Do you think interest groups should be allowed to influence government? Or do you think that there are issues with this? Why? Please help me!!!

Interest groups have both their opponents and supporters. The critics maintain that they only give those who have considerable wealth and power additional political influence and that the tactics used and the money available corrupts the political process. The defenders argue, on the other hand, that the system is much more open than in the past and point to the effective lobbying that groups representing women, minorities, and older adults are able to do. They claim that instances of corruption are the rare exceptions, and they champion interest groups as a vehicle for Americans to petition the government. As in other areas, however, this First Amendment guarantee is not absolute. The courts have ruled that limitations on lobbying are legitimate because its goal is to directly influence legislation.

Controls over lobbying

Lobbyists are required to register with the clerk of the House and the secretary of the Senate and indicate what group they are representing, the amount of their salary or compensation, and what types of expenses are reimbursed to them. They also have to file quarterly financial statements. These controls, which admittedly have not been effective in limiting abuse, date from the 1946 Federal Regulation of Lobbying Act. In addition, lobbyists who represent foreign governments or corporations must register with the Justice Department as agents of those countries.

Congress has also attempted to slow down the so-called "revolving door" by which an official begins to lobby his or her colleagues immediately after leaving a government position. Under the 1978 Ethics in Government Act, senior executive branch officials cannot lobby federal agencies on a matter that fell within their scope of responsibility for two years after leaving government service. In addition, they are prohibited from lobbying anyone in their former agency 1) on any issue for one year and 2) forever on matters that they were involved in.

The success of lobbyists depends on their personal ties with those in government. Those relationships were often cemented with gifts that could range from tickets to a football game to weekends at resort hotels. Reforms adopted in 1995, banned all gifts to members of the House and put limits on the value of gifts to senators. The legislation also required lobbyists to disclose the issues and bills they worked on and the branches of government they contacted. Stricter rules regarding lobbying were also adopted by Congress in 2007 in response to highly publicized scandals. The Senate now bars all gifts from lobbyists, lobbyists are required to disclose payments to organizations controlled by or named for a member of Congress, and "bundled" contributions from lobbyists are more closely scrutinized.

Control of political action committees

Many Americans are concerned with the amount of money PACs raise and give to candidates. The public interest group Common Cause believes PACs should be abolished altogether. Short of this step, there are proposals to reduce the amount of money an individual PAC can contribute to a candidate or the total amount the candidate can accept from all PACs. Expanding federal financing of elections to include congressional races or making some provision for the government to underwrite certain types of campaign expenses would also limit the importance of PACs. For obvious reasons, Congress has not been very willing to tackle this problem.

Explanation:

"a problem throughout latin america is widespread poverty. what can those countries improve? the higher the literacy rate" or "education, the lower the rate of poverty".

although the majority of the total population and the population   poor in latin america and the caribbean is in the centers   urban areas, in relative terms poverty remains a   rural phenomenon in the region. the incidence of poverty and   extreme poverty is much greater in rural areas than   in urban areas without going further, in 1997 more than half of the   rural households lived in poverty and about a third in   situation of extreme poverty. in addition, the difficult economic situation   of most of the countries in the region in the past   two years has surely deteriorated those figures. to the poor   of the rural areas of the region are raised at least   three basic problems: i); insufficient nutrition, poor health and   poor educational services; ii); scarce opportunities   productive employment in agriculture and non-agricultural activities;   and iii); low degree of organization to effectively promote   the rural interests. the number and variety of circumstances   that cause rural poverty, as well as heterogeneity   of conditions in which it occurs in different countries   and regions hinder the search for effective solutions and   efficient to raise the welfare of the rural population.  

the mechanisms to reduce poverty are   focuses on three types of important action possibilities and   complementary to generate or raise the income of the poor   of rural areas: one that is based on the growth of   agricultural sector; another that aims at sustainable use and conservation   of natural resources, and the last based on the importance   growing rural economic activities that   they develop outside the agricultural land. there are at least other   two possibilities for reducing rural poverty: the traditional migration to urban areas and assistance to   people who need income transfers to overcome   the poverty threshold or to have a minimum access to   social safety nets.