Poli Sci Exam 3 Unit 11

Front 1

Electioneering

Back 1

Direct group involvement in the electoral process. Groups can help fund campaigns, provide testimony, and get members to work for candidates, and some form political action committees (PACs).

Front 2

Olson's law of large groups

Back 2

Advanced by Mancur Olson, a principle stating, "the larger the group, the further it will fall short of providing an optimal amount of a collective good."

Front 3

selective benefits

Back 3

Goods (such as information publications, travel discounts, and group insurance rates) that a group can restrict to those who pay their yearly dues. The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) has built up a membership list of 32 million senior citizens through offering a variety of such goods.

Front 4

public interest lobbies

Back 4

According to Jeffery Berry, organizations that seek "a collective good, the achievement of which will not selectively and materially benefit the membership or activities of the organization."

Front 5

interest group

Back 5

An organization of people with shared policy goals entering the policy process at several points to try to achieve those goals. They pursue their goals in many arenas.

Front 6

class action suits

Back 6

Lawsuits permitting a small number of people to sue on behalf of all other people similarly situated.

Front 7

public interest

Back 7

The idea that there are some interests superior to the private interest of groups and individuals, interests we all have in common.

Front 8

subgovernments

Back 8

A network of groups within the American political system which exercise a great deal of control over specific policy areas. Also known as iron triangles, they are composed of interest group leaders interested in a particular policy, the government agency in charge of administering that policy, and the members of congressional committees and subcommittees handling that policy.

Front 9

potential group

Back 9

All the people who might be interest group members because they share some common interest. This is almost always larger than an actual group.

Front 10

right-to-work law

Back 10

A state law forbidding requirements that workers must join a union to hold their jobs. These state laws were specifically permitted by the Taft-Harley Act of 1947.

Front 11

union shop

Back 11

A provision found in some collective bargaining agreements requiring all employees of a business to join the union within a short period, usually 30 days, and to remain members as a condition of employment.

Front 12

amicus curiae briefs

Back 12

Legal briefs submitted by a "friend of the court" for the purpose of raising additional points of view and presenting information not contained in the briefs of the formal parties. These briefs attempt to influence a court's decision.

Front 13

collective god

Back 13

Something of value (money, a tax write-off, prestige, clean air, and so on) that cannot be withheld from a group member.

Front 14

lobbying

Back 14

According to Lester Milbrath, a "communication, by someone other than a citizen acting on his own behalf, directed to a governmental decision maker with the hope of influencing his decision."

Front 15

actual group

Back 15

That part of the potential group consisting of members who actually join.

Front 16

free-rider problem

Back 16

The problem faced by unions and other groups when people do not join because they can benefit from the group's activities without officially joining. The bigger the group, the more serious this problem.