Sociologist C. Wright Mills argued that the United States was ruled
by a small group, "possessors of power, wealth, and influence,"
known as the (1) .
In his classic study of community power in New Haven in the late 1950s,
(2) concluded
that the city was a pluralist system dominated by many different sets of
leaders.
Some scholars have criticized the New Haven study on the grounds that
wielders of power cannot always be identified by examining key decisions;
they argue that the power to set the (3) ,
to determine what public issues will be considered, may prove at least
as important as the power to decide on the issues themselves.
When people organize to express attitudes held in common and to influence
the government to respond to those attitudes, they become members of (4)
.
The tendency of Americans to come together in groups was noticed in
the early nineteenth century by (5) .
One of the most powerful techniques of interest groups is (6)
, communication with legislators
or other government officials to try to influence their decisions.
Federal law prohibits ex-government officials from appearing before
their former agencies to represent clients for a period of (7)
after leaving government service.
(8) is
often a useful tool for a lobbyist.
In 1995, 229 members-about two-fifths-of the 104th Congress had professional
backgrounds as (9) .
Lobbyists for interest groups are able to exert influence by means of
(10) and
.
(11) ,
national citizen's lobby with approximately 250,000 members, received major
credit for passage of the election-reform laws of the 1970s.
The best known public interest lobbyist, (12)
,
heads a network of lawyers, lobbyists, and political analysts working in
more than twenty organizations.
In recent years, (13)""
interest groups such as the National Right to Life Committee and the National
Rifle Association have become an increasingly significant phenomenon on
the political scene.
(14) are
sometimes independent organizations, but are more often the political arms
of corporations, labor unions, or interest groups; they are established
to contribute to candidates or to work for general political goals.
The Supreme Court's decision in the 1976 case of (15)
v.
opened the way for vastly increased expenditures by PACs in political campaigns.
A Harvard University study suggested that the decline in the power of
(16) has
forced candidates to turn to interest groups for money.
Fred Wertheimer, who analyzes political spending for Common Cause, has
suggested that PAC contributions follow an (17) ""
aimed at strengthening the group's long-term influence with members of
Congress.
The efforts of interest groups to influence members of Congress are
constitutionally protected by the (18) Amendment.
Perhaps the most comprehensive criticism of interest-group politics
has been formulated by Theodore J. Lowi, who argues that interest group
politics has resulted in "impotent government" that can "neither
(19) nor
achieve .
