The Iron Triangle

This article theorizes the existence of an Iron Triangle existing between interest groups, the Congress and the Bureaucracy. Because of the very nature of this theory and the structure set up by the relationships between these groups we see that it impedes democracy by its popular definition but that it also helps democracy achieve certain goals where uninformed citizens are involved. These groups in the Iron Triangle and their relationship to the democratic values in this nation both help the average person to benefit by means of carrying less of a burden but at the cost of their better interests at times.

To understand this theory of the Iron Triangle we must first look define the groups involved in the Iron Triangle. These parties are interest groups, the Congress and the Bureaucracy. Interest groups are organized groups of people who are generally working towards the common goal of swaying or maintaining policies without having to hold government positions. The more influential groups have the ability to mobilize and usually posses a fair amount of power through held resources and/or finances. The congress in this sense is considered the government who has been given charge of passing laws to look after the people’s general welfare and public interest. The Bureaucracy refers to structures and regulations that are in place that are meant to control activities in large organizations or the government. Types of bureaucracies are hospitals, corporations, schools, ministries, etc. Now we must examine their relationships which form the Iron Triangle. Interest groups give electoral support to congress and they in turn pass friendlier legislation for the interest groups and overlook a lot of the things that they do. Congress gives funding and political support to Bureaucracies and they help congress with their policy choices and the execution of them. Bureaucrats have low regulations and give special favors to interest groups because these interest groups will then in turn help them gain congressional support by means of lobbying.

We see from the relationships of these groups that they are set up almost in the form of the separation of powers as it is outlined in the constitution. It is when it acts as such and the use of checks and balances are involved that it aids democracy. This is done when there is less of a focus on personal interest and more on public interest goals. An example of this is when the government makes decisions which affect the people and bureaucracies help to implement the effects of those decisions. However this does not occur often as these groups do primarily focus on their own personal interests and they too often than not work to fuel one another unchecked in order to create powerbases. This can be seen in the fact that the Bureaucracies are fueling the interest groups which give support to the congressional members for getting reelected in return for passing policies they favor which are the policies that the Bureaucracies are helping to carrying out. It is in this that they defy one of the popular definitions for democracy which is that they compromise the general welfare of all citizens in order to support the specific interests of a few.

We can see how this can both help and hurt the general population. Whereas these power bases take a lot of the pressure off of individuals to need to amass since they are usually uninformed, have difficulties mobilizing and lack resources and finances but they can still feel like their needs are being met it usually leaves their interests over looked. Bureaucracies in particular work to achieve their powerbases by having constituencies, politically active members working towards a common goal, whose interests they look out for even more in exchange for political influence. Because of this narrow viewed policies are often passed and only that very small portion of the population sees any benefits from these policies. It becomes then that the people and democracy are helped in the fact that most of the groups in the iron triangle are groups of citizens who are enjoying their constitutional rights but when these groups gain too much power we see that it is self-defeating in the name of democracy since the purpose of that is to look out for the greater population and not just particular groups of them.