8.3: Interest Group Tactics

The main mechanism through which interest groups attempt to influence public policy is lobbying. Many interest groups hire registered lobbyists to contact members of Congress and persuade them to cast votes, sponsor bills, or make speeches favorable to their groups’ interests. This persuasion involves providing members of Congress with information about issues they consider important. Congress relies heavily on interest groups for such information, though of course each interest group focuses on information that supports its side of the issues. Sometimes interest groups even write whole bills and present them to senators or representatives in the hope that they will formally introduce those bills into Congress.

Lobbying has a negative reputation among the American public, and lobbyists are often thought of as sleazy political operators, willing to bribe politicians to change their minds and break the promises they made to their constituents. This caricature is unfair in a few ways. First, lobbyists must abide by complex and strict laws that prohibit, among other things, outright bribery (though some do occasionally get caught breaking these laws). Second, rather than attempting to change minds, lobbyists prefer to seek out politicians who already agree with them on key issues and then persuade them to act on those issues. Finally, although some lobbyists lobby politicians to act against their constituents’ interests, others lobby them from the other side to remember the wants and needs of the voters who elected them.

Besides contacting politicians through hired lobbyists, interest groups can do grassroots lobbying: so through average citizens. This practice, called grassroots lobbying, involves persuading a politician’s constituents to write letters, make phone calls, or send emails to voice their opinions on an issue and demand action. An effective grassroots lobbying campaign can swamp a congressional office with messages of anger or concern, putting pressure on the member by demonstrating that his or her constituents are paying attention to an issue. (Protests, rallies, and demonstrations organized by interest groups can also be considered forms of grassroots lobbying.) If you’ve ever seen a commercial advising you to write to your representative or call your senator, you’ve experienced a grassroots lobbying appeal.

Lobbying is not confined to the legislative branch of government. Courts also experience pressure from interest groups in the form of amicus curiae briefs. If an interest group is not directly involved in a court case but cares about the outcome of that case, it can submit a brief to the judges as an amicus curiae (Latin for “friend of the court”). As with lobbying legislators, the purpose of an amicus brief is to provide information and arguments to persuade government officials — in this case, judges — to act a certain way. Some high-profile court cases involve hundreds of amicus briefs from concerned interest groups (and individual citizens) on both sides.