INFLUENCE OF INTEREST GROUPS ON PUBLIC POLICIES 2

Influence of Interest Groups on Public Policies

Policy making often goes through multiple stages before it becomes public policy.
Interest groups play a significant role in shaping the final outcome of the policy. Some interest
groups seek to influence the outcome of each stage of the policy. Others, however, wait until a
policy is at evaluation stage before they become actively involved in the policy making process.
Of these two approaches, it is better for interest groups to be involved at each stage of the
policymaking process instead of waiting until policy evaluation occurs.
The reason why interest groups that get involved at every stage of the policy making
process often get policy outcomes that they desire is because the final policy usually reflects
inputs from every stage of the policy making process. Policies become harder to change the
nearer they are to the output stage. Thus, by skipping earlier stages and concentrating on policy
evaluation stage when it is just about to become a public policy, interest groups risk having a
policy outcome that does not reflect their desires because of the difficulty of changing policies at
such a late stage.
Policies usually undergo many changes from the time they are at the agenda-setting stage.
For an interest group to be effective, it needs to make sure that its core interests in the policy are
not removed or significantly watered down. Even though exerting their influence at every stage
of the policy making process may be expensive, it is the only way of ensuring that the final
policy outcome reflects the desires of the interest group.
In conclusion, it is important for interest groups to have their input considered at every
stage of the policy making process. In this manner, they increase their ability to influence the

INFLUENCE OF INTEREST GROUPS ON PUBLIC POLICIES 3
final policy outcome. The policy evaluation stage may be too late to influence any significant
policy changes.