Interest groups are made up of individuals who share a common interest and band together to influence government decisions. Both interest groups and political parties are examples of collective participation. However, there are several differences between the two. First, interest groups do not run candidates for office. Interest groups focus on attempting to persuade those who already hold office to see things their way. Interest groups also may mobilize their members to work on behalf of particular candidates who are friendly toward the group and its goals. In addition, interest groups focus on specific or narrowly related issues while political parties take a position on a variety of issues in order to increase their chance of winning an election.
Interest groups are a part of our vital political process. They are useful to the political process for three reasons. First, both the U.S. and Texas Constitutions guarantee the right of individuals to get together to petition the government for redress of their grievances. The courts have expanded the right of assembly to include freedom of association. Interest groups are also useful because they magnify voices and multiply choices. By magnifying voices, interest groups make sure that our opinions and ideals will be heard. In addition, interest groups offer more choices to our decision makers by the fact that they share their views with our decision makers and they will use them to reach a decision with regard to a pending public issue. On the other hand, interest groups may contribute to dividing the society into factions and creating a politics of confrontation. Another possible problem that interest group politics may pose is the disparity that often occurs among such groups in terms of their actual ability to organize, inform, and influence policymakers.
There are thousands of interest groups in Texas. One way to classify them is in accordance with how they are organized.