1. How are interest groups similar to social movements? How are they different? How could you best characterize the differences between the two?

2. What is pluralism? How convincing of a concept do you think it is? What are the main critiques of pluralism?

3. Are you a member of any groups on campus? Off campus? Do these groups have any issues with free riding? If so, how do you overcome them?

4. Why are groups that advocate for collective goods particularly prone to collective action problems like free riding? How can these groups overcome them or at least mitigate them? Why do groups that advocate for private goods have fewer issues with free riding?

5. Why do you think that Sec. Paulson was so assertive in his efforts to gain passage of the financial bailout? What do you think his motivations were? Were they interest group driven? Analysis driven? Something else?

6. What is the revolving door phenomenon? Do you find it problematic, why or why not?

7. Lobbying is frequently seen in a negative light, why is that? What aspects of it do people see negatively? Can you think of any regulatory changes that might make people see it in a different light?

8. What is agency capture and why is it so problematic for democracy? How could an agency work to avoid this situation?

9. What are iron triangles and why might they be problematic for democracy? Do they offer any advantages? How might iron triangles be avoided?

10. Look at the figure titled Reportable Campaign Contributions by Economic Sector, 2016. Given the amount of money donated, what did the financial industry hope to receive in return? Why might they have allocated their donations as they did? Do you find their donations troubling, why or why not?

11. What is insider lobbying? Outsider lobbying? Why might one group consider insider lobbying over outsider lobbying (and vice versa)? What advantages does each approach offer? What drawbacks might it offer?

12. What is AstroTurf lobbying? How do you feel about this kind of lobbying? If you were an elected official are there any ways that you might try to identify and avoid AstroTurf lobbying?

13. What do you think about the financial sector’s efforts to secure a government bailout? Were their efforts logical? Reasonable? Ethical? Effective?

14. What do you think about the Occupy Wall Street’s efforts to reform the financial sector? Were their efforts logical? Reasonable? Ethical? Effective? How would you compare them to the efforts of the financial sector?

15. If you were an elected official, how would you have reacted to lobbyists from the financial crisis during the recession? How would you have reacted to the Occupy Wall Street movement? Would it have been similar? Different? If different, why?

16. A significant portion of the public was upset with the financial bailout and especially its focus on Wall Street. How do you feel about the policy in hindsight? Did it accomplish what it was designed to? Did it accomplish what it should have? How would the founders have reacted to the efforts of the financial industry’s lobbying efforts?

17. One of the interesting things about the bailout and the recession is that two very different movements sprung out of them, the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street. In what ways were these groups similar? Different? Encourage the class to consider not only their issues but their tactics as well.

18. How satisfied do you think Madison would be with our republican form of government in terms of regulation of factions or groups?