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Introduction: Civil Rights Politics as Interest-Group Politics

NCJ Number
141368
Journal
Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy Volume: 14 Issue: 1 Dated: (Winter 1991) Pages: 1-7
Author(s)
D B Rodriguez
Date Published
1991
Length
7 pages
Annotation
A participant at the Ninth Annual National Federalist Society's 1990 symposium on law and public policy examines the future of civil rights law and the civil rights movement and views civil rights politics as a form of interest group politics.
Abstract
Examining civil rights politics through interest group analysis raises several questions, particularly with respect to what explains recent legislative successes of the civil rights movement. Although interest group analysis tends to treat civil rights groups as ordinary rent-seeking entities, these groups may in fact organize primarily for noneconomic reasons. Yet, recharacterizing civil rights groups as ideological interest groups rather than economic interest groups blurs the pluralist theoretical picture. Other questions raised by applying interest group analysis to civil rights politics concern the civil rights constituency's status as a constitutionally protected class and the interpretation of civil rights statutes. As difficult interpretive issues arise under civil rights laws, courts must choose among different methods of statutory construction. Whatever the direction of future civil rights legislation, integrating the civil rights movement and civil rights interest groups into democratic politics represents progress in eliminating discrimination and prejudice. 26 footnotes