Browsing by Subject "Interest Groups"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Brokering Identity: Exploring The Construction Of Lgbt Political Identity And Interests In U.S. Politics, 1968-2001
    (2016-08) Murib, Zein
    This study introduces a theoretical framework grounded in intersectionality to the study of identity-based groups in politics, raising and addressing the following questions: how within group marginalization develops, why within group marginalization occurs, and to what effect? By focusing on the construction of the LGBT group and through discourse analysis of three bodies of archival evidence from 1968 through 2001 – the institutional records of several national LGBT interest groups and social movements, a variety of LGBT publications, and transcripts of germane debates from the Congressional Record – this study shows how political actors framed the representation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender identities as a cohesive and unified coalition by presenting LGBT people as a minority group defined along a single axis of identity: sexuality. The unity of this new LGBT minority group – organized exclusively around sexuality – was achieved by foregrounding the political interests of gender-normative lesbians and gay men, particularly those who are white, middle-class, able bodied, and gender normative. Consequently, issues such as marriage and second-parent adoption were elevated as the predominant political interests on behalf of the LGBT group, while others, such as the passage of gender-inclusive employment anti-discrimination legislation or political mobilizations to end the documentation of sex on state documents, were deprioritized. Throughout this study, attention is drawn to the ways in which this projection of LGBT group unity obscured intersecting identifications, such as race, gender, class, nation, ability, and immigration status, with significant political and material consequences for the most marginalized members of the LGBT minority group: people of color, people who are transgender, lesbians, people who are gender nonconforming, people who are poor or homeless, people with disabilities, and people who are undocumented.
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    Interest group citizenship: LGBT politics from the closet to K Street
    (2013-01) Hindman, Matthew Dean
    How has the "interest group explosion"--i.e. the meteoric rise in number and influence of national advocacy organizations since the 1960s--transformed the meaning of democratic citizenship for historically marginalized groups? While a long tradition of "post-pluralist" research has broadened our understanding, and perhaps deepened our skepticism, of interest group activity, these accounts typically highlight how today's professionalized advocacy organizations tend to suppress participation and benefit their relatively advantaged constituents. However, the formative effects of interest group representation have largely remained underexplored. Using the LGBT movement as an exemplar of broader trends in political advocacy, I chart the role that national advocacy organizations played in transforming how their constituents understand their role as democratic citizens. Through this process, individuals who historically viewed themselves, for example, as "deviant," "immoral," or "neurotic" began to view themselves in politicized terms--more specifically, as liberal subjects of the pressure system striving to present themselves as upright and worthy citizens. My data, which come primarily from LGBT advocacy organizations' communications and correspondences with constituents, reveal that the advocacy system's expansion has generated a "politics of affirmation" among marginalized constituencies, characterized by interest groups' support for neoliberal governing procedures.
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    Power and the Quest for Justice
    (2017-07) Snell, Paul
    This dissertation asks how legal, political and social actors affect the beliefs and actions of public interest law organizations. In order to answer this question requires two conceptual prerequisites. The first is the concept of power. There are substantial limitation with current understandings of what it means to affect others . I conduct an ordinary language analysis to illustrate interest group scholars’ acceptance of one sense of power—as domination. In the process, I recover another sense of power— as influence—the ability to affect others through imperceptible and non-coercive means. The second conceptual prerequisite is what public law organizations do, and how these actions reinforce one another. I create the concept of triangular advocacy to explain how these groups try to change society through a combination of legal, political, and social advocacy. While legal advocacy is central to public law groups’ efforts, political and social advocacy complements their goals. With the concepts of power—as influence, and triangular advocacy, I examine the question that I posed at the outset: how key actors have power with public law groups. I find that legal and social advocacy are important ways for PILOs to overcome challenges that political actors and the broader public place in their way. If public law groups perceive themselves as having good relationships with political actors, however, then they can concentrate on insider forms of politics, and do not need to emphasize social change as strongly.
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    The Role of Interest Groups on E-Verify in the United States
    (Hubert H Humphrey institute of Public Affairs, 2009-06-17) Weeks, Heather
    All phenomena of government are phenomena of groups pressing one another, forming one another, and pushing out new groups and group representatives (the organs or agencies of government) to mediate the adjustments. It is only as we isolate these group activities, determine their representative values, and get the whole process stated in terms of them, that we approach to a satisfactory knowledge of government. The introductory quote alludes to the emergence of interest groups as a natural reaction to democratic representation. As policies are created, the interests of individuals are aligned or divided. The opposition of interests creates a forum in which groups form to rally for or against policies resulting in the inevitable creation of interest groups. Throughout this paper, interest groups will be defined as membership and non-membership organizations working to obtain political influence. The success or failure of public policies is contingent on public awareness, media attention, and general feasibility of the issue. Interest groups have become a legitimate force in supporting or opposing public policies. “Elements in interest-group power include size, resources, cohesiveness, leadership, and techniques, especially the ability to contribute to candidates and political parties, as well as the ability to fund lobbyists. The actual power of an interest group stems from the manner in which these elements relate to the political and governmental environment in which the interest group operates.” The many important stakeholders that take part in advocating for or against a policy have varying degrees of influence. This paper studies the necessary components that enable interest groups to act as a lead contributor to policy development. In this paper, I employ the case study of E-Verify, an employment verification program, to examine the ways in which interest groups have advocated for and against E-verify and infer why interest groups have thus far been successful or unsuccessful in their pursuit to achieve their political goals. To date, the United States has struggled to implement successful employment verification programs to ensure an authorized workforce.