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Groups in the Democratic Process

Summary/Abstract: In this article interest groups involvement in the democratic process of filling up elective jobs in both legislative and executive in the USA, as well as in the policy-making, is analyzed. Authors study is made on the basis of personal impressions and observations during his 1989/90 scholarship at George Mason University near Washington, D. C, granted by the ACLS. Various groups traditionally play an important role in the US elections which includes a broad spectrum of appreciable undertakings — from simply statement of support for a particular candidate to a direct involvement in the routine of candidate selection and designing their political platforms. More specifically, the role of the PACs, their financial contributions to candidates, interest groups participation in the process of law making and administrative regulating of the concerned social spheres (lobbism), is examined, as well as a series of recent, unknown in Bulgaria American sociologists and political scientists — such as Jeffrey M. Berry, Allan J. Cigler, Hugh Heclo, Burden A. Loomis, Michael W. McCann, Michael Malbin, Robert H. Salisbury, Kay Lehman Schlozman, John T. Tierney, and many others studies in these areas. Author's conclusion in that civil society in the USA — understood as the aggregate of vigorously represented in the all levels of the political process interest groups — plays an essential role in policy-making and rules out state's monopoly.

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