Interest Groups And American Trade Policy

In this paper, I make an analysis about interest groups and American trade policy. I think an interest group is composed of people who have something in common. It is a non-governmental organization but takes part in the political process. In America, many interest groups are related with trade policy, including business groups, labor groups, agricultural groups, environmental groups and foreign groups.In order to get some interests or decrease some loss or something else, an interest group makes a lobby, which may be direct, indirect or both. Many factors affect a group's lobby abilities. I think the most important four are leadership skills, campaign contributions, membership size and reputation.After centuries'development, American trade policy-making process has changed greatly, so do interest groups'lobby activities. In general, Congress had the power to make trade policy before 1934, so it was the dominant party that decided trade policy. Tariff rate changed as a new party controlled Congress. Different groups were represented by different parties, party was the lobby object. After 1934,Congress began to delegate more authority to the president and executive agencies, it limited this delegation by designing procedures that...