PUBLIC POLICY ADVOCACY: PRIVATE VS PUBLIC INTERESTS

Private Interests

Groups that seek to influence public policy for the specific and often exclusive benefit of their members or of people with similar interests are known as private interest groups, often called ‘special interest groups’ by the media and in casual use. The term ‘private interest’ instead of ‘special interest' is more appropriate for two reasons. First, the term private interest points out the nature of the objectives these groups seek to fulfil, which are policies that provide benefits targeted to specific individuals and groups. Interest groups made up of financial institutions, for example, promote policies that further their interests, like preventing legislation that might limit the fees they charge for financial services. Secondly, the term ‘special interest’ has acquired a negative political connotation. Political partisans often use the term in a derogatory way to attack their opponents, regardless of party or ideology suggesting that ‘special interests’ are somehow against the public good. But the pursuit of private interest need not undermine the common welfare. Indeed, just as the pursuit of private economic self-interest benefits the economy as a whole, so also the pursuit of political self-interest is often thought to be a good thing for the political system overall, even if some specific policy outcomes seem undesirable.

Competition among self-interested individuals and groups is good for the health of society overall.  Competition fuelled by self-interest is a condition that successful democratic institutions must recognize, accommodate, and even use to produce consensus and stability. This pluralist interpretation of democratic politics reflects the perception that the process by which citizens and interest groups freely express their desires before the government is more important than specific policy decisions. It also reflects the often implicit expectation that in the long run good ideas (or policy) push out the bad as groups compete to promote their own interests.

Public Interests

Public interest groups seek to achieve results that may be enjoyed by the general population. They promote policies that produce widely distributed benefits that anyone can enjoy. Although most public interest groups have fewer resources at their disposal than private interest groups, the more successful groups have imitated private interest groups to the extent that they can afford to do so by utilizing specialized professional help from lawyers, consultants, marketers, and public policy advocates.

The value of Organized Interest Groups

Organized interest groups (be they private or public) develop considerable expertise on the political issues they seek to influence, and subsequently communicate information and analysis to the public in their efforts to shape both policy and public opinion.

Interest groups are expected to provide data and interpretations that best support their positions on specific issues as well as offer countervailing arguments and different viewpoints. These are ideal expectations, and if they are even roughly met, they help increase public knowledge about the issue under discussion by exposing the public to competing views. This said in a world in which groups have vastly different levels of resources at their disposal, in which the costs of doing politics are high and rising and in which the policy area is ever more crowded, public ideal expectations about how interest groups behave are rarely met.

Yet whatever the imperfections of the overall system may be, the public relies on interest groups to provide information about public policy and government decisions. Despite the fact that the actual conditions of public discussion shaped by interest group competition don’t always meet ideal expectations, interest groups nonetheless convey information both to the public and to policy-makers. Over time, interest groups develop considerable expertise in the areas to which they are dedicated and this information is incorporated into the making of policy and law. Interest groups often provided what might be called “interested expertise”- facts and analyses designed to shape opinions in a way that reflects their objectives and interpretations of issues. The political system relies on the clash of competing interests, however, imperfectly or unevenly matched, to prevent policy disasters or to correct them when they occur.