Tuesday, June 25, 2013

How would it be possible to eliminate interest groups in a democracy?American Government2

It's not possible to eliminate interest groups, in nearly any
society, not just democracies, but you can attempt to eliminate or limit their influence over
government and/or elections in a few different ways.


First, if we
were serious and since this is a major problem in the American system of government (in my
opinion) we could move to a complete public financing of all election campaigns.  By having no
donations at all, and removing the need for candidates to solicit those donations (and ostensibly
grant favors and access in return once in office) you free them from all interest group pressures
outside of the individual voters.


Second, we could reform the length
of terms of office so that they are longer, and candidates and elected officials would not need
to constantly run for office, nor need the help of endorsements, fundraising etc. that interest
groups can provide.


A final way to limit the influence of these
groups is to remove all lobbying from taking place in government buildings, to deny them access
to the levers of power, as it were, so that we didn't have such problems with lobbyists for
interest groups actually writing the legislation sometimes, and we could get back to the task of
simple governance.


All of this is fine and dandy, but removing
interest groups altogether short of turning into a dictatorship, is highly unlikely, and some
would say they are at least a necessary evil in a representative democracy with a large
population and economy such as ours.

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