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179 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. xi (1935)

handle is hein.cow/anamacp0179 and id is 1 raw text is: FOREWORD PaEssunE groups and propaganda are not new phenomena. Their influence in molding public opinion, in directing governmental policy, and in guiding the process of social change has always been significant. They have assumed un- usual importance today, however, (1) because of technological developments in the field of communications which have made available instruments of mass impression hitherto unknown; (2) because of world-wide social unrest which has intensified the competition among groups and classes; (3) because of the in- creasing emphasis by states themselves upon the function of propaganda; and (4) because of the implications of these tendencies for the future of democracy. The struggle for power, domestically and internationally, is in large part a struggle for control over the minds of men. The groups which excel, whether official or unofficial, will be those most effectively implemented with the tech- niques and tools of opinion leadership. Their ideals will constitute the value- patterns of the future. All groups are in a sense pressure groups. They exert pressure upon their own members and upon individuals and institutions outside. To confine the term pressure group to a few organizations that for the moment appear to be exerting influence upon public officials is to ignore the fact that potentially any group may at times exert such an influence. It is useful, however, to distinguish groups whose community of interests is based on such fundamental differentials as age, sex, occupation, and race, from those existing merely to further special ideas or groups of ideas. From the point of view of their social significance, there is a vast difference between the role played by such organizations as the American Federation of Labor and the United States Chamber of Commerce and the place of such associations as the National Civil Service Reform League and the National Council for the Prevention of War in modern social and politi- cal life. For want of better labels, these two types of pressure groups may be referred to as interest and idea groups respectively. The purpose of the present volume is to portray the background of group pressures in the United States; to describe the methods of exerting pressure cus- tomarily employed; to indicate the significance of pressure groups and propa- ganda in the formulation and the carrying out of governmental policies; and finally, to consider some general problems occasioned by the growing intensity of the struggle for opinion control. In the first section particular attention is given to the evolution of interest groups in this country; the part played by them historically in influencing public policy, the degree of cohesion they have attained, and the extent of their pressure resources. Because of the continuing importance of these basic group cleavages, they receive greater emphasis than the multiplicity of idea groups, such as those competing for public support in behalf of currency reform, peace, social security, public utility regulation, or bonus legislation. Such idea groups are important, but little is gained by attempting to catalogue and describe them. They constitute a changing pattern of ideologies in the midst of which the more fundamental groupings function. A primary aim of all pressure groups is to win popular support for the beliefs Xi

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