8.1: Strength in Numbers

Most people have political preferences of one sort or another. These preferences vary in their origin and strength, and not everyone has a firm stance on every issue. Still, almost all of us can articulate something about how the government works that we would either like to change or like to keep the way it is.

Although we have political preferences, most of us lack the power to do much of anything about them individually. Unless you are a government official, a celebrity, or some other highly influential person, your ability to impact national, state, or even local politics on your own is severely limited. Popular sovereignty means that power rests with the people, but large populations mean that each person possesses only a minuscule fraction of that power.

We can increase our power by combining it with that of others who share our interests. By yourself, you might struggle to get the government’s attention if, for example, you protest a law you think is unjust. Find a handful of people who agree with you and are willing to protest alongside you, and together you might make the local news. Increase that handful to a hundred, or a thousand, or a million, and eventually you become impossible to ignore (though you still might not get what you want).

An interest group is essentially that: an organized group of people that seeks to influence public policy in some way. Its members may not agree on every issue, but they agree enough on one issue or set of issues to band together in pursuit of their desired policy outcomes. Interest group membership is generally not exclusive; a single person might be a member of multiple interest groups, each pursuing a different objective or set of objectives.

The ideal The term interest, as it pertains to interest groups, is not synonymous with hobby (although interest groups can and sometimes do form based on hobbies). Any policy from which you stand to benefit is considered to be “in your interest.” Politically speaking, your interests are not what fascinates or intrigues you (in the sense that you find them “interesting”) but rather what things would be good for you if they existed or happened.law is easy to remember and apply in solving problems, as long as you get the proper values a

Interest groups are akin to parties (the subject of the next chapter), which also act collectively to influence public policy. The main difference between an interest group and a party is how they go about pursuing their goals. Parties strive to win elections and obtain government offices from which they can enact policies, whereas interest groups attempt to persuade government officials to act in certain ways. Parties want to put their members in government; interest groups want to influence government while remaining outside of it.