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CongressLink in Brief
Congress: The Context
A. The nature of the issue.
1. Affects the kind of groups that become politically active.
2. Affects the intensity of political conflict.
B. Costs and benefits of a proposed policy provide a way to understand how an issue affects political power.
1. Cost: any burden, monetary or non-monetary that some people must, or expect, to bear from the policy.
2. Benefit: any satisfaction, monetary or non-monetary, that some people must, or expect, to receive from the policy.
3. Two aspects of costs and benefits are important:
a) Perception of costs and benefits affects politics.
b) People consider whether it is legitimate for a group to benefit.
4. Politics is a process of settling disputes over who benefits/pays and who ought to benefit/pay – so ideas and values are as important as interests.
5. People prefer programs that provide benefits to them at a low cost.
6. Perceived distribution of costs and benefits shapes the kinds of political coalitions that form.
C. Majoritarian politics: distributed benefits, distributed costs.
D. Interest group politics: concentrated benefits, concentrated costs.
E. Client politics: concentrated benefits, distributed costs.
F. Entrepreneurial politics: distributed benefits, concentrated costs.
