Monday 26 October 2009
Interest Groups as Service Providers. Search Task
Three of the largest and most significant interest groups in the United States are the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), the National Rifle Association (NRA), and the Sierra Club. While they engage in significant political activities, all three of these organizations do other things as well. Go to the web sites of these groups (http://www.aarp.org/, http://www.nra.org/, http://www.sierraclub.org/). For each group, identify three activities that the group engages in or sponsors that you would characterize as "non-political." Make a list of the activities that you have identified. How might these non-political activities actually help to serve the political interests of the organization and its members?
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NRA
ReplyDeleteThe aim of the organization is pretty clear. As it is stated on the association web-site the NRA's primary objective is the defense of the Second Amendment. Right in the very beginning the first message goes:
"...the right of free people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed"
This should make the NRA a real political power. And in fact it makes. The association has a real force to influence the policy in respect to the arms control. For instance, in the NRA's framework the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA). It is able to lobby the interests of the NRA in case when a gun control legislation is proposed on a local, state or federal level.
Moreover, the association gives its support to the candidates, who 'protect the constitutional rights of ... gun-owners', in all kinds of elections. This happened just recently in Virginia where the NRA's candidates got their places in statewide office (November 2006).
The NRA also acts in the sphere of firearms education including the training camps for police officers all around the USA. From my point of view it has not only educational aims. With different hunting, gun or training organizations the NRA is able to recruit new supporters. It raises the number of people who vote for pro-NRA bills. Moreover the NRA is actively involved in such unpopular issue as the Middle East organizing numerous support programmes for the US troops.
Considering all this factors it is not surprising the main source of funds for the NRA is the long list of firearms producers and firearms retailers. For example, Beretta USA (which in fact is not in its core the American company). What is interesting and in the same time understandable within these companies there are large companies that supply mainly not the individuals i.e. the American citizens but the US armed forces.
Nikita, thank you very much for your conclusive answer. Pay attention to grammar,plz, correct your last sentence: What is interesting and in the same time understandable within these companies there are large companies that supply mainly not the individuals i.e. the American citizens but the US armed forces.
ReplyDeleteSierra club
ReplyDeleteShould the need arise, any goal can be (and probably is) connected to politics in one way or another. Talking about Sierra Club, we can distinguish a whole array of such goals and initiatives. Here are the ones I concentrated on.
Raising public awareness: Sierra Student Coalition
Although this is not listed as a primary goal, raising public awareness runs through all programs and aims. You first encounter with it when you click “Beyond Coal” goal. According to Sierra Club, coal mining is a nemesis, a sworn enemy and a death threat to everyone. And it certainly is. So next thing they do is launching Sierra Student Coalition reaching out for all campuses in the US (the motto being: “Campuses beyond coal. Coal: dirty even for college”). The program includes helping “local youth leaders”, volunteering, summits, powershift rallies etc.
A noble endeavor that seems completely devoid of any hidden political motives. However, to me the whole structure looks like a well-executed alternative way of stirring a grass-root movement.
Educating people is crucial to the efficient work of any interest group. I totally second Nikita here – all kinds of training, tuition, and workshops expand the circle of followers who are likely to support political agenda as well. It is even mentioned that Sierra Club appreciates the efforts of student “to pass strong climate legislation” and “vote”.
Moreover, quite surprisingly, Sierra openly states its willingness to financially support young leaders (“surprisingly” because volunteering is usually the best form of help for such organizations). This means even wider attraction and integration of cadres that are loyal to the ideas of Sierra Club. Although Sierra Club operates other clubs and collaboration, student collaboration is essential to foster a new generation of followers to ensure future viability.
Corporation Accountability and the quest of alternative fuels
I guess this is the clearest example of how an ecological aim can inflict on the economy and politics. The stroy of how mountaintop-removal coalmining jeopardizes a billion-dollar per annum skiing industry will definitely stir public opinion. More importantly, it would bring about taction from the part of big business. When “big money” is involved, people tend to get their act together very fast. Therefore, this empowers Sierra to promote economy-related bills and guarantees the support of corporations. Businessmen will cast their votes for the candidates suggested by Sierra Club, if they pledge to promulgate relevant legislation. A vivid proof to this can be observed http://www.sierraclub.org/politics/ where “Sierra-friendly” politician are listed.
To say a bit more about economics: the project of CARS (Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save (CARS) Program, aka Cash for Clunkers) would definitely favor automobile industry that produces “green” (eco-friendly) vehicles. Therefore mass-producing of such cars ensures manufacturers’ support for Sierra Club and its political agenda as well as any other one.
Think Tanks behind every objective
ReplyDeleteThe list of goals on Sierra’s website is supplied with a note, stressing the importance of scientific “backing” and research. “Working with some of the world's top climate scientists, engineers and energy experts, the Sierra Club has developed a Climate Recovery Agenda --a set of initiatives that will help cut carbon emissions 80% by 2050, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, create a clean energy economy…” etc.
In political terms, this may imply the involvement of Think Tanks. Gaining respect and help form Think Tanks is a huge step for any organization. And though the liaison between Sierra Club and any particular Think Tanks cannot be established clearly form the website, we shouldn’t discard or underestimate the possible links. If indeed there are such connections, Sierra Club may have enormous support in the government already.
Some words about the instruments Sierra Club uses:
The Club’s website is very informative and one can easily get lost in the avalanche of data. However, there are some things that really capture attention, even when surrounded by trivia and miscellany facts.
I assume once an institution gets initial political support, it is easier for them to set the process in motion and just gain more and more influence. Sierra Club exploits this to their favor and wouldn’t deny the opportunity to mention who exactly supports them. You may be offered to write a letter to Obama on one page. On the next page you find three different stories how either the House of Representatives, or the President or some other high official applauded to Sierra’s program or visa versa. Using big political names affects public opinion: the organization acquires more and more followers
The same applies to using famous spokespeople: Ashley Judd for “Beyond Coal”, Susan Sarandon for “Grizzly” movie, Morgan Freeman for “Plant Now”
Another good instrument for provoking favorable public response is emphasizing diversity and difference as an underlying principle of the club: “The Sierra Club values diversity in our members, staff and supporters, and we embrace these differences, including race, class and ethnicity among many others. We welcome diverse individuals and their perspectives, and we promote a sense of inclusion by acknowledging that…”
This is a great and very popular idea for creating a multilateral and integral interaction between the organization and the people of the US.
The American Association of Retired Persons
ReplyDeleteWell, its initial purpose is very clear- it helps people age 50 and over to “improve the quality of all as we age”. Taking into consideration this non-governmental organization it is very important to point out that it touches upon different sides of lives of American people. In other words, what is crucial for every person, the answer is-health, education, or in general it is possible to call all these-our security for the future. In my opinion that is why it is one of the most powerful organizations, which proliferates nowadays. Among a huge range of activities I would like to consider some of them, which in my opinion have a political implication. Before that, I also would like to point out that AARP is very strong at lobbying at the state and national governmental level, it spends annually millions of dollars, it influenced such acts as Medicare Modernization Act 2003, Medicare Prescription Drug Act and so on, but it is very often criticized for very strong lobbying politics and not concentrating on other programs. Now about some activities, which at first sight seem to be “non-political”:
1- AARP has a very strong media system. If we look at their site, we can see that they have their magazine, radio, and plus this they have their TV programs. It is stated that there is no political propaganda, but still media is a very strong source of influence. Probably I can be wrong but it seems to be that they are pro democrats at some extent. Their sight is full of pictures, they are changing, during 3 minutes I’ve seen Michel Obama with some medicines, Borack Obama with the badge- “new health care reform”. If we look at the guests of programs and the topics of some of them, there are some secret motives of political influence. I’ve watched an episode about the insurances, and there was a piece of criticism towards the government and then the presenter continued to talk about insurances and so on.
2- Health care reform as a central issue of their activities. It is very important to concentrate here on the fact that they sell AARP branded health insurance, including drug coverage. The AARP allows to use its name by insurance companies. Knowing that nowadays in America the issue of health care reform is the most divisive, AARP publishes more and more articles in its magazine about different ways of solving this problem, posts more news on their site and so on. It is known that during this period AARP has grown considerably. They sponsor their research center where people can come and debate on the issues they face as they age. All this makes AARP more trustworthy. Here is their program-http://www.aarp.org/issues/dividedwefail/about_issues/our_platform.html
3- AARP sponsors a huge range of surveys and statistic institutes. At first sight it seems to be away from political influence, topics of surveys touch upon “social Security, Medicare, prescription drugs, taxation, and consumer protection; anticipates and tracks emerging social trends, such as changing midlife divorce rates, evolving racial attitudes, and boomers’ civic involvement; and explores the forces that impact older Americans’ lives…” and so on. This encourages people to participate, to express their opinions. But on the other hand they have folder devoted to “politics and polls”, where we can see the survey about what people think about social insecurity question for the government. AARP very often publishes the results in their magazine.
One way or another AARP raises public activity towards the organization itself, which makes it one of the most trustworthy in America. But very often it is criticized in the newspapers for ruining its political neutrality.
AARP(the American Association of Retired People)is a non-governmental organization and an interest group. It is " nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization for people age 50 and over , dedicated to enhancing quality of life for all as we age, which provides a wide range of unique benefits, special products, and services for members”. Most of the activities of the AARP are political, it is one of the most powerful lobbying groups in the USA. However, we can see, that its non-political activities are also important. But this “non-politics” is somehow connected with “politics” of the organization, non-political activities help the members of the organization to achieve their political goals.
ReplyDeleteFor example, let’s take AARP TRAVEL CENTER. Members of the organization can book here cheap tours to every part of the world. The center also provides benefits to the members, grants discounts on cars, hotels and hostels. On the one hand, “leisure activities” of the organization are not connected to politics at all. The organization just help people over 50 to go abroad and to get new great impressions of new places. But in fact, in my opinion, the aim of the AARP not only to provide “cheaptrips” to the people 50+, but to awaken their political activity. The organization knows that the elderly is less active in political sphere than the young generation, and when you travel you obtain new information, you understand that life is continuing and you start to pay attention to many things you have already forgotten. While travelling with AARP, you not only save money, you start knowing more and more about political life of the US through the organization and become active in different spheres of life, including politics. On the other hand, the organization recruits new members and becomes more powerful, that helps it to serve its political interests and aims.
Secondly, the AARP Magazine and TV programs dedicated to the most important issues of people over 50 serve the same purpose. On the one hand they do not deal with politics –just tell about the most important problems of the elderly. On the other, broadcast programs dedicated to decisions of the Supreme court and the Congress and try to form the political views of the members of the organization.
Third, family activities are also very important in the AARP. Let’s take a “Grandchild Program”, which helps to establish relationships between grandparents and grandchildren, explains how to overcome the communication difficulties and build healthy relationship inside the family. From my point of view, families are units of society and a healthy family is crucial for healthy society. Family plays a very important role in political views of every person, and it is necessary to preserve family values. And the AARP organization not only supports the family institution but make more youngsters feel sympathetic for the goals of the organization, that makes it more and more powerful.
Sierra Club
ReplyDeleteAccording to the website, it is an old and popular interest group (founded in 1892). It first seems to be an absolutely non-political community of nature lovers. However, the first impression is wrong. Nearly every action presented at the website is somehow connected with politics.
The organization's main aim is to "promote environmental protection and provide a sustainable future for the planet". In that case, the actions that the group organizes touch all possible spheres of life in the US - both on federal and state levels. They use all possible ways to involve as many people as possible by using the internet - the homepage shows that the number of Sierra Club fans in facebook exceeds 38,700 people, which is quite an amount.
1)When it comes to "non-political" actions of the club, we can see that some of them are aimed at children. For instance, "Building Bridges to the Outdoors" (with the help of local schools providing every child with an outdoor experience as a substitution for gang and athletic rivalries) or "Environmental Education" (once again, provides low-income, inner city children with trips to wilderness. There is also a further chance for teenagers to become responsible environmental leaders). As you see, the Club is trying to create a devote and large "fanbase", by promoting their ideas through local schools. The club members understand well that if they want to succeed, they should try to make the youth of the nation interested and inspired. Those children may later become the club's members and make this particular interest group a much stronger political power. (Plus, there is even a Sierra Sportsmen's Sportskids campaign, which gives the opportunity to fish and hunt to kids).
2)Sierra Club has also introduced a "Great Lakes Program" that is aimed at saving the great lakes from factory pollution. It seems to be an important campaign because the lakes hold one fifth of the world's fresh water (!). Thus, the club makes another part of population involved - environmentally conscious citizens of the states that border on Great Lakes (Michigan etc.). This group is much smaller than all kids and teengars in the US, but this program shows that the Club is working on different levels - age category, state, city, local community etc.
3)Developing the same trend of involving as many different US citizens as possible, Sierra Club introduces a "Zero Waste Committee" (zero waste means "emulating sustainable natural cycles, where all discarded materials are resources for others to use"). A good and simple example is given - television recycling. TV manufacturers are told to be reluctant to to take responsibility for their products at the end of their use. The link is given to the website where you can get familiar with different recycling methods. I think such a committee may interest, for instance, young and successful managers who care a lot about their own health and the health of the planet. They should be interested in doing everything they can to support conservation, and TV recycling is one of the ways they can help.
As you see, Sierra Club's non-political activities are aimed at involving as many different social groups as possible in order to pursue its political goals with success. They do it in a pleasant and nice way and as more and more people are involved, all those activities are not in vein.
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ReplyDeleteAziza said...
ReplyDeleteNRA.
Let us look at the NRA official website . On my opinion , if we compare it with the other two web cites it seems to me less informative and there are too many video clips and not much written information .
The aims and the goals of NRA are pretty clear from their motto and other slogans that appear in the website : It is the National Rifle Association of America , an American non-partisan non-profit organization which lists as its goals the protection of the Second Amendment and the promotion of firearm ownership rights as well as marksmanship, firearm safety, and the protection of hunting and self-defense in the United States. It is engaged in significant political activities, but still does other things as well. For example , there is a special section in the website dedicated to hunting activities . It invites people from different social classes with different political views to join the hunting group and go camping together
NRA also supports and governs different shooting sports in the United States and even organized National Governing Body for Olympic shooting . This association is a member of the National Three-Position Air Rifle Council. Even though this actions can be described as nonpolitical but its obvious that they are closely connected to it (everything what this kind of associations and organization do, have a double meaning) , they influence a lot and help to serve the political interests of the organization . Such activities make public the work of NRA, American society supports organizations that are engaged with sport and NRA realizes that popularity among ordinary Americans can bring them some points and make the association stronger .
NRA is a sponsor of some nonpolitical programs . For example, National Firearms Museum that is for free , everyone can go there and enjoy . In the website you can find a full description of the Museum,how to get there and all about how NRA worked to do and to create it . There is also museum library open to the public . Everyone can go there and use it .
The NRA Café . It is located in the north tower of the NRA Headquarters. Again open to the public, members and novice can get together there and discuss different issues . Its clear that NRA focusing on gaining popularity among Americans from different social classes.
Besides that NRA organizes special safety courses . For example, we can find section that is about hunting safety courses. It tells that these courses are offered all across the U.S. for both children and adults. In recent years gun safety classes oriented more towards firearm safety, particularly for women, have become popular. Of course information and opportunities of human safety attracts people’s attention and it brings the honor to the association .
For school-age children special activities , also sponsored by the NRA . (NRA's "Eddie Eagle" program encourages the viewer to "Stop! Don't touch! Leave the area! if the child ever sees a firearm lying around.)
To sum up we can say that all nonpolitical activities that NRA is engaged with are aimed at involving as many people as possible in order to reach their political goals .