INTEREST GROUP STRATEGIES| 243arrange a meeting with its staff so that they appear willing to learn about their
constituents’ demands.^32 However, these member-based strategies work only for
interest groups with a large number of members, because legislators pay atten-
tion to a letter-writing campaign only when they receive several thousand pieces
of mail. In addition, the letters or other eff orts have to come from a member’s own
constituents. For example, a representative who opposes increases in student aid
will not worry about a letter-writing campaign if most of the letters come from
people outside his or her district.
The eff ectiveness of grassroots lobbying also depends on perceptions of how
much a group has done to motivate participation. Suppose a representative gets
10,000 e-mails demanding an increase in student aid, but virtually all the mes-
sages contain the same appeal because they were generated and sent from a group’s
website. People in Washington refer to these eff orts as astroturf lobbying.^33
Given the letters’ similarity, the representative may discount the eff ort, believing
that it says more about the group’s ability to make campaign participation acces-
sible than it does about the number of district residents who strongly support an
increase in student aid. Even so, the fact that so many people participated, even
with facilitation by an interest group, means that their demands should at least be
considered.
The Internet has important implications for grassroots lobbying. Technologi-
cal developments such as blogs and e-mail lower the costs of encouraging an inter-
est group’s members and would-be members to get involved by writing a letter,
sending an e-mail, making a phone call, or showing up for a protest. However, if
Internet-driven grassroots lobbying looks like astroturf lobbying, it may be less
likely to achieve its goal of infl uencing elected offi cials and bureaucrats.
MOBILIZING PUBLIC OPINION
O n e s t r a t e g y r e l a t e d t o g r a s s r o o t s lob b y i n g i nv olv e s t r y i n g t o c h a n ge w h a t t h e p ub -
lic thinks about an issue. The goal is not to get citizens to do anything, but simply
to infl uence public opinion in the hope that elected offi cials will notice this change
and respond by enacting (or opposing) new laws or regulations in order to keep
their constituents happy. Virtually all interest groups try to infl uence opinion.
Most maintain a web page that presents their message and write press releases to
get media coverage. Any contact with citizens, whether to encourage them to join
the group, contribute money, or engage in grassroots lobbying, also involves ele-
ments of persuasion—trying to transform citizens into support-
ers, and supporters into true believers. A focused mobilization
eff ort involves contacting large numbers of potential sup-
porters through e-mail, phone calls, direct mail, television
advertising, print media, and websites. In order to get
legislators to respond, a group has to persuade large
numbers of people to become involved.
ELECTIONEERING
Interest groups get involved in elections by making contri-
butions to candidates, urging people to help in a campaign,
endorsing candidates, funding campaign ads, or mobilizing
a candidate’s or party’s supporters. All these eff orts seek to
infl uence who gets elected, with the expectation that chang-
ing who gets elected will aff ect what government does.
MASS PROTESTS, SUCH AS THIS
April 4, 2009, Tea Party rally in
California, attract media attention
and demonstrate the depth of
public support for a group’s goals.astroturf lobbying Any lobby-
ing method initiated by an interest
group that is designed to look like
the spontaneous, independent par-
ticipation of many individuals.