232 CHAPTER 8|INTEREST GROUPS
TYPES OF INTEREST GROUPS
Scholars often divide interest groups into categories based
on who their members are or the number or kinds of
things they lobby for. While it’s important not to take these
categories too literally—very few groups, for example, lobby
on only one issue—the categories explain what kinds of
interest groups exist and what they lobby for.
¾ Economic groups include corporations, trade
associations, labor groups, and professional
organizations. Economic interest groups aim to
infl uence policy in ways that will bring their members
economic—that is, monetary—benefi ts. Many
corporations such as Microsoft, Exxon, or Boeing
have lobbying operations that petition government
for contracts or favorable regulations of their fi rm or
industry.
¾ Labor organizations are another kind of economic
group. The American Federation of Labor and Congress
of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) lobbies for
regulations that make it easy for workers to form labor
unions, and a range of other policies. Professional
organizations, a third type of economic group, lobbyfor government policies that fi nancially benefi t their
members.
¾ The second interest group category is citizen groups,
or public interest groups. This category captures
a range of organizations, from those with mass
membership (such as the Sierra Club) to those
that have no members but claim to speak for large
segments of the population. One such group is the
Family Research Council, which describes itself as
“promoting the Judeo-Christian worldview as the basis
for a just, free, and stable society.” This group lobbies
for a range of policies, from legislation that defi nes
marriage as between a man and a woman to legislation
that would eliminate estate taxes.
¾ The third category of interest group is the single-issue
groups. These groups focus on a narrow range of
topics or a single government program or piece of
legislation. Examples include the National Right to Life
Committee, which lobbies for restrictions on abortion
rights, and NumbersUSA, which lobbies against guest
worker programs for noncitizens.NUTS & bolts
8.1
CENTRALIZED GROUPS OR CONFEDERATIONS
There are two main models of interest group structure. Most large, well-known
organizations are centralized groups; two examples are the NR A and the Amer-
ican Association of Retired Persons (A ARP). National organizations like these
typically have headquarters in Washington, D.C., operate fi eld offi ces in large state
capitals, and have members nationwide. Each organization’s leadership is located
in its headquarters, and these leaders determine the group’s lobbying goals and
tactics. The other structural model is a confederation, which comprises largely
independent, local organizations. For example, the National Independent Auto-
mobile Dealers Association (NADA) encompasses fi fty state-level organizations
that provide most of the membership benefi ts to car dealers who join and that also
raise much of the money that NADA contributes to political candidates (several
million dollars in recent elections).
Both organizational structures have advantages and disadvantages. A cen-
tralized organization controls all the group’s resources and can deploy them effi -
ciently, but it can be challenging for these groups to fi nd out what their members
want. In contrast, because confederations maintain independent chapters at the
state and local levels, their national headquarters can easily learn what the mem-
bers want simply by contacting the local groups. But this strength is related to a
weakness: because state and local chapters mostly function independently of the
national headquarters, confederated groups often experience confl ict as diff erent
local chapters disagree over what to lobby for and which candidates to support.centralized groups Interest
groups that have a headquarters,
usually in Washington, D.C., as
well as members and fi eld offi ces
throughout the country. In general,
these groups’ lobbying decisions
are made at headquarters by the
group leaders.
confederations Interest groups
made up of several independent,
local organizations that provide
much of their funding and hold most
of the power.