Government (Special Interest Groups)
In today’s topic we shall be focusing our eyes on the special interest groups. We can therefore look at the meaning of a special interest group, its roles and the government’s role in such kind of a group. There is need for attention here as this topic is dealing on groups that have a special attachment even to the government so your attention is of great use.
Special interest groups (SIGs) are a kind of group that do provide to its members, who have been drawn together with a common interest, a forum in which they are able to learn a lot of the happenings in their field of their study. These groups are from fields of study, research or teaching. These groups are aimed at giving the members the opportunity of keeping themselves informed by exchanging ideas about the current developments that are there in their fields. This special interest groups, do offer a variety of wealthy information on, publications, activities of the field from local to global scale, Conferences, as well as giving out opportunities for sharing first hand knowledge, the latest developments and findings and also sharing of technical expertness on the field. As much as this special interest groups have all this advantages, not always are they helpful to the society or the country at large, they are sometimes a disaster as we shall an example of some of them( Kevin, 2008 ).
The special groups in the United States for example are the main reason, that the economy is facing recession. In most cases when the economy of a country is declining, the people put the whole blame to the president as at that time, but given that the president is the leader of the nation the special interest groups that are found in that particular country, play a very big role in the policies that are being made, hence the president effect on the enactment of such policies becomes affected, that is the president’s power to change those policies is altered (The American society for indexing).
The special interest groups can be divided into several broad categories such as; economics, education,, science, arts and humanities and public interest groups this are just some of the categories that the special interest groups may be divided. We shall look at examples of groups on these categories.
Economic interest groups: these are the organizations which represent businesses, examples of which are, Association of Manufacturers, U.S Chamber of Commerce and also the Big labor. Large corporations and trade associations are also found in this category. Big labor for instance has played a major role in the economy of America is. The group helps in shaping the course of not only the Americans, but even the world at large, in the wages and the rights that workmen should have in a world wide way. Thus they are considered as been an enemy of the American economy as they are seen to possess a very unhelpful role.
The reason that makes the Big labor, a real enemy of the U.S economy is the fact that, it has been concerned in knowing how much each worker earns and also how much is being reinvested in the union. Due to its nature of wanting to consolidate funds of its members, organizations are unable to further their activities. This has been highly evidenced in the auto industry of United States, where it held captive the auto makers due to its demands. This made the auto industry not to develop and thus remaining behind as compared to its competitors. Therefore we find that the big labor as much as it’s a special interest group its role in the economy has been pathetic and of no use as it is draining the economy instead of helping lift up the economy of the country. Its thus a good example of a special interest group that is not helpful to a country at large as it plays negative roles to the economy (Kevin, 2008).
In the science and mathematics category let’s look at SIGMAA. SIGMAA(special interest group of the mathematics association of America ) is a group that concerns itself in the common interests of mathematicians who interact and organize opportunities in a professional way. Their activities include such as; maintaining web pages, newsletters, holding meetings and sessions, and as well as interacting with other organizations of MAA thus sharing ideas and making a network of interested parties from different settings. When we try to compare this two kinds of interest groups is that we realize that the special interest group may maker a positive contribution to the economy just like SIGMAA does or can make a negative contribution to the economy ,leading to an unhealthy economy like the Big labor (Stephen, 2009).
Therefore we have seen that the special interests groups, are important in the sense that they help the people of that field by equipping them with current information, offering them the opportunities of a wide range of findings in their day to day life. Although they are very useful, they are also a threat to the government in the economic part of it as they are seen too have destroyed the Americas economy hence retarding it in the global economy competition
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