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Interest Groups, Government, and Power

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These questions are posed:

1. Have interest groups become powerful in our society? I definitely do think that these groups do have a powerful presence in the government. These groups play a significant role in politics and I do think that they can have a positive impact on critical governmental issues ( i.e the environment) but it is unfortunate that many of these groups try to take unlawful measures to have their policies and laws established. If these groups used lawful means to have their voices heard, the nation would no longer hold such hostile opinions of lobbyists and would be more likely to respect and support their views.

2. Who Governs? Sadly, I would say the ones who governed are the people with fat pockets (the elite) behind the chairs manipulating to their advantage what laws get passed buying legislature representatives, or even buying the executive branch with contributions on political campaigns. How much money do politicians spend on their campaigns? Millions of dollars; this is money donated which eventually they will to have to pay back when elected by doing "favors" to their contributors. Pharmaceutical companies opposed importing medicines from Canada because in Canada they cost seventy five percent less, and they will loose billions of dollars if they don't hire lobbyist. Lobbyists' make sure laws does not pass that will make them loose money no matter the price.

The tobacco corporations, the military industry, the oil companies and more are the ones in charge on what laws get passed or what is the next topic of debate. Interest groups have become to powerful to stop. The way to stop corruption is for the people to inite and start voting; Fifty percent is not going to cut it

The programming in television playing when the majority of Americans are at home its full of reality shows. The endorsements are to great to waste them with media news. I don't believe the media is biased even though it is owned by giant corporations. They give both sides of the story and by law they have to provide equal time for all candidates. Education is the key to fight corruption.

3. Where's the power? First off I don't want to say that our whole nation is corrupt, but it is questionable. Average citizens do have the chance to rule through elected officials but obviously don't. Do to the fact that only about fifty percent of the nation votes The power is given over to those with money who care about who is elected because they want support to their life. If the average American realized that they could better their situation by choosing officials they could take over the nation.

Interest groups do have an unnecessary amount of power in our society. They don't possess enough power to control everything but they can alter things to favor them. In order to stop this we have to check their power as citizens.

The press coverage is one of the hardest things to interpret in this nation. At some times issues are presented non-biased and fair, but this is a rare occurence. The biggest stories in the news are always controlled by those who have either the most power or money. They can make a story support them or hurt others. The press is always favored to one side no matter what the issue.

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This job thoroughly describes interest groups and their powers.

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1. Have interest groups become powerful in our society? I definitely do think that these groups do have a powerful presence in the government. These groups play a significant role in politics and I do think that they can have a positive impact on critical governmental issues (i.e. the environment) but it is unfortunate that many of these groups try to take unlawful measures to have their policies and laws established. If these groups used lawful means to have their voices heard, the nation would no longer hold such hostile opinions of lobbyists and would be more likely to respect and support their views.

Response: I think you're just beginning to scratch the surface with respect to special interest groups. You have focused on environmental groups, but why exclude political groups? These are the main interest groups that have become very powerful in society. Remember, just because you don't hear much about them doesn't mean that they're not powerful. In fact, the more powerful an organization is, the less likely you'll know about it. Therefore, you'll have to dig a bit more to find out. Consider the Council on Foreign Relations as a prime example of a very powerful "private" and "independent" interest group in society. Yet, the roster of members of the CFR sounds like a Who's Who in Government and Society.

Where there is power there is money and vica versa. Therefore, as the Wizard of Oz teaches, follow the yellow brick road. And everybody knows what "yellow bricks" are, right?

One of the reasons why the average American has become disassociated with government and society is that he has been excluded from its functionings due to the small size of his pocket book.

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2. Who ...

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