POLS206 7 26 LECTURE 13 LOBBYING Interest groups often perform lobbying What do Lobbyist do o Lobbyist promote a particular topic to the public or someone of higher status sometimes a topic can be a controversial issue o Represent there own company organization and make a product sound good better than what it is o Try to persuade govt officials try to implement policy change o Lobbyists work for interest groups and attempt to persuade Members Of Congress to support particular policies or views Primarily through formal and informal argument but they also schmooze with members of congress too o The public doesn t like lobbyists BUT they do provide a valuable service Members of congress usually only well informed about a few policy areas o Lobbyists present arguments often full of information through it is their info about policies thus educate Members of Congress and their staffs B c lobbyists compete with each other for Members of congress s attention MC s get to judge b t opposing arguments This saves MC s time and staff o Not all Lobbyists are sleazy What kind of people are lobbying o Must have good people skills and must be able to argue well Work for interest groups No law or advanced degree required Some lobbyists do have advanced degrees Some are former members of congress who take advantage of their knowledge of how congress works and access to friends still in congress o If you re interested in becoming a lobbyist it can be a lucrative and satisfying career o o o o What is Public Opinion Historical o The will of the people Rosseau o Sum of public opinion is greater than its parts Modern o Citizen attitude about political issues leaders institutions and events o Distribution of all individual opinions on a topic 4 important components of Public Opinion o 1 Direction Which side are you on o 2 Intensity How strongly you hold an opinion People who hold opinion strongly are less likely to be persuaded o 3 Stability How has opinion changed over time o 4 Salience Centrality How important is the issue opinion Important issue views may influence other issue views How is Public Opinion measured o Surveys Polls these gather info from a subset of people in order to draw conclusions about public opinion more broadly o We ll talk more about these in another lecture What about Public Opinion more broadly o How does political scientists measure how liberal or conservative Americans are over time Stimson s 1991 POLICY MOOD formed from public survey data The aggregate sentiment of the mass public at any point in time to favor or oppose activist govt to solve societies problems STIMSON combined hundreds of survey items over time to form a single measure of Policy Mood These items encompass a wide variety of policies o Policy mood represents the collective liberalism of the mass public Properties of Public Opinion Does mood move randomly o NO Public opinion moves stably and somewhat predictably over time Public opinion responds to events and policy outputs Public opinion is sticky and is a function of both external events and its past values Public opinion is stickier today than it used to be o Stickier b c it is slower to return to its average level after a change and more likely to resist change o THIS MAY BE DUE TO THE FACT THAT PEOPLE HAVE STRONGER PREFERENCES AND IDEOLOGY AND ARE MORE LIKELY TO WANT THE SAME KINDS OF GOVT POLICIES WHETHER LIBERAL OR CONSERVATIVE REGARDLESS OF ECONOMY POLITICAL EVENTS It is easy to see that public opinion as measured by POLICY MOOD moves in meaningful ways over time so that it influences election outcomes o YES o Policy Mood effects who gets elected Sources of Public Opinion Probably the most prominent and corroborated theory of how Policy Mood changes in Wleziens 1995 Thermostatic Theory WLEZIENS THERMOSTATIC THEORY o The public reacts to govt putting out liberal policies by becoming more conservative and reacts to govt putting out conservative policies by becoming more liberal o The political pendulum swings Where do individual opinions come from o Political Socialization Family Education Socioeconomic Status Salient Political Events Life Changes Individual opinions on issues also come from ideology o Ideology A cohesive set of beliefs that form a general philosophy about the role of Gov t Proper Role of Gov t in society o Not something many people could explicitly tell you o BUT thoughts are often there though implicit and can be found on surveys o EX its not the Gov ts business what I do in my own home Political Ideology Basic meaning of Conservatism and Liberalism o Conservatism Small Gov t Traditional Values Strong Military MOST REPUBLICAN POLITICIANS o Liberalism Larger Gov t in Economy Accepting of NonTraditional Morality Softer international power MOST DEMOCRATIC POLITICIANS From Ideology come o General Beliefs in different issues areas taxation the environment etc o Specify Policy Attitudes Liberalism and Conservatism are not the ONLY ideologies o Libertarians Small Gov t in economic issues social issues Some Hawkish in foreign policy some dovish Also called classical liberals EX Former Representative Ron Paul R TX Individual Liberty is the primary value NOT THE SAME AS CONSERVATIVES BUT THEY OFTEN AGREE ON ECONOMIC AND SIZE OF GOV T ISSUES o Authoritarians Populists Big gov t in economic issues and social issues Few or no well known current USA politicians EX William Jennings Bryan Democratic Candidate for President in 1896 BUT CONSERVATISM AND LIBERALISM ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT IDEOLOGIES FOR AMERICANS AMERICAN PUBLIC o 40 CONSERVATIVE 35 MODERATE 21 LIBERAL o POLITICAL SCIENTIST USUALLY TREAT IDEOLOGY AS ONE DEMONSIONAL o LIBERAL MODERATE CONSERVATIVE 07 26 2013 07 26 2013