Large Majorities of U.S. Adults Believe PACs, Big Companies and Lobbyists Have Too Much Power and Influence in Washington

One of the many complaints about Washington seems to be that certain groups have too much power and influence in the nation’s capital, while others do not. Certain groups in particular are singled out by large majorities of the American public as having too much power. Leading the list are Political Action Committees (PACs), which give money to political candidates — 85 percent of U.S. adults cite them as having too much power and influence. Big companies also rank high, with 84 percent saying they have too much power and influence. Over three-quarters (79%) say political lobbyists have too much power, while 71 percent say the same about the news media.

Looking at this from the other side of the spectrum, 90 percent of U.S. adults believe that small business has too little power and influence in Washington. Large majorities also believe public opinion (74%) and nonprofit organizations (68%) have too little power and influence.

These are some of the results of The Harris Poll^®, a nationwide study conducted by telephone by Harris Interactive^® among 1,013 U.S. adults between February 6 and 12, 2007.

In addition to PACs and big companies, there are two other institutions which majorities of the public believe have too much power –TV and radio talk shows (54%) and trade associations (52%). Conversely, more than half of the public believes racial minorities (54%) and churches and religious groups (51%) all have too little power and influence in Washington. Interestingly, the public seems to be split on two groups: labor unions and opinion polls. Forty-seven percent believe labor unions have too much power and 42 percent believe they have too little power. Opinion polls are in a similar situation, as just under half (49%) say they have too little power and influence and 38 percent say they have too much.

There some interesting things to note when comparing this year to 2005. First, big companies have seen a six percentage point drop (from 90% to 84%) in those saying they have too much power and influence (this is not the largest change from the last time we asked this question – trade associations saw a nine point decline from 61 to 52 percent who say they have too much power and influence). Political lobbyists saw one of the largest increases of groups have too much power and influence from 74 to 79 percent – an increase of five points. Opinion polls are the only other institution to have increased that much, from 33 to 38 percent.

When looking at the longer-term changes between 1994 and 2007, the biggest changes are:

• A eight-point decline from 82 to 74 percent in those who think that public opinion has too little power and influence;
• An eight-point decline from 79 to 71 percent in those who think the news media has too much power and influence;
• Correlating from the above point, a seven-point increase from 13 to 20 percent in those who think that the news media has too little power and influence;
• A six-point decrease from 37 to 31 percent in those who think that TV and radio talk shows have too little power and influence;
• A six-point decline from 38 to 32 percent in those who think that racial minorities have too much influence.

Republicans, Democrats and Independents tend to agree on certain issues related to power and influence in Washington. Eighty percent or more of the three groups believe that PACs and big companies have too much power and influence (87%, 80% and 89%, respectively). Furthermore, similar numbers of Republicans and Democrats (56% and 52%, respectively) believe TV and radio talk shows have too much power and influence.

However, there are also some very large differences. Republicans are much more likely than Democrats to believe that labor unions have too much power (67% vs. 34%). They are also more likely to think that racial minorities (48% vs. 20%), the news media (84% vs. 59%), opinion polls (49% vs. 30%) political lobbyists (86% vs. 74%), and trade associations (58% vs. 47%) have too much power.

Democrats are more likely than Republicans to only think two groups have too much power and influence--one by a large margin (churches and religious organization, 47% vs. 21%) and one by a small margin (small business, 8% vs. 5%).

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Base: All Adults

Note: Percentages may not add up exactly to 100 percent due to rounding.

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Base: All Adults

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Base: All Adults

"And now a question about the power of different groups in influencing government policy, politicians, and policy makers in Washington. Do you think . . . have/has too much or too little power and influence in Washington?"

Base: All Adults

The Harris Poll^® was conducted by telephone within the United States between February 6 and 12, 2007 among a nationwide cross section of 1,013 adults (aged 18 and over). Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, number of adults in the household, number of voice/telephone lines in the household, region and size of place (urbanicity) were weighted where necessary to align them with their actual proportions in the population.

All surveys are subject to several sources of error. These include: sampling error (because only a sample of a population is interviewed); measurement error due to question wording and/or question order, deliberately or unintentionally inaccurate responses, nonresponse (including refusals), interviewer effects (when live interviewers are used) and weighting.

With one exception (sampling error) the magnitude of the errors that result cannot be estimated. There is, therefore, no way to calculate a finite "margin of error" for any survey and the use of these words should be avoided.

With pure probability samples, with 100 percent response rates, it is possible to calculate the probability that the sampling error (but not other sources of error) is not greater than some number. With a pure probability sample of 1,013, one could say with a 95 percent probability that the results of the overall sample have a sampling error of +/-3 percentage points. Sampling error for data based on sub-samples would be higher and would vary. However, that does not take other sources of error into account.

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