ABSTRACT
Organizations that put pressure on elected officials in order to influence legislation or public policy that is favorable to their causes are interest groups. Advocacy on behalf of the interests of corporations or professional interests is often what first comes to mind when thinking of American interest groups. Interest groups are formal organizations of people who share a common outlook or social circumstance and who band together in the hope of influencing government policy. Interest groups are there to stay, and they play a key role in American politics. In fact, interest groups are crucial to democratic society. Actual groups have already been formed; they have a headquarters, an organizational structure, paid employees, membership lists, and the like. Interest groups that have already been formed; they have headquarters, an organizational structure, paid employees, membership lists, and the like. Interest groups that could form under the right circumstances; as yet, they have no substantive form and may never have one.
