How Do Interest Groups Influence Policy?
What are the various strategies interest groups employ to influence the policy-making process? Why do they choose the strategies they do and are those strategies effective? • Interest groups work to improve the likelihood that their policy interests will be heard and treated favorably by all branches and levels of government and they employ multiple strategies to accomplish those aims. • Direct lobbying is an attempt to use direct contact and personal relationships with government officials to cultivate access and influence. • Lobbyists exert influence in Congress by influencing the legislative agenda and crafting the language of legislation. • A small portion of highly skilled and well-connected lobbyists also achieve access to the White House in their efforts to lobby the president. • Executive branch lobbying is also important, as stakeholders attempt to influence bureaucratic rule making and implementation. • Groups sometimes turn to the judiciary to affect public policy either by
