Interest Groups (For GOV Project)

                                            Interest groups

Guiding Questions

1.) What exactly is an interest group?

2.) what are some example of interest groups?

3.) what do they do and why?

An interest group is an organized group of individual that make policy-related appeals to government. To put it in a simpler language, they are the people that try to persuade government official to make and implement laws that they want. An individual who works for an interest group is called a lobbyist. A lobbyist tries to shape policies by giving government official especially those in Congress money in which they called "campaign contribution". The lobbyist also gathers information and write policy for those in Congress to make the lawmaking process faster and easier for those introducing it.

Even though interest groups are designed to help shape America for the better by focusing on a particular topic and work on that topic that they are interested in to better improve America, there can sometimes be groups that focused on personal gain instead of for the common good. For example, interest groups like Greenpeace focus on the improvement of the planet by working proposing laws to lawmaker to help keep this planet clean and healthy. But other interest groups might not do this, they might not focus on the common good but rather for their benefits. As long as they have the money, the data they need to give to the lawmaker, they can ask the lawmaker to propose any law they want. Because of an interest group's ability to influence the lawmaker by providing them the money in exchange for the law that interest group wants to make happen, there are both pros and cons in having interest groups.

What are some pros and cons of interest groups?         

Pros

• Focus on specific issue and work to improve it
• They help society improve by making changes that benefit large group of people
• Raise awareness about varieties of issues and problem in our society and the world.

Cons

• Some interest groups can have the potential to propose law with their personal interest as top priority rather for the common good
• Interest group have large impact on political officials especially the one that's responsible for voting on laws
• Interest groups often have large amount of money and they can use that money to influence political figures.

Example of interest groups:

• NRA (National Rifle Association)
• ACLU ( American Civil Liberties Union, It works through litigation, lobbying, and community empowerment
• Greenpeace

To get a clearer vision of what an interest group does, let's look at Greenpeace as an example.

I chose to do Greenpeace because I really like our environment and considering majoring in environments science in college. 

The ideological perspective of this interest group is moderately liberal and we could tell by looking at its goal of exposing "environmental crimes by people, companies and the governments." For it to be a far-left wing liberal, it needs to say something in the line of getting rid of the whole system and want a totally new different system where everything is about the people and the environment. But the group only talk about exposing the people and companies responsible for the environmental damage, therefore it's ideological perspective is moderately liberal.

Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with the interest of protecting the environment. In the artifact above, the organization divided their mission and purpose into 3 parts: Investigate, connect and act. These are so that the reader can get clear hints of what the organization is about and based on that the reader will determine whether or not to support the group.

Investigate

The organization tries to get people to join through their use of the rhetorical device of nosism by first stating that they "believe in the public's right to know," which in a sense is saying that they are fighting for our right. Second, by using the word "our" in the line of "about what's happening to our planet", suggest they are fighting for the planet that we're all living in which is for the common good. The organization's use of nosism indicates their goal of fighting for all of us, for our planet and therefore, by joining, people will help contribute to the common good of the planet. The organization also appeal to the audience's ethic and persuade them to join by promising to "expose environmental crimes and the people, companies, and governments that need to be held responsible." 

Connect

The interest group also show no clear of bias of which group of people they want to join their organization. They don't care where you come from, what color skin you are, the community you're in. "Greenpeace connects people from all over the globe. We bring together diverse perspectives, and help communities and individuals to come together." With the group showing no bias or reference about who can join the organization, they are ultimately promoting their organization by suggesting that it's a safe place for everyone and that they don't discriminate.

Act

The interest further promotes their organization through their use of diction by stating that they work together to stop the destruction of the environment through "peaceful direct action and creative communication." By using the word "peaceful" they are conveying the message that they will take actions through diplomatic ways like persuading the government official and general public to introduce and vote for laws that will get help the environment rather than through the use of force and riot. The organization's use of diction allows the reader or the person who wants to join the group to feel safe about their decision of contributing for the greater good and not feel terrible for joining the group that will cause riot and chaos for their belief.

Because of the organization's use of diction, ethos and unbiased interest, the purpose of this artifact appears to be promoting the growing concern for the environment and persuading people to join for the common interest of the planet.