Interest Groups in 2012 Presidential Election
President Barak Obama was elected in 2008. This was an historic occasion in American history, given that Obama was the first African-American ever to assume the nation's highest office. His victory was also remarkable because of the overwhelmingly 'young' demographic composition of the voters who elected him. Voting turnout has been on the decline for many years in the United States, but has been particularly low amongst young voters. But Obama's younger 'base' electorate has grown increasingly disenchanted with their prospects for the future. "The so-called millennial generation, voters 18 to 30, still like President Obama more than any other age group. But just half say they approve of the job he is doing, down 24 points from when he took office" (Will a Generational Divide Define 2012 Election, 2011, PBS News Hour).
Young people have been especially hard-hit by the recession. Older workers, because of the depletion of their retirement accounts are working longer. Layoffs mean that more experienced workers are looking for work, and are often willing to accept lower-paying jobs than they might have in previous years. Employers are downsizing, or off-shoring entry-level jobs. Entry-level jobs that were once paid are now being converted to unpaid internships, which can only be used by young adults wealthy enough to work for free.
Of equal weight in the growing disenchantment with politics amongst millennilals is their sense that the sky-high expectations they had for President Obama have not been realized. But it is important to note that the millennial generation is not the most disenchanted of all the generations with the government: "Just 16% of seniors say they can trust the government all or most of the time, while 26% of millennials say they do" (Will a Generational Divide Define 2012 Election, 2011, PBS News Hour). Interestingly enough, seniors have been less affected by the recession than millennials in a long-term fashion, since fewer of them were...
Interest Groups Describe the different types of interest groups (single issue groups and public interest groups) and the goals that each type pursues. Single-issue interest groups are exactly that: groups concerned with one issue, and one issue only. Although the single interest might overlap with broader issues or related interests, the main goal of a single-interest group is to promote legislation related to the target area. For example, the National Rifle Association
Interest groups are organizations of people with similar policy goals who intend to influence a process to achieve their policy goals. Interest groups have been their since time immemorial with some being as old as the independent United States. Interest groups normally persuade elected representatives to share their point-of-view especially in democracies. In fact, they are a necessary requirement for democracies. A more universal definition of interest groups is a
Interest Groups and How Their Influence on Public Policy Interest Groups and their influence on public Policy Interest groups are clusters of people that come into existent to make stresses on government. The leading interest groups that are located in the United States are financial or occupational, but a range of other clusters -- philosophical, public interest, foreign policy, government itself, and ethnic, religious, and cultural -- have memberships that cut across
Interest Groups Seek Influence Public Policy Interest Groups Seek Influence Making Public Policy Define an interest group, with examples An interest group can be described as an association that is formally organized that is in pursuit of influencing public policy. The wider description, scholars using it increasingly, older contrasts with it, narrower ones, which are inclusive of private associations only that their formal organization is distinct like Italy's General Confederation of industry and
Interest Groups A FORCE TO RECKON WITH Special Interest Groups An interest group, or a special interest group, is a group of concerned individuals who share common goals (JB-HDNP, 2012). They connect the public to lawmakers and vice versa. They try to sway public opinion, election, and public policy (JB-HDNP). Special interest groups make strong demands on the government (Magleby et al., 2010). These groups may be economic or occupational, ideological, public interest,
During the last week of the Convention the delegates added a few refinements, raised some serious concerns, and discussed what they agreed to over the four months of deliberations. Mason expressed the wish that "the plan had been prefaced by a Bill of Rights." Elbridge Gerry supported Mason's unsuccessful attempt to attach a Bill of Rights. Randolph joined Mason and Gerry and declared that he too wouldn't sign the
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