Explaining Lobbyism in the Usa

Why are pressure groups so powerful in the USA?

It is commonly put forward among political scientists that pressure groups are an almost inevitable and necessary function of America’s political system and that there is a multitude of reasons for their huge influence. At root level they are explained by the fundamental psyche and values of the American public and the nation’s constitution as well as the valuable contribution of pressure groups towards the political process.
Indeed, James Madison, one of America’s founding fathers, wrote about ‘factions’ being ‘sown into the nature of man’ which leads one to believe that pressure group activity is inescapable. This is certainly true for the USA. Being borne from the ‘tyrannical’ British Empire, small government and political freedom are essential to the American people and pressure groups have always been under protection of the 1st Amendment which guarantees freedom of speech and assembly. Pressure groups allow average citizens to scrutinise and influence legislation between elections, bringing a form of direct democracy to the public. The nation is also probably the most diverse in the world and the sheer number of its pressure groups illustrates this. Among the most well known are the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) and National Organisation for Women (NOW). Albeit, the above factors are probably the greatest explanation for the mass influence of pressure groups in America.Moreover, combined with its political system, the perfect breeding ground is in place for pressure groups and largely explains their influence. The weak, non-ideological, fragmented nature of the two national parties, Republican and Democrat, means that citizens cannot always trust their parties to enforce the issue that are of high concern to them and so pressure groups are generally the only option open to them. Furthermore, due to the principle of federalism inherent in the system, a vast amount of...