People and Politics: Interest Groups

Warm-Up IconSection Warm-Up

Questions about interest groups are often a topic on the AP US Government exam. Here is one from the 2006 AP US Government exam. Take a minute and read the question carefully.

While interest groups and political parties each play a significant role in the United States political system, they differ in their fundamental goals. a. Identify the fundamental goal of interest groups in the political process b. Identify the fundamental goal of major political parties in the political process. c. Describe two different ways by which interest groups support the fundamental goal of political parties in the political process. d. For one of the forms of support you described in (c), explain two different ways in which that form of support helps interest groups to achieve their fundamental goal in the political process.

Now take a few minutes and jot down your answer to this question and predict how many points you think each of the parts of the question is worth. Save your notes. We will come back to this question later in the section.