Question

In 2016, General Electric, along with its Appliance division, contributed $4,699,964 to congressional members and spent $7,025,000 on lobbying, some towards the PATENT Act, which amends federal patent law to add pleading and disclosure requirements for patent infringement actions. After reading the scenario, respond to A, B, and C below:
A. Describe one political behavior illustrated in this scenario.


B.In the context of the scenario, explain how the political behavior described in Part A can be affected by its interaction with Congress.


C. In the context of the scenario, explain how the interaction between Congress and the bureaucracy can be affected by linkage institutions.

Answer 1

Answer:

A. The political behavior is defined as lobbying, originated from a type of corporatism government.

B. The corporatism state depends of the relation between the congress and lobbyists, which can represent a general interest of the industry or small groups.  

C. The groups of interest, also as linkage institutions, can affect the bureaucracy and laws in order to represented their own interests. But in order to do so, the congress has to accept the lobbying proposals.

Explanation:

Corporatism is a political ideology that defends the organization of society by corporate groups, such as agricultural, labor, military, scientific or political, based on their common interests. By definition, the lobby is a representation of interests with the political agents inside of a corporatism state. In other words, it is a practice of seeking access to political agents and letting them know the demands of society, using people (lobbyists) and their channels of contact with lawmakers.

Answer 2

Answer/Explanation:

A. The American Medical Association is an interest group that contributes money to lobbying and congressional members. The Iron Triangle is demonstrated here, because the interest group is paying congressional members, who in turn promote their policy to the policy makers in the bureaucracy.

B. The behavior described in Part A can be affected by its interaction with Congress, since congressional committees are a crucial component to the iron triangle. Congress writes legislation and drafts policies, which interest groups may promote or deny, and thus, a good relationship with congressional members could further push the agenda of a certain interest group.

C. The interaction between Congress and the bureaucracy can be affected by linkage institutions, because linkage solutions can affect the public opinion. They can encourage public opinion to lean towards or against a policy that Congress and the bureaucracy are working to pass. Linkage institutions can contact congressmen and individuals working with the bureaucracy. In the context of this scenario, the linkage institution of the Aerican Medical Association can pay congressmen, possibly dependent on how much this interest group wants to pass this law. Therefore, this action can be affected by linkage institutions, and changes how congressmen interact with the people administering the policy in this scenario.