Interest Groups in Texas Politics(Using Turabian Style)

Interest Groups in Texas Politics(Using Turabian Style)

Introduction

By definition, interest groups refer to the associations comprising of either groups or individuals with common interests and who work jointly with the objective of promoting their interests as well as in a bid to influence public policies in their favor[1]. The interest groups are known to aim at impacting the extant government policies through lobbying, which refers to a process involving putting pressure on the diverse government branches so as to ensure the creation of policies capable of benefitting the interest group members or, in certain instances, the public at large. Interest groups are known to lead to the creation of positive influences within the society, and these include enabling the members of public to voice their concerns in relation to governance issues. Given the various advantages that interest groups have been acknowledged to proffer to the public and various communities, interest groups are vital and beneficial to Texas politics. This paper has therefore been written with the objective of analyzing the benefits of interest groups to Texas politics. To attain this objective, the paper will look into the various advantages and disadvantages of the interest groups in relation to politics and governance. These are discussed as follows.

Advantages of Interest Groups

1. Interest groups promote democracy in the state

The interest groups often make certain that the various minority groups’ interests are safeguarded and are not overshadowed by those of the majority groups[2]. In this regard, the interest groups offer individuals the necessary freedom to articulate their suggestions and opinions and to be heard, particularly the individuals who are members of the minority groups that are based on religion, gender and ethnic identities[3]. These enable such groups to safeguard their rights in addition to making sure that the various principles of democracy have been put into practice[4].

Still, the interest groups are also known to add on to the democratic process in order to safeguard specific persons as an option in relation to the overwhelming majority. As a result of this, a number of individuals have gained the freedom to freely articulate their opinions and suggestion with regards to governance and politics in Texas. Furthermore, within the political system of the United States, the various democracy principles exist and often include the observation that the majority rule and have the say with regards to political decisions. However, the principles also safeguards the minority groups’ rights given that despite not belonging to the majority they also have their opinions, views and suggestions on political and governance matters. The various interest groups with vested interest in matters pertaining to politics are, therefore, tasked with

The other notable advantage of the interest groups in Texas politics regards the observation they possess the power to bring about vital changes. Strength exists in numbers and through uniting several individuals behind a single advocacy, the interest groups are able to give their course increased degrees of validity as well as bigger voices[5]. Additionally, the residents of Texas who join such interest groups are likely to get more information and become increasingly involved in political matters affecting their communities.

Also, the other advantage of interest groups to Texas politics concerns the observation that such groups often offer positive solutions to matters requiring political decisions and solutions. The interest groups pinpoint the actual challenge and after that work hard to find a lasting solution for the problem[6]. Members off such interest groups are always better informed on given matters that are linked to their political advocacy interests in order to offer effectual solutions that might bring bigger and positive impacts on the society. Nevertheless, in spite of the observed advantages, a number of disadvantages have also been observed in relation to interest groups in politics. These have been discussed as follows.

Disadvantages of Political Interest Groups

Amongst the notable disadvantages of the interest groups regards the observation that, in their perspective, the interest group tend to focus on issues by looking at them from the minority group’s point of view. The opposing proponents also hold the belief that the interest groups often fail to usually look out for the general good of the majority and the public given that they concentrate mostly on the benefits to be acquired by the minority. Further, given that there are a number of contradictory interests within the society, even as critics maintain that the common good does not exist[7].

The other disadvantage regards the observation that the interest groups tend to be only beneficial to the members. Thus, the various critics of the interest groups have observed that the campaign group systems can only be effectual for the economic group systems given the observation that they normally have immense fiscal resources.  Moreover, the interest groups are also seen as giving increased amount of interest to the middle and upper classes of the society as opposed to the poor given the observation that the members of the lower class strata do not have adequate resources to finance the interest groups’ campaigns and their course. Still, this also raises the question of the efficiency of the interest groups. Thus, a number of interest groups may only go as far as safeguarding their interests[8]; however, they may also turn out to be ineffectual with regards to tackling the various social political matters affecting the communities and groups they represent as they may be narrow-minded and short-sighted, with regards to thinking just about their individual benefits.

The other key disadvantage of interest groups includes the view that they tend to cause and inspire criminal activities. The political interest groups often require increased amounts of cash so as to effectively lobby and campaign successfully. The groups require finances, and which are always obtained through donations and contributions, so as to pay the accrued bills, meals and other no/table expenses. As such, it  can be observed that the techniques employed by a number of the political interest groups so as to effectively influence the political policy decisions and the policy makes include corruption, bribery, fraud and theft amongst other crimes. Moreover, so as to push their courses and advocacies, a number of interest groups might pressure the civilians and politicians, and such individuals may reach a point of carrying out6 heinous offenses that also include theft, fraud, bribery and corruption.

Interest groups are also disadvantageous as a result of the risk of demosclerosis[9]. In the course of the interest groups becoming increasingly powerful and influential, their joint actions are prone to render the extant government ineffectual with regards to adapting or even taking actions. The government’s advanced incapacity to achieve anything substantial, commonly referred to as demosclerosis, always has some negative side effect of interest-group activism.

Lastly, the other palpable disadvantage of the interest groups regards the view that their pluralism often result in chaos[10]. Further, communities that have a number of political interest groups often develop pluralism, an aspect that results in contradicting interests along with chaos[11]. Even as every interest group fights for its individual advocacy, the groups may unknowingly become increasingly engaged in various endless and needless tugs of war.

Conclusion

At present, in Texas alone, there are hundreds of political interest groups which every group having its individual belief sets along with ideologies, in addition to plotting various ways for pushing such advocacies, and normally at the expense of the other interest groups. Even though getting represented and having someone who is always at your back gives a great feeling, there is a need for the community and concerned parties to check and make sure that such interest groups are genuinely after the common good of the public and community they represent. Nevertheless, the observed disadvantages should not be used as factors for discrediting political interest groups given that a number have been effecti.ve in attaining their objectives and goals, particularly in Texas and other states where they have contributed immensely to policy making and decision making as a result of their influences. Lastly, the interest groups may be regarded as beneficial to Texas politics as they are representative of the wide array of interests and enables citizens to voice their concerns on the extant political matters.

[1] Hrebenar, Ronald J., and Ruth K. Scott. Interest group politics in America. Routledge, 2015.

[2] McFarland, Andrew S. “Interest groups and the policymaking process: Sources of countervailing power in America.” In The politics of interests, pp. 58-79. Routledge, 2018.

[3] Hrebenar, Ronald J., and Ruth K. Scott. Interest group politics in America. Routledge, 2015.

[4] Tilly, Charles. “From mobilization to revolution.” In Collective Violence, Contentious Politics, and Social Change, pp. 71-91. Routledge, 2017.

[5] Ware, Allan. Funding democratization. Routledge, 2017.

[6] Anderson, James E. Public policymaking. Cengage Learning, 2014.

[7] Tilly, Charles. “From mobilization to revolution.” In Collective Violence, Contentious Politics, and Social Change, pp. 71-91. Routledge, 2017.

[8] Walton, Hanes, Robert C. Smith, and Sherri L. Wallace. American politics and the African American quest for universal freedom. Taylor & Francis, 2017.

[9] Stewart, David W., and Prem N. Shamdasani. Focus groups: Theory and practice. Vol. 20. Sage publications, 2014.

[10] De Figueiredo, John M., and Brian Kelleher Richter. “Advancing the empirical research on lobbying.” Annual Review of Political Science 17 (2014): 163-185.

[11] Craig, Richard B. The Bracero program: Interest groups and foreign policy. University of Texas Press, 2014.