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Readings
Unit 14
The Readings for Democracy in America unit
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Unit 14 Readings, Interest Groups: Organizing To Influence
- Introduction—Interest Groups: Organizing To Influence
- Tocqueville, Democracy in America: “That the Americans
Combat the Effects of Individualism by Free Institutions”
and
- Of the Use Which the Americans Make of Public Associations in
Civil Life”
- “The Whole World's Temperance Convention Held at Metropolitan
Hall in the City of New York”
- “An Appeal to the Women of the United States by National
Woman Suffrage and Educational Committee”
- I.W.W. Song: “Long-Haired Preachers”
Questions
- What did Tocqueville suggest was the consequence of a free government
for individual relationships?
- What were the relationships between the rich and the poor in
a democracy, according to Tocqueville?
- According to the National Woman Suffrage and Educational Committee,
what did the Constitution provide concerning the political participation
of women?
Introduction—Interest Groups: Organizing To Influence
In any acceptable version of democratic government, people organize
to influence public policy—well-organized groups are called interest
groups. Tocqueville explained that above the government’s institutions,
“and beyond all these characteristic forms, there is a sovereign
power, that of the people, which may destroy or modify them at its
pleasure.” The many ways that the sovereign people influenced
the government was a central concern for Tocqueville. “It remains
to be shown in what manner this power, superior to the laws, acts;
what are its instincts and its passions, what the secret springs that
retard, accelerate, or direct its irresistible course, what the effects
of its unbounded authority, and what the destiny that is reserved
for it” (179). Interest groups perform a wide range of functions
in American politics including acting as a conduit for the power of
the people. The destiny of the government of the United States is
directed and resisted by citizens acting in accordance with each other.
Interest groups perform an important representative function—they
speak for their members. Not only do these institutions speak for
people, they give people a way to be politically involved in their
society. Interest groups, furthermore, educate people—they send
members magazines, email, and notices; keeping them abreast of the
latest events and problems in their area of interest. They teach people
to be involved in their world and ways to participate. Interest groups
also educate non-members and the larger political community in such
a way that they help to set the concerns and issues faced by the larger
community.
Within political science, the study of interest groups was a way to
critically engage with sociological studies that succeeded in demonstrating
that politics was often highly influenced by a very small group of
people. Sociologists argued that these people move between business
and government, always retaining their positions of privilege and
power. Their families, furthermore, retain their wealth for generations.
Studies of this powerful elite criticized American society as maintaining
a surprising degree of privilege for the very wealthy. America, they
reported, was not quite the land of opportunity it often pretended
to be. Political scientists responded with attempts to define the
United States as a pluralist or interest group society. They maintained
that society in the United States was so plural that no group could
sustain cohesion over a very wide range of issues for very long. Citizens
had too many interests, too many issues and to many ways to make their
opinions heard for any one group to dominate for very long.
The previous and following units explore many of the issues of how
and who influences government—questions of the media, political
parties, and political participation. This unit explores some documents
generated by interest groups—pamphlets, leaflets, fliers, songs,
and membership appeals—in order to flesh out the day-to-day functioning
of interest groups that were involved in grand questions of voting
rights and imperialism.
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