Answer To: I need this assignment completed based onusing my Representative John D. Dingell and Michigan...
Robert answered on Dec 21 2021
Iron triangles
Running Head: IRON TRIANGLES
1
PAGE
10
IRON TRIANGLES
Iron Triangles
Name
Institution
Iron Triangles
Iron triangles are tightly knit three-sided group consisting of congressional committees, government and agencies and interest groups that together influence and control policy making processes in the United States. These three groups are powerful, mutually supportive and tend to be the key determining factor of what policy is passed. They can make or break policy reforms in the country. The relationship between these three groups is such that, congress committees provide oversight and funding for various policy programs, the government agencies administer and regulate the given policy program, and the interest groups provide support and rally public opinion in favour of a policy program (“A Glossary of Political Economy Terms,” 2005).
Interest Group is a formal organisation of people with shared goals or concern and whose core purpose is to further the mission and the work of the interest groups. They mainly do this through lobbying to influence public opinion and public policy (“A Glossary of Political Economy Terms,” 2005a).
Pluralist theory holds that political power in the American political scene is best viewed as being distributed among different interest groups, with the government being the mediator of how the power shifts among the different interest groups. In this, there is no one controlling power, but rather a plethora of competing interest groups with different values, backgrounds and mission whose core purpose are to influence public opinion in order to maximize their benefits (“Glossary of Political Economy Terms,” 2005b).
Elite theory on the hand postulates that political power in the American political scene is best viewed as being wielded by only a few privileged wealthy groups of people who have similar interest and value and use their wealth and connections to influence and dictate public policy (“Glossary of Political Economy Terms,” 2005c).
US Representative is John D. Dingell. Dingell has six subcommittee assignments. He sits on the House Energy and commerce Committee and votes on other subcommittees such as a subcommittee on commerce, trading & manufacturing, subcommittee on Energy & Power, the subcommittee on Health, and the subcommittee on Oversight & Investigation (Congressman John Dingell, 2012).
Michigan Senator Carl Levin serves on seven committees. One of the committees is the Senate Armed Services Committee, whose purpose entails reviewing the U.S. defence policy, overseeing the department of defence and setting core policies that impact the US defence of pay and benefits, weapon spending in research and development (Carl Levin U.S. Senator Michigan, 2012).
The House Energy and Commerce committee for which John Dingell sits has jurisdiction over a number of areas. These include all foreign and interstate commerce and trade matters, regulation of consumer affairs, commercial practices and consumer protection, regulation of tourism, travel, energy policy, energy conservation fossil energy, utility issues, interstate energy compacts and regulation of nuclear facilities. Furthermore, the committee regulates nuclear waster and energy, the clean Air Act and various regulations involved in environmental protection. It regulates mining, coal use, oil, gas, control of pollution, hospital development, biomedical programs, mental health, public health and health protection. Finally it regulated foods and drugs, Medicaid, health insurance, foreign and interstate communications and homeland security issues such as cyber security (PenSecrets.org, 2012d). The Senate Armed Services Committee on the other hand has jurisdiction over Aeronautical military operations and weapons systems, common defence, military research and development, the...