Summary Web Links Crosstabs - Self-Test Return to Table of Contents Chapter 10: Interest Groups Web Links (page references match the sixth edition) p. 323 - The Federal Election Commission publishes the official record of Financial Activity, including PACS, on its web site. The nongovernmental FECinfo bills itself as the non-partisan Federal candidate campaign money web page, "A place to discover who gave what to which Federal candidates when." p. 329 - The Electronic Frontier Foundation has assumed responsibility for "Protecting Rights and Promoting Freedom in the Electronic Frontier." One technique it uses to stimulate its members to pressure government is by disseminating Action Alerts on such topics as free speech, encryption, privacy, and intellectual property. p. 331 - The Children's Defense Fund is a private, nonprofit organization that calls attention, particularly governmental attention, to "the children of America who cannot vote, lobby, or speak for themselves. We pay particular attention to the needs of poor and minority children and those with disabilities.

-Additional World Wide Web Resources from page 337

U.S. Chamber of Commerce presents itself as "the world's largest federation of businesses, chambers of commerce, American chambers overseas and trade and professional associations" and "America's principal advocate for the American business community." This site lists management training information, a video library, and seminars for business--those in business and those seeking to start a business. It suggests how interest groups function and the services they provide to their membership. AFL-CIO is an acronym standing for American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Unions, the two most powerful peak labor organizations in the nation which agreed to cooperate in 1955. This strong confederation of two autonomous unions says its mission "is to improve the lives of working families and to bring economic justice to the workplace and social justice to the nation." Read the organization's policy statements, press releases, and its "Boycott List." This site also features the AFL-CIO's "Standup Campaign"--a campaign to lobby for good jobs, good wages, and worker protection. The Sierra Club "is a nonprofit, member-supported public interest organization that promotes conservation of the natural environment by influencing public policy decisions: legislative, administrative, legal, and electoral." Visitors to this Web page can read the Sierra Club's magazine as well as The Planet, a newsletter for environmental activists. Follow links to other environmental sites. Voters Telecommunications Watch is devoted to involving "Netizens" [their term, not ours] "in the democratic policy process in a meaningful way." Its site provides "a list of links to actions that you can take to effect change in the democratic process as it relates to Internet issues." Thus, it tracks telecommunications policy from a voters/citizen perspective. Return to Top Summary Web Links Crosstabs - Self-Test Neither the Houghton Mifflin Company nor the authors of The Challenge of Democracy are responsible for content on these web sites. These links are for academic purposes only and are not advertisements or endorsements by COD, its publisher, or its authors.