Political Science 367D01

Legislatures and Interest Groups

Instructors: William Anderson and Department of Political Science

The Ohio State University

Course Synopsis:

The legislative branch of our government is a remarkably accessible institution, able to cultivate, gather, and implement the preferences of a diverse group of actors from inside and outside Congress. Moreover, Congress manages to create innovative and coherent public policy out of a cacophony of voices, each demanding that their side be heard. This course seeks to examine two of the actors vital for producing public policy in the legislative arena: the legislature itself, comprised of the members, structures, and processes integral for the establishment of public law; and the interests attempting to attract the attention of the legislative branch - among them businesses, citizens, and organizations. Additionally, this course will attempt to create a firm understanding for how these two sets of actors, legislative bodies and interests, interact with one another to fuel change and evolution in our political system.

We will begin by examining the Constitutional foundations for interest groups--why does our democratic system of governance encourage them and what did the Founding Fathers have to say about "pitting faction against faction?" Next, we will define what makes an interest group different from a party, club, or other member-driven group. We will examine the structure and function of groups, discuss the difficulties and benefits of group formation, and note the activities most frequently pursued by interest groups.

Our attention then turns to the legislative branch of our government. We will learn about the policy-making process and precisely why interest groups are able to maintain influence in the creation and implementation of public policies. This discussion will include how interest groups are involved in agenda-setting, bill creation, and oversight of bureaucratic policy implementation.

We will then begin to discuss the issue at the heart of American politics today: congressional elections and the problem of campaign finance. In this section of the course we will all walk through the complicated campaign finance laws in hopes of making clearer precisely where holes exist for interest group influence. We will talk about the evolution of the campaign finance system, why congressional candidates rely on group money, and what steps are being proposed to reform the system.

Our final task is to reconsider the nature of democratic governance. If democracy promotes hyperpluralism, an infiltration of "special interests" and the disenfranchisement of ordinary citizens, should we lose heart in our system of governance? Should we disregard it and start from scratch? Or should we learn to readjust our psyches to the fact that democracies inevitably produce interest groups--trying to bandage them with reform, while noble, is only a small fix to an inevitable consequence of democracy. We will conclude with a normative discussion of why and how we might re-orient our thinking towards democracy, learning to accept the hyperpluralistic nature of the system and investigating how we might be able to, in small ways, improve the role of everyday citizens in America's governance.