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Interest Groups and Representation

Interest Groups and Representation. Possibility of cooperation decreases as group size increases. With 2 players, cooperation achieved by remembering past behavior and monitoring current behavior. Easier to free ride in large groups. Harder to educate and organize large groups.

Solomon
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Interest Groups and Representation

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  1. Interest Groups and Representation

  2. Possibility of cooperation decreases as group size increases. • With 2 players, cooperation achieved by remembering past behavior and monitoring current behavior. • Easier to free ride in large groups.

  3. Harder to educate and organize large groups. • “Transactions costs” of securing cooperation increase with group size. • “Transactions costs” of bargaining increase with the number of parties involved.

  4. Transactions costs lead to representation. • Representative democracy: citizens elect legislators and legislators make laws. • Replace large group with small group.

  5. Representation works when preferences of citizens are satisfied by bargains among legislators. • Representation does not work when bargains satisfy legislators. • Representation minimizes transaction costs, but perhaps at the cost of authenticity.

  6. Who is represented? • Much political discourse is conducted by groups. • Political action groups educate. • Most of us have a tendency to frame issues in terms of what groups support and oppose them.

  7. Political groups range from groups of individuals arranged around a specific issue to “peak associations.” • Peak associations: AFL-CIO, Farm Bureau, NAM.

  8. Political groups are a hallmark of American democracy. • Bentley: Each group has a direction and magnitude. • Policy shifts caused by changing group preferences and clout. • Politics as physics.

  9. de Tocqueville said group politics was the definitive feature of politics in this country. • Theme: Common interest leads naturally to motivated organizations! Politics is about how these organizations support and oppose each other.

  10. Testing the Pluralist Hypothesis. • If groups arise from shared interests, they should form in proportion to interests.

  11. Testing the Pluralist Hypothesis

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