Interest Groups

This assignment begins the term paper process.  I want you to take one social policy, one foreign policy and one economic policy from the lists and make an annotated bibliography that describes:

• What public interest groups that are engaged in these policy areas?
•  Who do these groups seek to represent and organize?
• What do they see as the problem/need with respect to the issues you've selected?
• What are they demanding that government do? Try to identify Congressional Bills that these interest groups favor or oppose. If they give you a bill name, try to find the H.R. or S.B. number that goes with it. Or, try to identify the government organizations (Congressional Committee or Executive Agency) they try to influence. This will prepare you to work with the databases we were introduced to in our last library session.

Start with

Washington Post Column on Lobbying

A how to on lobbying for non profits from the Democracy Center

Disinfopedia is an open content ,WikiWiki encyclopedia of public relations firms , corporate-funded front groups and anti-environmental think tanks . It can be found at www.disinfopedia.org . The project started in January 2003.

A great list of interest group links from various countries

Open secrets lobbying data base

An article on Interest Groups in the 2004 election with links

An excellent list by subject

Associations on the Net -- Compiled by the Internet Public Library, these links to over 1100 Internet sites provide information about a wide variety of professional and trade associations, cultural and art organizations, political parties and advocacy groups, labor unions, academic societies, and research institutions. Abstracts summarizing information about the association and its site are provided.

LA Times' list

Issue Organizations -- Project VoteSmart's compilation of organizations. Lists can be generated by subject or by state.

Follow the Money

Open Secrets: a site on money in politics

K-street Project: