Assignment:
Iron Triangle / Interest Groups Extra Credit Assignment
First, go to https://www.auburn.edu/~johnspm/gloss/pork-barrel_legislation.html to get the definition for iron triangles, interest groups, pluralist theory, and elite theory. Rewrite these definitions into your own words.
Select one committee your US Representative is assigned to; find out who your US Representative is through this website: https://www.house.gov/. Use the Find Your Representative section in the upper left corner. From there, go to your representative's page, and search for their committee assignments under the "About (Your Representative's Name)" heading on the page.
Select one committee that either Michigan senator is assigned to: Debbie Stabenow
https:// stabenow.senate.gov/?p=committee_assignmentsor Carl Levin
https://levin.senate.gov/ senate/committees/
Then, go to this website that deals with the background on committees: https:// www.opensecrets.org/cmteprofiles/index.asp.Once there, look at one committee from the House that your US Representative is assigned to and one from the Senate that either Michigan senator is assigned to. Go to the summary of the committee and write down the following:
1. What is the jurisdiction of each committee?
2. Who are the chair and ranking minority person on each committee and to which party do they each belong?
3. What is the proportion of Democrats to Republicans on each committee?
4. Look at the members of that committee: are there any particular states that are being represented on the committees?
5. Which special interests are affected by the committees?
6. Which special interests have contributed financially to the elections of members of thesecommittees?
7. Which agencies are regulated by these committees?
8. Using the information you have already found, construct an iron triangle with eachcommittee.
9. Determine if there are interest groups that have conflicting goals affected by each committee.
10.Looking at your iron triangles and your other research for this project, do you think pluralistor elite theory is more prevalent in the committee structure and their dealings with interestgroups? Why do you believe that? Provide examples to support your opinion.