Chapter 12 Review Questions

Interest groups are organizations that seek to promote goals that are not shared by all of society through lobbying. Characteristics that interest groups can be based upon can include ethnicity, language, gender, religion, or other shared values or attributes.

Brooks lists out the wide array of categories of interest groups in Canada including those that deal with women’s issues, environmental issues, agricultural issues, and Indigenous issues. He further suggests that even if one has a limited view as to the type and number of such groups “the universe of organized interests is vast.”

Schattschneider argues that the interest group system—he calls the pressure system—has a business- and upper-class bias. Further, he suggests that business associations comprised the single largest group of organized interests in American society; they were far more likely than other interests to lobby government and they tended to spend much more money on attempting to influence policy-makers than did other interest groups. Finally, he also suggests that there is evidence demonstrating even non-business organizations reflect an upper class tendency.

Corporatism in the Canadian context refers to the direct participation of organizations representing business and labour in public policy-making. There is cooperation among these three actors at the national level in pursuit of the common good. The distinctiveness of corporatism as an interest group system lies in the existence of peak associations, the formal integration of business and labour into structures of state authority, and the presence of an ideology of social partnership.

(1) electoral influence, that is, the ability to swing a significant bloc of votes; (2) capacity to affect the economy negatively, that is, the ability to “down tools” or in some way inflict economic damage. A strike would be an example here, taking investments out of a jurisdiction would be another example; (3) group cohesion, that is, the ability to convey to decision-makers with whom the association speaks one voice and genuinely represents the views of the membership.

According to the “multiple crack hypothesis,” the presence of two levels of government, each of which has a range of taxing, spending, and regulatory powers, provides advocacy groups and lobbyists, and citizens, to seek from one government what they cannot get from the other.

Federalism induces organizations to form a federal structure, thus dividing up its resources and likely inhibiting the capacity of the association to speak with one voice. Also, jurisdiction is a key issue and when the two levels of government get focused on a policy area, interest groups are often frozen out of the policy process.

A successful influence strategy is expensive because lobbying often requires hiring a professional government relations firm, which can be costly. Also, if the campaign is aimed at influencing public opinion, advertising, polling, and public relations are all expensive. Thirdly, if the interest group goes the legal route, the legal process can be immensely expensive.

Advocacy advertising refers to the use of newspapers, magazines, billboard space, broadcast time, of the use of social media to convey a political message.

Lobbyists spend the better part of their time collecting and communicating information on behalf of the interests they represent. They monitor the political scenes it affects their client’s interests. A lobbyist acts as an early warning system, providing information about policy when it is still in its formative stages and tracking public opinion on the issues vital to a client’s interests.

Clients’ expertise is in public opinion analysis. This was added to H+K’s marketing skills, policy analysis capability, and ability to personally access government officials.

Firstly, there is an extremely large number of interest groups in Canada; Associations Canada lists 19,681 and Brooks breaks down this figure by category of interest group, but this figure does not include transitory groups that emerge for a single issue then disappear, nor international groups.

Marxists don’t see interest groups as the basic units of society and political life, but rather, classes. Brooks notes that Marxists may see organizations representing parts of society as oligopolistic, though some recent Marxist scholarship does not even mention ‘interest groups.’

The Department of Trade and Commerce first began encouraging the creation of interest-based organizations during WWI, and later, support from the Department of the Secretary of State in the 1960s and 1970s contributed to the proliferation of interest groups. The government also has budgets to support interest groups financially; the Department of Canadian Heritage is one example of a department that supports various interest groups outlined by Brooks in the textbook.

Insurgency advocacy tactics often include boycotts of a product, organization, or country. One example described by Brooks in ForestEthics, which signed on prominent companies including Whole Foods and Bed, Bath & Beyond to reduce their reliance on oil from the Alberta tar sands. Brooks says it is unclear if this particular boycott had an impact or achieve its intended outcome, aside from the media attention that the initiative generated. Brooks also notes that the overall impact of boycotts in Canada is unclear; they have achieved mixed and uncertain results.

Answers will vary depending on whether you select a federal or unitary system as your preferred option. You can answer this question by explaining the three propositions set out by Brooks, and then discuss how each would relate to the lobbying work of an environmental group.

In addition to doing what the question asks, you should discuss public demonstrations by interest groups and lay out your authentic reactions to this type of activity. You should discuss your own demonstration “work” if you have engaged in this type of public political participation. If you have not, you should discuss why you have not. If the issue was one about which you felt very strongly, would you be part of a public demonstration? You may wish to research the history of public demonstrations in this country, going right back to Mackenzie and Papineau. You may then want to make an assessment of the value and importance of public demonstrations to Canadian economic, political, and social life.

In addition to identifying the major regulations from the web site, you can discuss the implications of a former cabinet minister or senior bureaucrat resigning his or her position to join a lobbying firm. Did the possibility of a move to a lobbying firm influence the thinking of the minister or bureaucrat? You can also discuss the benefits and problems associated with regulations banning such moves.

Answers will vary based on the two interest groups that you choose to examine; you should outline the groups’ names, key objectives, and who they aim to represent, as well as the key similarities and differences between them.

The four categories of incentives outlined by Wilson are: 1) material incentives (tangible rewards; either money or materials with monetary value), 2) specific solidarity incentives (intangible rewards; honour or recognition), 3) collective solidarity incentives (intangible rewards; results from associating with a group), and 4) purpose incentives (intangible rewards; derived from the satisfaction of contributing to a worthwhile cause). Answers will vary based on the examples that you provide of how these incentives may look in action; you should draw on examples from the textbook and/or your own prior knowledge of the topic.