Interest Groups Are Generally Collections of People Essay

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Interest groups are generally collections of people that share the same belief that is at the heart of the interest group. For example, people who are concerned about the safety and welfare of animals may join the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) special interest group, while those who are interested in guns may join the National Rifle Association (NRA). The goal of the interest group is to further a specific agenda, which is related to the nature of the group. However, joining together for a mutual goal is not always enough to convince people to join interest groups. Therefore, some interest groups offer incentives to people to join them. These can be broken down into three types of incentives: solidary incentives, material incentives, and purposive incentives (Course-Notes, 2013). "Solidary incentives are the sense of pleasure, status, or companionship that arises out of meeting in small groups (for example, local members that support a national staff). Material incentives include money or things and services that are valued by members and lure them into the group; they are tangible rewards. Purposive incentives are based on an ideal of accomplishment, and when an interest group's goal can benefit even those who don't join, those who do are very ideological; these are ideological interest groups" (Course-Notes, 2013).

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The first interest group examined for was the ASPCA. Many might not consider the ASPCA as a special interest group because it is also a charity. However, it engages in a significant amount of lobbying in addition to overt charity work, so that it would be considered a special interest group. The ASPCA has a specialized government relations department that lobbies for animal cruelty prevention laws at all levels of government. The ASPCA relies heavily on public awareness to help encourage pressure to change laws. In addition, it relies on public financial pressure to help change laws, by calling for boycotts on businesses that engage in animal cruelty, such as pet stores that buy puppies from "puppy mills."

The membership site for the ASPCA is located at: https://donate.aspca.org/Donate / Donations / Website Website_Membership.aspx?PlacementID=2471481. Currently, the ASPCA is not offering any significant gift incentives for membership. It is offering to mail each person who become a member a copy of the organization's monthly magazine. However, it would be erroneous to assume that the ASPCA is not offering incentives simply because….....

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