Week 3 Discussion: Political Science
Lesson: Read this Week’s Lesson which is located in the Modules tab-please see attached
Initial Post: minimum of 2 scholarly sources (must include your textbook for one of the sources). Follow-Up Post: minimum of 1 scholarly source for your Follow-Up Post.
Initial Post Instructions
For the initial post, respond to one of the following options, and label the beginning of your post indicating either Option 1 or Option 2:
Option 1: What are the pros and cons of lobbyists as a tool for special interest groups? Should former members of Congress be allowed to become lobbyists? Explain your answer.
Option 2: Social movements can at times use disruptive behaviors. What are some of the possible benefits of disruptive behaviors in social movements? What are the drawbacks or possible negative consequences? What does the First Amendment state concerning citizens’ right to use disruptive methods? Refer to examples from history as you frame your analysis. Explain your answer.
Be sure to make connections between your ideas and conclusions and the research, concepts, terms, and theory we are discussing this week.
Sample Answer
Political Science
Option 1
Lobbyists, as a tool for the special interest groups, are mostly professionals. Generally, they are advisors to the company or the interest group or the members of one of Washington D.C. law organizations that focus on lobbying services. In deep, lobbying means communicating right or imploring others to talk with any official or staff in the executive or legislative branch of government to manipulate any administrative or legislative action. A lobbyist mainly encourages the interest groups’ agenda. On the other hand, interest groups are public and private organizations that try to influence the behavior of political decision-makers to shape public policy. These groups are significant for individuals’ democracy and the public interest (Stokes 2020).
Pros And Cons of Lobbyists
There’re numerous pros and cons of the lobbyists. One pro is that the lobbyists influence the legislation about specific regulations against the interest of the common individuals (Drutman & Mahoney, 2017). Another pro is that lobbyists also impact the government decisions, policies, actions on behalf of a specific group or the individual hiring them. Governments regularly define and control organized group lobbying that has become powerful. Besides, as lobbyists are a professional who usually advocates the interest groups’ attention; they will help interest groups attain their anticipated goals. When it comes to cons, lobbyists, because of propagating the interest of particular groups, incur harm to the government. Another con is that because of interest, the lobbyists promote a specific segment of individuals but not for the whole state. For example, during the Trump Election back in 2016, there was strong lobbying done in campaigns against his contestant Hillary Clinton. This revealed that Hillary Clinton didn’t get a popular vote, and Trump won these elections. After that, it has been seen there’s a consequence of lobbying by the lobbyist.
If Former Members of The Congress Should Be Allowed to Become Lobbyists
I agree that the former members of Congress must be allowed to be lobbyists if it is in favor of the national interest. There’s no such detail revealed in the Constitution, but the law enables them to be lobbyists if the motive behind it is inspiring the state interests. For example, the Former Sen. Bob Dole performed as a lobbyist with a particular Washington law firm from 2015 (Jett 2018). He acted as a foreign agent for the Taiwan government, worked behind the scenes to create high-level contact between the Taiwanese officials and President-elect Donald Trump’s staff. He worked for a noble cause to create a good relationship between Taiwan and the U.S. government. Hence, the former senator become a lobbyist.
