7.2: How Groups Organize

The Role of Interest Group Entrepreneurs

In the business world, Americans love entrepreneurs. Create and market a new product, and you may become wildly successful while receiving social admiration. In the political world, another kind of entrepreneur fuels progress. This is the political or policy entrepreneur who creates an interest group to fight for a cause. Their genius lies in persuading and organizing people to work for policy change. Historically, think of the abolitionists, the suffragists, the Prohibitionists, and in the post-World War II era, the civil rights organizations, the environmentalists, and the conservative groups fighting for traditional values. Let’s examine how interest group entrepreneurs attract members to their causes.

A political entrepreneur has a vision of a better future and perceives the opportunity and the means to take advantage of the opportunity to change public policy. Leaders use three incentives to attract new members. First, persuade prospective members of the legitimacy of the cause. This is often done by linking the cause to other important values, such as larger American ideals. Second, appeal to material interests. Perhaps the cause itself is material: a tax cut, a new benefit, a college scholarship, canceling student debt. Or maybe an interest group provides an incentive to join, even something relatively small such as store discounts, t-shirts, or coffee cups. Third, provide social opportunities, what political scientists call solidary incentives. People love to make new friends as they are working for a common cause. Create a sense of belonging by welcoming people not just as contributors but as group members dedicated to a common cause.

Interest groups that provide a significant material benefit will have an easier time organizing people. In contrast, a citizen group whose members are working toward a more general benefit for the whole country, such as civil rights or environmental protection, must overcome the free-rider problem. It is all too human to want to gain the benefit from the hard work of an interest group without contributing to the cause. Effective interest groups can overcome this issue by organizing strategies that mobilize people to join.

Easier access to communication with the development of social media and savvy interest group entrepreneurship have been valuable tools for organizing many more interest groups. Project Vote Smart maintains partial lists of California interest groups.