PLCY 700 DB 4
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PLCY 700 DB 4
Interest Group Liberalism and Public Policy
In essence, Lowi (2010) is making an effort to explain how interest groups have now
come to wield a significant amount of power over political processes in the United States. When
we talk about liberalism, we don't mean liberal or conservative; we mean liberalism in the classic
sense. Lowi (2010) came up with the term "interest-group liberalism" as a method to name this
newly established political norm. There was also the impression that interest groups were an
integral part of the well-established political environment in the United States and that their
purpose was to carry out the desire of the people. As a result, Lowi (2010) came up with the term
"interest-group liberalism" in order to characterize a situation that was now widely recognized as
democratic. This idea of interest-group liberalism is predicated on the assumption that the
various interest groups are working for the benefit of the general populace and that they are
accurate representatives of the general public's interests.
Considering the basic principle of interest-group liberalism is that special interests have
an outsized amount of control and sway over the political process in the United States, we will
begin by defining these entities. (Lowi, 2010) It is reasonable to presume that interest groups
representing any given field have the power to influence the formation of new policies in the
legislature. There are interest groups that are both for and against the same concerns, and that is
the crux of the problem right there. What will determine the outcome is whether side's interest
group is more strong, has the greatest financial support, or which side's linked political party gets
the majority of votes. This concept that interest-group liberalism is an accurate representation of
the general interest.
Also, the idea that all groups would be able to get equal results as a result of
the policy process is not correct since not every group will obtain the same outcome (Ross,
2022). This, in addition to the idea that interest-group liberalism presupposes that ethical
behavior is unable to legislated, has an influence on the discussion around the correction of racial
inequalities. For instance, DeMora et al. (2019) investigates how the American Legislative
Exchange Council (ALEC) is attempting to legislate "Stand Your Ground" laws across the
United States. The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is the organization that is
lobbying for this measure. The ALEC is an organization that advocates for minimal government,
and a Stand Your Ground statute would provide support to that stance. On the other hand, some
other research (Humphreys et al., 2017) suggests that this law is not beneficial to the health of
people in general, and even more particularly, the health of Black people. The belief that
morality cannot be legislated, which is a component of interest-group liberalism, is a factor that
impacts the argument around this policy. One way in which the ideology that underpins the
phrase "interest-group liberalism" may and does influence discussions on how to reduce racial
inequalities is shown by the following example.
First things first, the assumption behind interest-group liberalism is that morality can't be
legislated. Yet of course, ethics may be codified into law, and to some degree, all legislation is an
expression of morality. The law dictates what we are allowed to do and what we are prohibited
from doing, which may either make something positive or negative. That right there is morality.
When attempting to maintain the wall of separation between religion and state, the issue that
arises is whose morality should be legislated. In Romans 2:14-15 (ESV, 2016), the Bible explains
that Paul is talking about how everyone has a sense of what is right and wrong inscribed on their
hearts. This suggests that there are some behaviors that everyone agrees are unethical, such as
murder being wrong, and that these ethical standards have to be codified into regulations and
laws so that they may be enforced. Religion teaches people that they have a commitment to their
god, whereas morality teaches people that they have an obligation or responsibility to one
another. Religion and morality are not the same thing. We are able to impose a system of morals
that are found within all of us without imposing the morality that is related to a particular
religion by enforcing a system of morals that is found within all of us.
“Train up a child in the way he should go;
even when he is old he will not
depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6, ESV, 2016).
References
DeMora, S. L., Collingwood, L., & Ninci, A. (2019). The role of super interest groups in public
policy diffusion. Policy & Politics, 47(4), 513–541.
https://doi.org/10.1332/030557319x15659214258414
English Standard Version Bible. (2016). Bible Gateway.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%202%3A14-15&version=ESV
Humphreys, D. K., Gasparrini, A., & Wiebe, D. J. (2017). Evaluating the Impact of Florida’s
“Stand Your Ground” Self-defense Law on Homicide and Suicide by Firearm. JAMA
Internal Medicine, 177(1), 44. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.6811
Lowi, T. J. (2010). The End of Liberalism: The Second Republic of the United States. W.W.
Norton & Co.
Ross, J. (2022). Interest Group Liberalism and Public Policy. Libertyuniversity.instructure.com.
https://libertyuniversity.instructure.com/courses/200902/pages/watch-interest-group-
liberalism-and-public-policy?module_item_id=23100886
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