The
purpose of this assignment is to explore the theoretical questions about interest
group diversity, participation, and power. This assignment is designed to
help you identify the powerful interest groups in your states, analyze why
they are powerful, and how they are exercising that power.
Your
presentation should cover 2 things
1.
the
relative balance of power between parties, interest groups, and unions for
the states in your region;
2.
a
qualitative analysis of a single interest group in one of your states.
Which
Interest Groups are powerful in your states?
To
answer this question, go to the Follow the Money web site http://www.followthemoney.org, click on the EXPLORE on the
top, and then STATE OVERVIEWS and click on your state (http://www.followthemoney.org/database/state_overview.phtml).
Choose the
year in which the most recent gubernatorial election was.
It is usually 2006 or 2008 (NJ, VA, MS are all in odd year elections).
You can tell by the dollar amount raised for gubernatorial election.
(Overview Candidates Contributors Ballot Measures Party Committees Data Sources)
Scroll down to Figure A which breaks down contributions by Sector and Figure B which shows contributions by Contributor type.
Using this data and charts, prepare a brief assessment (4 minutes) about which interest groups are powerful in your states? Your presentation should tell us who the big money interests are in your states and about the relative balance between public sector unions, parties, occupational/economic/business interests (realtors, utilities, banks, etc), lawyers/lobbyists, or ideological groups.
1. What
policy goal(s) is your interest group trying to achieve?
2.
What techniques or activities is your interest group engaging in to achieve
their goals? Why are they using these techniques and not others? (think
about the insider/outsider dimension)
3.
What other groups, if any, are opposing them? What techniques or activities
are those interest group engaging in?
4.
Is your interest group playing partisan, majority, individual, or nonpartisan
politics? That is, are they aligned with one political party, one branch
of government, or are they trying to win over both parties and all branches
of government? Is one institution or branch especially sympathetic?
5.
Why or why not were they successful were they in achieving their goals?
6.
What does the outcome suggest about the power of your interest group? Is it
powerful, why or why not, and what are the limits on its power?
Where to find information to answer these questions:
1.
Look for state political
blogs that follow the activities of these interests very closely.
If you do a google search for “Ohio politics”, you might be able to
find the Buckeye politics blog. (http://www.buckeyesenateblog.com/)
2.
Look
at the webpage of the interest group and see if they have a statement of their
political activities.