Faction – A term the founders used to refer to political parties and special interests or interest groups.
Pluralism – A theory of government that holds that open, multiple, and competing groups can check the asserted power by any one group.
Interest group – A collection of people who share a common interest or attitude and seek to influence government for specific ends. Interest groups usually work within the framework of government and try to achieve their goals through tactics such as lobbying.
Movement – A large body of people interested in a common issue, idea, or concern that is of continuing significance and who are willing to take action. Movements seek to change attitudes or institutions, not just policies.
Open shop – A company with a labor agreement under which union membership cannot be required as a condition of employment.
Closed shop – A company with a labor agreement under which union membership can be a condition of employment.
Free rider – An individual who does not to join a group representing his or her interests yet receives the benefit of the group’s influence.
Nongovernmental organization (NGO) – A nonprofit association or group operating outside of government that advocates and pursues policy objectives.
A number of NGO variations exist, including:
Collective action – How groups form and organize to pursue their goals or objectives, including how to get individuals and groups to participate and to cooperate. The term has many applications in the various social sciences such as political science, sociology, and economics.
Redwood School District has become embroiled in a legal battle over the establishment of magnet schools in the district, which are intended to attract students interested in a certain track of learning. These schools offer the required general education curriculum, as well as classes related to such specialties as art, drama, music, science, and sports. A group of parents began the litigation by filing a civil lawsuit against the school district, as well as the state, claiming that the establishment of such schools violates their children’s rights to a free, quality education, and discriminates against certain types of student.
Lobbyist – A person who is employed by and acts for an organized interest group or corporation to try to influence policy decisions and positions in the executive and legislative branches.
Lobbying – Engaging in activities aimed at influencing public officials, especially legislators, and the policies they enact.
Revolving door – Employment cycle in which individuals who work for governmental agencies that regulate interests eventually end up working for interest groups or businesses with the same policy concern.
Issue network – Relationships among interest groups, congressional committees and subcommittees, and the government agencies that share a common policy concern.
Leadership PAC – A PAC formed by an officeholder that collects contributions from individuals and other PACs and then makes contributions to other candidates and political parties.
Soft money – Unlimited amounts of money that political parties previously could raise for party-building purposes. Now largely illegal except for limited contributions to state and local parties for voter registration and get-out-the-vote efforts.
Issue advocacy – Unlimited and undisclosed spending by an individual or group on communications that do not use words like “vote for” or “vote against,” although much of this activity is actually about electing or defeating candidates.
- An example of a faction is a small and angry group within an otherwise peaceful political party
Pluralism – A theory of government that holds that open, multiple, and competing groups can check the asserted power by any one group.
- An example of pluralism is a society where people with different cultural backgrounds keep their own tradition. An example of pluralism is where labor unions and employers share in meeting the needs of employees.
Interest group – A collection of people who share a common interest or attitude and seek to influence government for specific ends. Interest groups usually work within the framework of government and try to achieve their goals through tactics such as lobbying.
- Certainly the largest category, economic interest groups include organizations that represent big business, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), as well as big labor — the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organization (AFL-CIO)
Movement – A large body of people interested in a common issue, idea, or concern that is of continuing significance and who are willing to take action. Movements seek to change attitudes or institutions, not just policies.
- Examples include such as abolitionism, the women's suffrage movement, the civil rights movement, feminism, men's rights movement, gay rights movement, the disability rights movement, or the inclusive human rights movement.
Open shop – A company with a labor agreement under which union membership cannot be required as a condition of employment.
Closed shop – A company with a labor agreement under which union membership can be a condition of employment.
Free rider – An individual who does not to join a group representing his or her interests yet receives the benefit of the group’s influence.
- An example includes people who have not paid their taxes
Nongovernmental organization (NGO) – A nonprofit association or group operating outside of government that advocates and pursues policy objectives.
A number of NGO variations exist, including:
- BINGO: business-friendly international NGO (example: Red Cross)
- ENGO: environmental NGO (Greenpeace and World Wildlife Fund)
- INGO: international NGO (Oxfam)
- QUANGO; quasi-autonomous NGO (International Organization for Standardization - (ISO))
Collective action – How groups form and organize to pursue their goals or objectives, including how to get individuals and groups to participate and to cooperate. The term has many applications in the various social sciences such as political science, sociology, and economics.
- Game theory describes a classic example of the collective action problem in the form of the Prisoner’s Dilemma. In this thought experiment, two prisoners in solitary confinement each inform on the other in order to get a reduced sentence. The end result is that they both get heavy sentences. Its logic applies, to a certain extent, to acting on climate change. No-one wants to be in the situation where they act but others do not, making them both absolutely and relatively worse off, and rendering their sacrifice meaningless.
- People, he argued, vote in their best economic interest, period. Under public choice theory, for example, a person working for a local government — whether in the school system, or on the police force — will be more likely vote for a government that increases taxes, because the voter expects some of that increased tax revenue to come his or her way in the form of higher wages or more work.
- If a candidate promises additional resources towards law enforcement and drug control, prison guards will benefit and should therefore be more likely to vote for that candidate. A candidate promising smaller government with less spending and taxation will be less appealing to a prison guard and more appealing to a small business owner, who will hope to benefit from having to pay lower taxes and being able to keep more profit.
- Federal Agency Regulations.
- Proposed Rules and Public Notices.
- Executive Orders.
- Proclamations.
- Other Presidential Documents
Redwood School District has become embroiled in a legal battle over the establishment of magnet schools in the district, which are intended to attract students interested in a certain track of learning. These schools offer the required general education curriculum, as well as classes related to such specialties as art, drama, music, science, and sports. A group of parents began the litigation by filing a civil lawsuit against the school district, as well as the state, claiming that the establishment of such schools violates their children’s rights to a free, quality education, and discriminates against certain types of student.
Lobbyist – A person who is employed by and acts for an organized interest group or corporation to try to influence policy decisions and positions in the executive and legislative branches.
- Examples of interest groups that lobby or campaign for favorable public policy changes include: ACLU - American Civil Liberties Union - visit their section on issues before Congress that the ACLU is following and lobbying on. Animal Legal Defense Fund. Anti=Defamation League fights Antisemitism.
Lobbying – Engaging in activities aimed at influencing public officials, especially legislators, and the policies they enact.
- Examples of interest groups that lobby or campaign for favorable public policy changes include: ACLU - American Civil Liberties Union - visit their section on issues before Congress that the ACLU is following and lobbying on. Animal Legal Defense Fund. Anti-Defamation League fights Antisemitism.
Revolving door – Employment cycle in which individuals who work for governmental agencies that regulate interests eventually end up working for interest groups or businesses with the same policy concern.
- In 1985, California Democrat Jerry Patterson lost his bid for a sixth term in Congress. Instead of returning home, Patterson opted to stay in Washington and accept a position at a law firm there. He was one of about 25 percent of the members of Congress that year who opted to use their contacts with their federal policymaker colleagues to gain employment as lobbyists with private companies
Issue network – Relationships among interest groups, congressional committees and subcommittees, and the government agencies that share a common policy concern.
- An example includes the wide-ranging network of environmental groups and individuals who push for more environmental regulation in government policy.
- Political action committee (PAC) – The political arm of an interest group that is legally entitled to raise funds on a voluntary basis from members, stockholders, or employees to contribute funds to candidates or political parties.
- Corporations, trade unions, and other entities are barred by law from contributing directly to the campaign of a candidate. However, these entities can create a PAC. SSF PACs are created and operated by either a corporation, labor union, trade association, or another membership organization. SSFs, however, still cannot receive money directly from such corporations or organizations. Instead, SSFs receive money from individuals associated with the organizing or sponsoring entity of the PAC. These associated individuals are typically people such as employees of the corporation or members of the labor union. Examples of SSFs are the National Beer Wholesalers Association PAC (created by the National Beer Wholesalers Association, a trade association) and the Realtors Political Action Committee (created by the National Association of Realtors, a trade association).
Leadership PAC – A PAC formed by an officeholder that collects contributions from individuals and other PACs and then makes contributions to other candidates and political parties.
- Consider the donation patterns of New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand in the 2010 election. She gave to two types of candidates: Senate Democrats, who could help her party keep the majority, and House Democrats from her home state of New York. There was one deviation to this pattern in the entire election: Gillibrand gave $1000 to her dear friend Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona.
- Examples of bundling are as widespread as McDonald's value meals and automobiles with features such as air conditioning, sunroofs, and geographical systems.
Soft money – Unlimited amounts of money that political parties previously could raise for party-building purposes. Now largely illegal except for limited contributions to state and local parties for voter registration and get-out-the-vote efforts.
- A good example of soft money is the campaign funding that politicians get during election years. The money received is not recurring and it is to be used explicitly for election related expenses.
- In the sexual harassment area, where a person is offered a position or promotion in exchange for sexual favors.
- In the political world, for example, quid pro quo sometimes refers to giving support, financial or otherwise, to a political candidate in exchange for the expectation of direct support for an activity of the political benefactor.
- A contribution is given to someone else to spend. For example, if a person gives $100 to a candidate, that person has made a contribution. The candidate may spend that $100 on advertising, flyers, billboards, or anything else he or she wants. Moreover, if a person spends $100 at the behest of a candidate or the candidate's committee, that payment is also a contribution. On the other hand, if a person spends money on advertising, flyers, etc. to support a candidate, but does so in a manner that is completely independent of the candidate, he or she has made an independent expenditure.
Issue advocacy – Unlimited and undisclosed spending by an individual or group on communications that do not use words like “vote for” or “vote against,” although much of this activity is actually about electing or defeating candidates.
- Issue advocacy refers to public education appeals run by interest groups or political parties that promote a set of ideas, but do not expressly oppose or support the election of specific candidates. Under legal interpretations dating back to Buckley v. Valeo in 1976, groups are considered to be engaging in electioneering only if they run ads or produce material including words like "vote for or against Representative Smith." Even though this doctrine rests on a single footnote in that landmark decision, over the past two decades, that footnote has taken on a status roughly equivalent to the Holy Grail.
- In that Supreme Court decision, justices sought to distinguish three categories of political activism: 1) lobbying government officials directly, which could be regulated, 2) electioneering, which would be subject to post-Watergate rules on disclosure, contribution limits, and voluntary spending limits (for presidential candidates), and 3) public education activities, which would face no restriction or required disclosure owing to First Amendment concerns about freedom of speech. In regard to the latter, groups would not be required to register as political action committees unless they explicitly used so-called "magic words," such as "vote for," "support," "elect," or "defeat".
- Because they may not expressly advocate for specific candidates or coordinate with any candidate’s campaign, many 527's are used to raise money to spend on issue advocacy and voter mobilization. Examples of 527's are Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, Texans for Truth, The Media Fund, America Coming Together, the Progress for America Voter Fund, and the Secretary of State Project