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Hey guys so, i'm currently answering a question on how does pressure groups seek to influence the executive branch of government and one of my points is that;
-pressure groups seeks to influence the president by using his power of persuasion. e.g. State of Union Address in which the presidents sets his legislative agenda.
I just wondering if anyone knew any solid examples that could really support this.
Would be greatly appreciate thank YOU!
Original post by Son Goku SSJ3
Hey guys so, i'm currently answering a question on how does pressure groups seek to influence the executive branch of government and one of my points is that;
-pressure groups seeks to influence the president by using his power of persuasion. e.g. State of Union Address in which the presidents sets his legislative agenda.
I just wondering if anyone knew any solid examples that could really support this.
Would be greatly appreciate thank YOU!


Hey there, I'm just going to pop this in the government/politics subforum as you're more likely to get responses there. :smile: Do pressure groups influence the president by using his power of persuasion, or the pressure group's power of persuasion...?
This is a little bit complicated but you could say that as Neustadt identified - "the president's power is the power to persuade". Consequently, the president must gain the support and cooperation of the other branches of federal government in order to achieve his policy aims, such as passing legislation that was in his State of the Union Address. The president might offer to help a member of Congress with ensuring the passage of a piece of legislation that benefits that member's state or district. In this way, a pressure group might then lobby this member of Congress to ask the president to support a piece of legislation they desire.

For example, the Chairman of the Senate Standing Committee for Health, Thomas Harkin (Iowa), might be lobbied by the sectional-group the American Medical Association to make an amendment to Obama's healthcare reform bill which Harkin might then propose to Obama which Obama might agree to in return for the committee approving the bill.
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by Puddles the Monkey
Hey there, I'm just going to pop this in the government/politics subforum as you're more likely to get responses there. :smile: Do pressure groups influence the president by using his power of persuasion, or the pressure group's power of persuasion...?

Thank you for that really appreciate it, i'm still quite new to all this :P
Original post by StartingTheParty
This is a little bit complicated but you could say that as Neustadt identified - "the president's power is the power to persuade". Consequently, the president must gain the support and cooperation of the other branches of federal government in order to achieve his policy aims, such as passing legislation that was in his State of the Union Address. The president might offer to help a member of Congress with ensuring the passage of a piece of legislation that benefits that member's state or district. In this way, a pressure group might then lobby this member of Congress to ask the president to support a piece of legislation they desire.

For example, the Chairman of the Senate Standing Committee for Health, Thomas Harkin (Iowa), might be lobbied by the sectional-group the American Medical Association to make an amendment to Obama's healthcare reform bill which Harkin might then propose to Obama which Obama might agree to in return for the committee approving the bill.

Wow this is brilliant, thank you so much! very much appreciated!!
Yes pressure groups will try and persuade the president to include certain things in his State of the Union address.

Also, though, they may try and persuade him to use executive orders in order to change the aims of policy. This is evident when President Obama passed an executive order to ban the federal funding for abortion in most cases in order to pass his healthcare reforms. He satisfied pro-life groups.

They can also influence the executive by targeting the federal bureaucracy but I don't know much about this yet.

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