ABSTRACT
In 2006, the news was full of photos of lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who pled guilty to charges of tax evasion, mail fraud, and conspiracy to bribe public officials. The popular imagination is drawn to stories of corruption, much of the work of interest groups and lobbyists involves legal methods of influencing government policy. A troubling dilemma lies at the core of the American political system. The dilemma is this: If the government does not allow people to pursue their self-interest, it takes away their political freedom. This dilemma is as old as the country itself, yet it has never been more relevant than today. As lobbying has grown in recent years, anxiety has mounted over the consequences of interest group politics. Factions were not anomalies, nor would they be occasional problems. Rather, as Madison saw it, the propensity to pursue self-interest was innate. Madison worried that a powerful faction could eventually tyrannize others in society.
