Evaluate the view that interest groups are more important than political parties to
members of congress
To evaluate the importance of political parties and interest groups in congress, it is
important to state what the criteria of ‘importance’ is. In this case importance refers
to how much influence these two factors have on the election and legislation of
congress members. Because congress is made up of two different chambers with
different rules and regulations, it is inevitable that these two stated factors will affect
each differently. Although interest groups do have a significant amount of influence
over both chambers, ultimately political parties are more important to senators while
constituents' opinion is more important to the house of representatives.
It could be argued that interest groups are more important to senators than political
parties as interest groups play a central role in funding campaigns for senators in
both parties which encourages them to further the interests of these groups in the
senate. This is especially true due to the Supreme Court’s ruling on the case of
Citizens United v. FEC in 2010, which allowed labor unions and corporations to use
their general treasury funds to pay for election campaigns for politicians after this
had been banned in an earlier ruling, as it allows interest groups to spend far more
on campaigns. One good example of the increased influence of interest groups
would be the Senate Leadership Fund PAC, which raised around 309 million to help
republican candidates win in key senate races. This PAC poured 90 million into the
North Carolina and Georgia races alone. This proved to be somewhat successful as
it resulted in the re-election of republican senator Thomas Tillis of North Carolina,
reinforcing the importance of interest groups on senators as campaign financiers.
Nevertheless, this point is weak considering two democratic candidates won in both
senate races in Georgia despite the vast sum of money donated by the Senate
Leadership Fund. Moreover, it is difficult to gauge this interest group’s influence on
the election of a republican candidate in North Carolina seeing as the state has been
a republican stronghold since 2004, suggesting that a candidate’s political party has
more influence over their election than interest groups do.
members of congress
To evaluate the importance of political parties and interest groups in congress, it is
important to state what the criteria of ‘importance’ is. In this case importance refers
to how much influence these two factors have on the election and legislation of
congress members. Because congress is made up of two different chambers with
different rules and regulations, it is inevitable that these two stated factors will affect
each differently. Although interest groups do have a significant amount of influence
over both chambers, ultimately political parties are more important to senators while
constituents' opinion is more important to the house of representatives.
It could be argued that interest groups are more important to senators than political
parties as interest groups play a central role in funding campaigns for senators in
both parties which encourages them to further the interests of these groups in the
senate. This is especially true due to the Supreme Court’s ruling on the case of
Citizens United v. FEC in 2010, which allowed labor unions and corporations to use
their general treasury funds to pay for election campaigns for politicians after this
had been banned in an earlier ruling, as it allows interest groups to spend far more
on campaigns. One good example of the increased influence of interest groups
would be the Senate Leadership Fund PAC, which raised around 309 million to help
republican candidates win in key senate races. This PAC poured 90 million into the
North Carolina and Georgia races alone. This proved to be somewhat successful as
it resulted in the re-election of republican senator Thomas Tillis of North Carolina,
reinforcing the importance of interest groups on senators as campaign financiers.
Nevertheless, this point is weak considering two democratic candidates won in both
senate races in Georgia despite the vast sum of money donated by the Senate
Leadership Fund. Moreover, it is difficult to gauge this interest group’s influence on
the election of a republican candidate in North Carolina seeing as the state has been
a republican stronghold since 2004, suggesting that a candidate’s political party has
more influence over their election than interest groups do.
