide net­work of non­profits — many with a clear agenda and some with ex­cru­ci­at­ingly tight ties to Wash­ing­ton’s biggest lob­by­ing op­er­a­tions — are put­ting to­geth­er in­ter­na­tion­al con­gres­sion­al ex­cur­sions. Some of these pa­per non­profits have no staff or space of their own; they simply share with a sis­ter or­gan­iz­a­tion that lob­bies. Yet eth­ics of­fi­cials in Con­gress have deemed them to be in­de­pend­ent enough. In one in­stance, a lob­by­ist lit­er­ally re­gistered a new non­profit — in his own of­fice — that went on to pay for con­gres­sion­al travel abroad.
Big cor­por­a­tions bank­roll some non­profits, whose trips, in turn, can fea­ture stops at the busi­nesses of their cor­por­ate fun­ders. As a bo­nus, the grow­ing use of 501(c)(3) non­profits, which oc­cupy the same char­it­able rung of the tax code as soup kit­chens and the Amer­ic­an Red Cross, means that the wealthy and cor­por­ate donors un­der­writ­ing con­gres­sion­al travel can do so in secret and get a tax write-off along the way.

And who was the first person to go to prison for breaking this law?  JACK ABRAMOFF HIMSELF


Nathaniel Popper at NYT (6/25/20):
Jack Abramoff, the disgraced lobbyist whose corruption became a symbol of the excesses of Washington influence peddling, is set to return to jail for violating the law that was amended in response to his earlier crimes, law enforcement officials said on Thursday.

Prosecutors said Mr. Abramoff, 62, is the first person charged with flouting the Lobbying Disclosure Act, which was amended in 2007 after details of his earlier scheme, one of the biggest corruption scandals in modern times, emerged. He pleaded guilty to the lobbying violations and to criminal conspiracy for secretive and misleading work he did on behalf of cryptocurrency and marijuana projects, according to court documents.

Prosecutors in San Francisco said that in 2017, Mr. Abramoff secretly agreed to seek changes in federal law — and met with members of Congress — on behalf of the marijuana industry without registering as a lobbyist.

“Abramoff was aware of the obligations to register as a lobbyist in part because Congress amended provisions of the Lobbying Disclosure Act in 2007 in part as a reaction to Abramoff’s past conduct as a lobbyist,” court documents said. 



Transparency loopholes



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Wednesday, April 19, 2023

Culture Wars

Class ends early today.  

For Monday, read Cigler, ch. 13, 15

Tennessee Gun Update

This Bud's for you

  • Did not really have economic incentives or patrons, but did require skillful, educated organizers.
  • Many founders developed skills working for other organizations -- very 
  • Many began with individual assistance instead of political activism -- similar to the Autism Society
  • Threats produce interactions, which produce group formation
  • Communication:  Tocqueville described the role of newspapers in an association.  Anonymity can be important when there is social discrimination.

The religious landscape

House of Worship and Politics

The Johnson Amendment does not apply to GOTV or issue advocacy.

Religions differ:



PRRI:




 Tocqueville wrote (p. 297 of the Lawrence-Mayer ed.): 

As long as religion relies only upon the sentiments which are the consolation of every affliction, it can draw the heart of mankind to itself. When it is mingled with the bitter passions of this world, it is sometimes constrained to defend allies who are such from interest rather than from love; and it has to repulse as adversaries men who still love religion, although they are fighting against religion's allies. Hence religion cannot share the material strength of the rulers without being burdened with some of the animosity roused against them.
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Monday, April 17, 2023

Last Assignment, Spring 2023

  Pick one of the items below.

  • Pick any chapter in Cigler or Holyoke and do a 2023 afterword.  What has happened since 2020 that would either illuminate the analysis or require revision?
  • Choose any proposed reform from Schatzinger, ch. 7.  Then ask ChatGPT to identify arguments for and against the proposal.  Pick one of those arguments and analyze it critically.  Does it make sense?  Would it persuade the relevant policymakers and the general public?  Add the ChatGPT answer to the end of your paper.  It will not count against the page limit.
  • What is the most important thing about interest groups that you learned in this course? What do you know now that you did not know in early January?

Instructions:
  • Document your claims. Do not write from the top of your head. 
  • Essays should be typed (12-point), double-spaced, and no more than four pages long. I will not read past the fourth page. Please submit papers as Word documents, not pdfs or Google docs. 
  • Cite your sources with endnotes in Chicago/Turabian style. Endnote pages do not count against the page limit.  No bibliography is necessary.
  • Watch your spelling, grammar, diction, and punctuation. Errors will count against you. 
  • Turn in essays to the class Sakai dropbox by 11:59 PM, Wednesday, May 3. I reserve the right to dock papers a gradepoint for one day’s lateness, a full letter grade after that.
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Differences, Guns, Religions

 For next time: continue discussion of religion, move to culture wars.

Wednesday class will end shortly before noon.

Parents who murder autistic children (Garcia 14-15): "[T]here is never justification for taking another person's life out of desperation or exhaustion."

A recent case.  Disability Scoop reports on a reaction:

State Sen. Sally Harrell, who oversaw legislative hearings into the problems plaguing the disability community, spoke about Frix’s death on the Senate floor Jan. 13, one week after the murder-suicide took place. Police believe that Jerry Frix, 58, killed his daughter with autism and then himself at his home in Cumming, she said. Harrell said Frix’s wife had died a few years ago and he had quit his job to help care for Megan.

Although the Frix family received services at home to help care for Megan, Harrell believes the support was simply not enough.

“Extreme situations can cause people to do things they would not typically do, and as a state, we bear the responsibility for failing this family,” she told her fellow lawmakers.

A vigil. 





Guns and the NRA


The connection between religion and political advocacy dates back to the start, with the fight against slavery
  • Slave revolts: Gabriel Prosser, Denmark Vesey, and Nat Turner
  • John Brown
  • Stephen A. Douglas objected: "It is true that they describe themselves as ministers of the gospel, but they claim to speak in the name of the Almighty on a political question pending in the Congress of the United States. It is an attempt to establish in this country the doctrine that a body of men, organized and known among the people as clergymen, have a peculiar right to determine the will of God in relation to legislative action. It is an attempt to establish a theocracy to take charge of our politics and our legislation. It is an attempt to make the legislative power of this country subordinate to the Church."
The Civil War left US religion even more decentralized:  some Protestant denominations (e.g., Baptists) broke into Northern and Southern wings.

The Social Gospel Movement and ... The American Economics Association

Prohibition, Evangelicals, and the Scopes Case

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Wednesday, April 12, 2023

The Politics of Difference and Identity: The Case of Autism

  • Papers due by 11:59 pm Sunday.
  • For Monday, ch. 3 of Cigler.
  • For Wed of next week, Cigler, ch. 4-5 and NYT article
  • Last paper assigned Monday, due May 3.  

Autism illustrates three major points about interest group politics:

  1. Changes in the perceived extent of a problem lead to changes in interest group activity.
  2. Interest group activity on one issue may foster activity on related issues.  In this case, the civil rights movement spawned the disability rights movement, which spawned the autism rights movement. 
  3. Interest group activity on any issue is often full of factionalism and conflict among groups.  In the case of autism, the conflict includes death threats.
  • 1927:  The "civil libertarian" Oliver Wendell Holmes writes the majority opinion in Buck v. Bell, upholding involuntary sterilization of people with mental disabilities:  We have seen more than once that the public welfare may call upon the best citizens for their lives. It would be strange if it could not call upon those who already sap the strength of the State for these lesser sacrifices, often not felt to be such by those concerned, in order to prevent our being swamped with incompetence. It is better for all the world if, instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. The principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the Fallopian tubes. Three generations of imbeciles are enough."  A lawyer for Nazi war criminals would quote this line at Nuremberg.
  • 1941-42. At the 1941 annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, neurologist Foster Kennedy called for the killing of children over the age of five with severe intellectual disabilities. His goal was to relieve "the utterly unfit" and "nature's mistakes" of the "agony of living" 
  • 1943:  American psychiatrist Leo Kanner publishes “Autistic Disturbances of Affective Contact” (Nervous Child 2 (1943): 217-250), identifying autism as a childhood psychiatric disorder.  The first autistic person that he diagnosed -- Donald Triplett ("Donald T." in the article) -- is still alive.
  • Hans Asperger's role
  • 1959:  Bruno Bettelheim publishes “Joey: A Mechanical Boy,” in Scientific American  200 (March 1959): 117-126.  A condensed version reaches a larger audience through Reader's Digest.  The article highlights the "refrigerator mother" theory.
  • 1964:  Bernard Rimland publishes Infantile Autism, a book summarizing current research and refuting Bettelheim.
  • 1965: Psychologist Ole Ivar Lovaas develops Applied Behavior Analysis.  The May 7 issue of Life gives it national publicity in “Screams, Slaps, and Love:  A Surprising, Shocking Treatment Helps Far-Gone Mental Cripples.”  (Rotenberg Center still uses aversives).
  • 1965:  Rimland and 60 others form the National Society for Autistic Children (NSAC), later the Autism Society of America.
  • 1967:  Bettelheim publishes The Empty Fortress, a book expanding on his theory and criticizing Rimland. Bettelheim is a celebrity who gets many more readers.
  • 1973:  Congress passes the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (P.L. 93-112). Section 504 forbids discrimination against the handicapped "under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.”  
  • 1975: Congress passes the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (PL 94-142) .  
  • 1975: The Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act (P.L. 94-103) creates a "bill of rights" for persons with developmental disabilities, funds services, and establishes protection and advocacy organizations in each state.  Because of lobbying by NSAC, it includes autism.
  • 1982: The Rowley case (458 U. S. 176) narrows the scope of EAHCA. 
  • 1987: Lovaas publishes a study reporting a 47 percent recovery rate with ABA. 
  • 1988: Rain Man introduces autism to millions of moviegoers.
  • 1990:  President George H.W. Bush signs the Americans with Disabilities Act (P.L. 101-336). mandates that local, state and federal governments and programs be accessible, that businesses with more than 15 employees make "reasonable accommodations" for disabled workers, that public accommodations  make "reasonable modifications.” 
  • 1990: The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amendments (IDEA) (P.L. 101-476) renames the Education of the Handicapped Act and reauthorizes programs under the Act to improve support services. Autism becomes a separate category in IDEA for special education.
  • 1994:  The fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-IV) expands the definition of autism.
  • 1998:  Dr. Andrew Wakefield and others publish a f study in the Lancet about MMR vaccinated children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders.
  • 2002: Wakefield testifies before the House Government Reform and Oversight committee that there is “compelling evidence” of a link between vaccines and autism.

Children 3 to 21 years old with autism served under Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Part B (numbers in thousands)  Source: Digest of Education Statistics, various years.
Autistic children aged 3 to 21 receiving services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (in thousands)






















Pre-2000 Organizations:
The 21st Century and Factions








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