Interest Groups Interest Groups influence all aspects of the American political system and yet their importance is often not recognized. Business interests tend to dominate at all political levels. Organizational resources, the skills of its leaders, the size of its membership, and its financial resources help to determine the influence of a group. Small and well-organized groups often prevail over larger groups that are not as tightly organized, especially if the group has money. Interest use direct and indirect strategies to influence politicians.
Indirect influence refers to efforts to shape public opinion in the politicians state or district.
The federal law regulating lobbying is the Federal Regulation of Lobbying Act of 1946. In California, we had a very powerful law passed through an initiative in 1974 and known as the Political Reform Act. We concluded that there is very little regulation of lobbying in the public interest. The problem is how do you protect the public against the buying of influence by special interest while at the same time safeguarding the first amendment right to petition government. The calls for the effective regulation of lobbyists is also limited because incumbent politicians don't want to change a system that favors them and that yileds large contributions and other types of favors form powerful interest groups.