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Interest Groups and Government

2 Pages 518 Words February 2015

An interest group is a group of people brought together by common concerns, and who try to influence government policies that deal with those issues. Some governmental officials argue that special interests groups' influence is a bad thing, however interest groups provide lots of benefits for not only congressmen but the public as well. There are interest groups for just about every social segment of our country today such as: organizations of professionals (American Medical Association), big business (National Association of Manufacturers), and Greenpeace, the Environmental Defense Fund, the Sierra Club, and the National Wildlife Federation (NWF). Interest groups vary in membership and issues, some groups cover a broad range of issues others may only focus on a single issue. The goal for most business interest groups is to protect the economic well-being of the members and/or clients. For instance, the American Medical Association (AMA) for a long time opposed the idea of socialized medicine through Medicare and the development of Health Maintenance Organizations, and favored the fee-for-service route which is the tradition way.
Using interest groups is a great way to better government in Texas. With Texas being a business dominated state there are many different business related interest groups out there. Each different group focuses on certain fields of business, however they all seek to provide economic benefits and advantages to their members, such as lobbying on behalf of members for policies and laws promoting economic growth.
A new type of interest group has only recently been created, its called Public-Interest Groups. The goals of these groups are to protect the rights, liberties, and resources that we all share. Theses consist of some of our environmental groups such as Greenpeace and the Sierra Club. These groups work with lawmakers to make policies that protect our environment, and some even buy undeveloped land to prot...

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