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Chapter 11. Parties and Interest Groups

Take a Position

Interest groups have never been particularly popular throughout American political history. James Madison railed against such factions as the biggest threat to rights. In the nineteenth century, common Americans began to dislike the "fat cats" related to particular industries that received favorable treatment in politics. Even today, the term special interest is used in a derogatory manner.

Take a position: Is it a good thing that we have so many interest groups and that they can have so much influence in politics?

As you develop your argument, answer the following questions:

Do interest groups end up helping powerful interests in society at the expense of the collective good?

Why have pluralists always thought of interest groups so positively? Indeed, de Tocqueville admired the United States as a nation of joiners. Would the civil rights movement have succeeded in a political system that did not respond much to organized interests?

Have Americans become more reliant on interest groups they agree with rather than participating on their own? Is this good or bad?