Interest Groups

Abstract

The First Amendment to the Constitution affirms the right of the people “to petition the government for a redress of grievances”. It thereby legitimises lobbying — of Legislatures, Executive agencies, and Courts — by private interest. Business corporation, labour unions, public interest groups, professional associations, single-issue groups, and coalitions of some or all of these, lobby government in America on behalf of sectional interests which may or may not coincide with a (or the) public interest. Not all interests are represented before government; many have no representation at all whilst that of others is often poorly-financed or organised. That private groups pose problems for the polity as a whole has been acknowledged since Hamilton, Madison, and Jay defended the proposed Constitution to the electors of New York in The Federalist Papers. Penetration of the (structurally weak) American state by many groups also poses the question of to whom elected politicians are in practice accountable, and of how political power is allocated.