118 Pressure politics
Finally, interest groups must involve themselves in the work of the courts
and represent their point of view as strongly, although by using different
techniques, to the judges as to legislators or administrators. In the United
States the courts are a part of the political process in its widest sense, for
the courts make decisions that in other countries are usually made by the
elected or appointed officials of the other branches of government. At state
and local level the judges cannot be completely absolved from charges of
corrupt practices, but at the federal level, where the judiciary is of very high
calibre, the tactics of the interest group must be to argue its case before the
courts as persuasively as possible. If a group fails to block undesired legisla-
tion in Congress it can fight it in the courts on various grounds, including its
constitutionality. It is also possible to use the courts as a means of furthering
positive political aims. The most striking use of this technique was the suc-
cess of the NAACP in using litigation as a long-term programme in the fight
against segregation, both in state and federal courts. The Supreme Court of
the United States allows the filing of briefs by amici curiae, ‘friends of the
Court’, who can support one or other side of the dispute before the Court. In
this way organisations, as well as the federal or state governments, can lend
their support to the individuals involved in a case to the extent that cases
before the Court come sometimes to look like inter-group battles rather than
a judicial dispute between individual antagonists. In this way the pluralistic
battles of American politics are initiated and fought through the machinery
of government.
Inevitably, the emphasis upon the pressure politics of interest group in-
teraction leads to an impression of confusion, almost of anarchy in American
political life, to which are added overtones of corruption and the exercise
of undue influence. Yet it must be recognised that the structure of interest
groups performs an essential function in a diverse society. It provides for the
representation and the expression of opinions and interests that the party
system – any party system – would be incapable of providing. Alongside the
political parties, interest groups articulate and channel demands to those
elected and appointed officials who make the decisions which bear the im-
print of the authority of government, whether federal, state or local. Pluralist
theorists argue that this is the essence of democracy in a modern society.
However, it is also the case that those groups which have the most resources,
in particular the resource of money, are more likely to be successful in the
pluralist battle, and this does not necessarily reflect truly ‘democratic’ out-
comes.
Further reading
Cigler, A.J. and Loomis, B.A. (eds) (2002) Interest Group Politics, Washington, DC: CQ
Press.
Rozell, M.J. and Wilcox, C. (1998) Interest Groups in American National Elections, Wash-
ington, DC: CQ Press.