This assignment is designed to give you the opportunity to examine closely an interest group active in American national politics. (The one group you may not use is the National Rifle Association, which is discussed in detail in an assigned reading. If you write on the NRA, you will receive an F on the assignment.) Although you will need to incorporate descriptive material in your paper, the primary purpose of the exercise is analytical: you will use your case study to help answer certain questions political scientists have raised about the formation, development, maintenance, internal structure and governance, activities, and impact of interest groups. The areas of concern you should address are listed below. I strongly encourage you to examine them in the order listed, using the subheadings here as subheadings in your paper. The paper should be 10-12 pages, though it may be necessary to write more than 12 pages. (If you think it will be significantly longer than that, please speak to me well in advance.) Submit the name of the group to me via e-mail at least two weeks before the paper is due so I can confirm whether it is suitable. Failure to do so may result in rejection of the paper and a failing grade.

The paper will be due at the start of class on April 17th. See the main paper assignment on political parties for instructions about how to submit the paper and penalties for lateness.
 

Group Formation and Development
 

Social scientists have debated why groups form in light of the argument that people have an incentive to become "free riders" rather than to pay for the collective goods that groups try to achieve. Some observers suggest that groups emerge because of entrepreneurial leadership; others point to the willingness of sponsors/patrons (including government) to bear the start-up costs of organization; still others contend people join readily out of a moral commitment to a cause. Examine the origin of the group you have selected and discuss whether its appearance can be explained adequately by one of these theories or by some other theory.
 

Interest groups change over time, sometimes dramatically. Describe briefly and then analyze the development of the group (including changes in the group's emphasis, membership, tactics, etc). Can the changes be explained by external stimuli, internal factors, or a combination of the two? Has the group been reinvigorated by perceived threats in its political environment? Has the government itself contributed to changes in the group?
 

Maintenance
 

The factors that made possible the creation of the group you are studying or that precipitated changes in the past may not account for its persistence today. On the one hand, moral passion may fade, as may the willingness of sponsors to continue subsidizing a group. On the other hand, once a group becomes established, it may possess the resources to retain member support through selective incentives. Membership levels may also be affected by factors outside the group, including political threats, competing groups, economic trends, and friendly or hostile media coverage. Explain the measures your group uses to retain members (members might be other organizations, not persons) and evaluate whether it relies on selective incentives or other means. If the group uses selective incentives, identify them by type (i.e., material, solidary, or purposive).
 

Group Structure and Governance

Large interest groups may develop complex structures, sometimes dividing internally on geographic lines (federations versus centralized structures) or functionally (lobbying, education, and other tasks grouped into different units or even different formal organizations). Describe the structure of the group you are studying and explain why this structure was selected and/or its benefits and disadvantages (if any).
 

Leaders and members must also decide how to govern the group. As an instrument for expressing opinions, interest groups have a democratic role. It doesn't necessarily follow, however, that they are internally democratic. How does your group govern itself? Do members have the opportunity to select leaders, choose what issues the group will pursue, or otherwise participate in decision making within the organization? Have there been significant divisions within the organization and, if so, how has the group handled internal conflict?
 

Political Activities
 

Interest groups pursue a variety of political activities, including lobbying government officials, attempting to influence elections, mobilizing grassroots pressure, litigation, and using the media to influence public opinion. Groups may favor one or more of these tactics based on their available resources. For example, a mass membership organization with members dispersed throughout the nation may find a bottom-up lobbying effort by members in different congressional districts an effective tactic, while for other organizations such an approach may be impractical or ineffective. Describe the political activities of the group you have selected. (Political activities seek to influence public policies. Interest groups sometimes engage in service activities, too. Do not examine these here; you may want to include them in your discussion of incentives for members.) Then try to explain why the group favors those tactics. Is the choice of tactics a function of the group's goals, the type of policies it pursues, its membership, its public reputation, the resources it has available, or some other factor?
 

Group Impact
 

It may serve the purposes of an interest group to create the impression that it is enormously powerful, for this may intimidate politicians, discourage opposition groups, or help in the effort to recruit new members. Conversely, a group may wish to downplay its role if it is seen as too much of a narrow "special interest" or if it is not highly regarded by the public. Either way, we need to view influence claims skeptically and test them against the available evidence. The first step in the process is to identify what the group says about its influence. Next you should evaluate its claims by a review of independent scholarly and journalistic evidence. Your task is to specify where in the political process the group appears to have had an impact - in the electoral arena, in the development of the presidential or congressional agenda (and, in the latter case, exactly who in Congress you have in mind), in the federal bureaucracy or regulatory process, in the courts, by shaping media coverage of the issues that concern the group, by influencing public opinion, by providing information during the legislative process at the committee level, by pressuring Congress as a whole, etc. Look, too, for negative influence - a backlash against the group. Be very careful to discuss the quality of the evidence you have gathered.
 

Quotations, Sources, and Citations
 

Follow the instructions listed in the paper assignment on political parties.
 

Rewrites
 

The rewrite policy outlined in the assignment on parties will also apply if you opt to do this assignment.
 

A Suggestion that May Save You a Good Deal of Grief
 

This assignment will take time, so I recommend you begin your research immediately. Other students may select the same interest group that you pick and may seek the same library books. Sources may prove less helpful than you expected, forcing you to seek additional sources. To wait until the weekend before the paper is due to begin the research is a recipe for disaster.