Inside Lobbying: Seeking Influence
American Government 100Part IV
Patterson, pgs. 261-278, A:AG24-17
Inside Lobbying: Seeking Influence
Through Official Contacts
True/False Questions
1. Modern public officials are not action oriented and more inclined to ignore problems because of government’s size and fear of controversy. True or False
2. Lobbying is depended significantly on tangible payoffs, including bribes which is no longer illegal in the United States. True or False
3. Today’s lobbying generally involves subtler methods than simply slipping a cash-filled envelope to a public official.True or False
4. Inside lobbyists spend much of their attention and time contacting policymakers who opposed them in the past in an effort to win them over rather than with those that have supported them. True or False
5. For lobbyists to be fully persuasive, they must understand the policy process as well as the issue under consideration.True or False
6. In order to get what it is they want from members of Congress, lobbyists will misrepresent facts, distort the truth, and arm twist, if necessary. True or False
7. Federal agency officials are aware that they can lose support in Congress, which controls agency funding and program authorization, if they show too much favoritism toward an interest group.True or False
8. Right-to-life groups have pressured Republican administrations to make opposition to abortion a prerequisite for nomination to the federal bench. True or False
9. As the Dodd-Frank bill was being drafted, more than 500 lobbyists from the auto industry failed to convince the majority of the members in Congress to remove auto loans from the regulations. True or False
10. Iron triangles represent the most common pattern of influence and are more dominant today than they were in the past. True or False
11. Unlike iron triangles, where one's position is everything, an issue network is built around specialized interests and information. True or False
12. The participants of an iron triangle have an incentive to work together over the long term whereas an issue networkwill disband once the issue is resolved. True or False
13. There are no legal limits to the number of candidates that a Political Action Committee (PAC) can support during an election. True or False
14. The same legal limitations that apply to PACs for federal elections also apply to states. True or False
15. To cover themselves, PACs contribute roughly the same amount of money to incumbents as well as to challengers in an election. True or False
16. Candidates for federal office are allowed to speakat super PAC fundraisers and solicit contributions forunlimited amounts money as long as the funds come from groups.True or False
17. Unlike regular PACs, Super PACs are not required to report their expenditures until nearly two years after they are formed, which can mean that their expenditures are not known until long after the votes are counted.True or False
18. According to Patterson, the American system was designed to prevent a majority faction from trampling on the interests of a smaller group, but ironically it makes it relatively easy for minority factions to gain government support. True or False
Multiple Choice Questions
1. A term that refers broadly to efforts of groups to influence policy through contact with public officials: a) extortion, b) lobbying, c) influence peddling, d) public corruption.
2. Group efforts to develop and maintain close contacts with policymakers in order to influence their decisions: a) influence peddling, b) quid pro quo, c) inside lobbying, d) larceny.
3. Which of the following is more reflective of modern lobbying techniques? a) providing a variety of services including unreported material benefits, b) outright bribes to elected officials, c) threatening elected officials with public embarrassment, d) targeting supportive public officials by supplying them with critical information.
4. Many lobbyists worked previously in government, and some top officials were once lobbyists. a) revolving door, b) quagmire, c) logrolling, d) networking.
5. About how many registered lobbyists are currently in Washington, D.C., according to official records? a) about 10,000, b) roughly 12,000, c) a little less than 40,000, d) just over 50,000.
6. The amount of money spent on lobbying in 2009 was about: a) $560 million, b) $729 million, c) $1.27 billion, d) $3.47 billion.)
7. The following are the most dominant lobbying groups in Washington, D.C. a) labor unions, b) corporations and trade associations, c) agricultural interests, d) single-issue organizations.
8. When the Republicans took control of the Congress in 2011, they: a) wanted to quickly clean-up the political payoffs that previous Democratic congresses had received by introducing serious campaign reform measures, b) banned lobbyists from congressional offices, making it illegal to directly interact with special interests, c) consulted closely with corporate lobbyists on legislative issues affecting business, d) behaved far different than the previous Democratic congresses by telling business interests that the public good would take top priority over corporate profits.
9. What was the negative news that exploded into the airwaves about the FDA? a) It had prematurely allowed a drug to relieve arthritic pain unto the market that caused strokes and heart attacks, b) Officials within the agency had taken bribes from major drug manufactures without assuring the product’s safety, c) The FDA had fought the Bush administration “tooth and nail” to disallow research that the pharmaceutical industry had submitted, d) The FDA had become an unnecessary, bureaucratic institution that seriously interfered with the free market system.
10. The following group is noted for taking on unpopular causes, such as free speech for fringe groups: a) the Federalist Society, b) the League of Women Voters, c) the American Civil Liberties Union, d) the American Bar Association.
11. An amicus brief is: a) a written document in which a group explains to a court its position on a legal dispute the court is handling, b) an executive action to counteract an action by the Congress, c) a short and concise evacuation plan for members of the government, d) a policy agreement between a federal agency and the overseeing committee to minimize conflict.
12. In 2008, why did the U.S. economy go into a deep recession? a) there was an influx of far too many illegal immigrants who were corrupting the marketplace, b) the U.S. government had increased taxes far too high for the privileged few who lost their ability to invest, c) the majority of consumers began ripping-off creditors, capsizing financial institutions, d) corrupt and dishonest financial institutions, including banks began selling worthless stocks and providing mortgages to unqualified home buyers, creating serious defaults that spread to an economic crisis.
13. In 2010, Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act in order to protect: a) gun manufacturers from lawsuits, b) toy manufacturers that resulted from defective and dangerous products, c) borrowers and end risky lending on everything from mortgages to credit cards to consumer loans, d) patients from botched medical procedures.
14. The following consists of a small and informal but relatively stable set of bureaucrats, legislators, and lobbyists who seek to develop policies beneficial to a particular interest: a) iron triangle, b) connected troika, c) cooperative policy action, d) organizational attachments.
15. An informal grouping of officials, lobbyists, and policy specialists who come together temporarily around a policy problem: a) legislative carpetbaggers, b) issue network, c) agenda networking, d) policy coordination.
16. What do iron triangles and issue networks have in common? a) They are arenas where organized interests exercise influence, b) They are long-lasting, stable cooperative bodies, c) They have equal amounts of resources that come to bear whenever a public policy arises, d) They can invoke constitutional privilege when arguing that they are entitled to an administrative hearing.
17. Bringing together constituency pressure to bear on policymakers is referred to as: a) group-shared lobbying, b) coordinated lobbying, c) outside lobbying, d) collectivist lobbying.
18. Pressure designed to convince government officials that a group’s policy position has popular support: a) insider trading, b) partisan cooperation, c) influence peddling, d) grassroots lobbying.
19. What is the major reason why the United States has lagged behind other western societies in its handgun control laws? a) the public's opposition to any form of regulation of guns, b) the Constitution's Third Amendment, c) the National Rifle Association, d) the high crime rate.
20. The maximum amount of money that a Political Action Committee can legally give to a candidate running for federal office per election cycle (which encompasses both the primary and general election): a) $1,000, b) $5000, c) $10,000, d) unlimited.
21. Today, PACs account for about how much of the total contributions to congressional campaigns? a) 25%, b) 33%, c) 48%, d) 59%.
22. What limitation does Citizens United place on corporations and labor unions when it comes to federal campaigns? a) They cannot directly coordinate their support and activities with the candidates but only with the parties, b) They cannot directly coordinate their support and activities with the candidates and parties, c) They are prevented from establishing PACs for just one political party while ignoring the other major party, d) The Court essentially decided to crack down on the buying of congressional votes by moneyed interests.
23. For those embracing the pluralist theory of government, they would argue that: a) varied interests erode the legitimacy of government, b) their views are exactly what the Framers embraced for the American political system, c) society is best seen as a collection of separate interests, d) corruption has been the order of the day rather than the common good.
24. According to Theordore Lowi, what is a problem with the pluralist theory of government? a) what the interest wants is generally what the people want, b) interest groups are unable to weed out corruption within their ranks, c) there is no concept of the public interest in a system that gives special interests the ability to determine the policies affecting them, d) achieving uniformity is the common goal of all democratic systems to assure greater stability.
25. When a federal law was passed to require auto dealers to list the defects of used cars on window stickers, it was repealed because: a) the auto dealers national association put on a heavy lobbying campaign, contributing money to the campaigns of many members of House, b) the public was opposed to such a law because it created too much unnecessary red tape, c) the Supreme Court ruled the federal law unconstitutional for violating states' rights, d) Congress quickly realized that it did not have the resources, financial and institutional, to implement law.
26. About what per cent of all lobbying groups in Washington are business-related? a) about 42%, b) nearly 51%, c) nearly 66%, d) about 79%.
27. Why are benefits for a special interest from the government hard to eliminate? a) because the public is on the side of the special interest, b) because the government is so large and cumbersome, it is unaware of what is going on, c) all the group needs to fend off attempts to eliminate a policy is a single institution, d) because groups are transitional whereas government is permanent.
Fill-in Questions
1. Modern government is involved in so many issues, including:
a) ______regulation,
b) ______maintenance,
c) ______renewal,
d) ______research,
e) ______development.
2. The safe lobbying strategy is:
a) the ______approach,
b) provide ______,
c) rely on trusted allies in ______, and
d) _____ steadily but not too aggressively for favorable ______.
3. The capture theory holds that, over time, regulatory agencies:
a) sometimes side with the ______they are supposed to ______
b) ratherthan with the ______,
c)which they are supposed to ______.
4. What are some of the advantages that an interest group receives from iron triangles?
a) They have an inside ______to well-positioned legislators and bureaucrats.
b) They can count on getting a full ______on issues affecting them.
c) Theyprovide______support for agency ______and
d) campaign ______to members of Congress.
5. Issue networks differ substantially from iron triangles in the following manner.
a) In an iron triangle, a common interest brings the participants together in a
______,and mutually beneficial relationship.
b) In an issue network, an ______issue brings the participants together in a ______network that is based on their ability to knowledgeably address the issue
c) and where they play out their separate interests before ______once the issue is ______.
Answers
True or False Questions
1. False
3. True
5. True
7. True
9. False
11. True
13. True
15. False
17. True
Multiple Choice Questions
1. b
3. d
5. b
7. b
9. a
11. a
13. c
15. b
17. c
19. c
21. a
23. c
25. a
27. c
Fill-In Questions
1. a) business, b) income, c) urban, d) cancer, e) energy
3. a) industries, regulate, b) public, c) protect
5. a) long-lasting, b) immediate, temporary, c) disbanding, settled
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