Iron Triangle diagram

In United States politics, "iron triangle" is a term used by political scientists to describe the policy-making relationship between the legislature, the bureaucracy, and interest groups. On the Federal level, the phrase refers to the United States Congress — in particular, the congressional committees responsible for oversight of specific industries — along with the Federal agencies (often independent agencies) responsible for regulation of those industries, and the industries and their trade associations. One of the earliest formulations of the "iron triangle" concept was by political scientist Grant McConnell, in Private Power and American Democracy (1966). This article or section cites very few or no references or sources. ... Image File history File links Irontriangle. ... Image File history File links Irontriangle. ... Federal courts Supreme Court Circuit Courts of Appeal District Courts Elections Presidential elections Midterm elections Political Parties Democratic Republican Third parties State & Local government Governors Legislatures (List) State Courts Local Government Other countries Atlas  US Government Portal      Politics of the United States takes place in a framework of a presidential... See also: Political Science Notable political scientists Kenneth Arrow - Nobel Memorial Prize winning economist who published influential paper on his widely cited Arrows Impossibility Theorem Robert Axelrod Duncan Black - Responsible for unearthing the work of many early political scientists, including Charles Dodgson Jean-Charles de Borda - 18th century mathematician... Look up policy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A legislature is a type of representative deliberative assembly with the power to adopt laws. ... The Politics series Politics Portal This box:      This article is about the sociological concept. ... An interest group (also called an advocacy group, lobbying group, pressure group (UK), or special interest) is a group, however loosely or tightly organized, doing advocacy: those determined to encourage or prevent changes in public policy without trying to be elected. ... This article describes the government of the United States. ... Type Bicameral Houses Senate House of Representatives President of the Senate President pro tempore Dick Cheney, (R) since January 20, 2001 Robert C. Byrd, (D) since January 4, 2007 Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, (D) since January 4, 2007 Members 535 plus 4 Delegates and 1 Resident Commissioner Political... A Congressional committee in the parlance of the United States Congress and politics of the United States is a legislative sub-organization that handles a specific duty (rather than the general duties of Congress, i. ... Congress, in addition to its lawmaking duties, has oversight authority over the Executive Branch. ... This is an incomplete list of federal agencies, which are either departmental agencies within the executive branch of the United States government or are Independent Agencies of the United States Government (including regulatory agencies and government corporations). ... Independent agencies of the United States government are those that exist outside of the departments of the executive branch. ...

An often-used example of the term is with reference to the military-industrial complex, with Congress (and the House and Senate Committees on Armed Services), defense contractors, and the U.S. Department of Defense forming the iron triangle. The term iron triangle has been widely used by political scientists outside the United States and is today an accepted term in the field. President Dwight Eisenhower famously referred to the military-industrial complex in his farewell address. ... The U.S. House Committee on Armed Services, commonly known as the House Armed Services Committee, is a standing committee of the United States House of Representatives, the lower house of Congress. ... The Committee on Armed Services is a committee of the United States Senate empowered with legislative oversight of the nations military, including the Department of Defense, military research and development, nuclear energy (as pertaining to national security), benefits for members of the military, the Selective Service System and other... A defense contractor (sometimes called a military contractor) is a business organization or individual that provides products or services to a defense department of a government. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

Central assumption

Central to the concept of an iron triangle is the assumption that bureaucratic agencies, as political entities, seek to create and consolidate their own power base. In this view an agency's power is determined by its constituency, not by its consumers. (For these purposes, constituency is defined as a group of politically active members sharing a common interest or goal; consumers are the expected recipients of goods or services provided by a government bureaucracy and are often identified in an agency's written goals or mission statement.) A constituency is any cohesive corporate unit or body bound by shared structures, goals or loyalty. ... Consumers refers to individuals or households that purchase and use goods and services generated within the economy. ...

Much of what some see as bureaucratic dysfunction may be attributable to the alliances formed between the agency and its constituency. The official goals of an agency may appear to be thwarted or ignored altogether at the expense of the citizenry it is designed to serve. A business alliance is an agreement between businesses, usually motivated by cost reduction and improved service for the customer. ...

Cultivation of a constituency

The need of a bureauracracy for a constituency sometimes leads to an agency's cultivation of a particular clientele. An agency may seek out those groups (within its policy jurisdiction) that will make the best allies and give it the most clout within the political arena.

Often, especially in a low-level bureaucracy, the consumers (the supposed beneficiaries of an agency's services) do not qualify as power brokers and thus make poor constituents. Large segments of the public have diffuse interests, seldom vote, may be rarely or poorly organized and difficult to mobilize, and are often lacking in resources or financial muscle. Less-educated and poorer citizens, for example, typically make the worst constituents from an agency's perspective. A boy from an East Cipinang trash dump slum in Jakarta, Indonesia shows what he found. ...

Private or special interest groups, on the other hand, possess considerable power as they tend to be well-organized, have plenty of resources, are easily mobilized, and are extremely active in political affairs (through voting, campaign contributions, and lobbying). Voting is a method of decision making wherein a group such as a meeting or an electorate attempts to gauge its opinion—usually as a final step following discussions or debates. ... Campaign finance refers to the means by which money is raised for election campaigns. ... This article is about the political effort. ...

Thus it may be in an agency's best interest to switch its focus from its officially-designated consumers to a carefully-selected clientele of constituents that will aid the agency in its quest for greater political influence.

Dynamics of an iron triangle

In the United States, bureaucratic power is exercised in the Congress, and particularly in congressional committees and subcommittees. By aligning itself with selected constituencies, an agency may be able to affect policy outcomes directly in these committees and subcommittees. This is where an iron triangle may manifest itself. The picture above displays the concept.

At one corner of the triangle are interest groups (constituencies). These are the powerful interests groups that influence Congressional votes in their favor and can guarantee the re-election of a member of Congress in return for supporting their programs. At another corner sit members of Congress who also seek to align themselves with a constituency for political and electoral support. These congressional members support legislation that advances the interest group's agenda. Occupying the third corner of the triangle are bureaucrats, who are often pressured by the same powerful interest groups their agency is designated to regulate. The result is a three-way, stable alliance that is sometimes called a subgovernment because of its durability, impregnability, and power to determine policy. A Congressman or Congresswoman (generically, Congressperson) is a politician who is a member of a Congress. ... Legislation (or statutory law) is law which has been promulgated (or enacted) by a legislature or other governing body. ...

Consumers are often left out in the cold by this arrangement. An iron triangle can result in the passing of very narrow, pork-barrel policies that benefit a small segment of the population. The interests of the agency's constituency (the interest groups) are met, while the needs of consumers (which may be the general public) are passed over. That public administration may result in benefiting a small segment of the public in this way may be viewed as problematic for the popular concept of democracy if the general welfare of all citizens is sacrificed for very specific interests. This is especially so if the legislation passed neglects or reverses the original purpose for which the agency was established. Some maintain that such arrangements are consonant with (and are natural outgrowths of) the democratic process, since they frequently involve a majority block of voters implementing their will through their representatives in government. Pork barrel, in a literal sense, is a barrel in which pork is kept, but figuratively is a supply of money; often the source of ones livelihood. ... The common good is a term that can refer to several different concepts. ...

Case study: Tennessee Valley Authority

One of the most prominent historical examples of an iron triangle involved the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). A key goal of the TVA when it was created in 1933 was the production of cheap electric power to economically benefit the Appalachia region, one of the poorest regions in the nation. The New Deal officials of the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration who set the agency in motion hoped that the provision of cheap power would help relieve rural poverty and transform the social system of the South. This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... It has been suggested that Poverty in Appalachia be merged into this article or section. ... The New Deal was the title President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave to the series of programs he initiated between 1933 and 1938 with the goal of providing relief, recovery, and reform (3 Rs) to the people and economy of the United States during the Great Depression. ... FDR redirects here. ... Historic Southern United States. ...

The TVA faced strong opposition early on, most notably from private-sector utility companies. By the mid- to late-1940s the TVA had reason to be concerned about its political survival. In order to secure political support and strengthen its position, the agency established ties with large agricultural interests who exerted significant influence over Southern representatives in Congress. The alliance worked to the benefit of the TVA's new constituency, while many poor farmers (particularly blacks) who might have benefited most from the goods and services of the TVA were ignored. The private sector of a nations economy consists of all that is outside the state. ... A public utility is a company that maintains the infrastructure for a public service. ...

Other examples

• Agriculture: agribusiness (the food industry) is an interest group constituency that seeks to benefit from certain government agricultural policies, such as agricultural subsidies. The U.S. Department of Agriculture services these constituencies. Senators and representatives wield enormous power, and are unlikely to obtain office in agriculture-driven regions if they oppose these policies. The result is agricultural subsidies and thus low agricultural prices.
• In the European Union, there is an iron triangle consisting of agricultural ministers, agricultural officials in the European Commission, and farming interests at the European level, particularly in France and Germany. This grouping long resisted any reform of the Common Agricultural Policy and limited change could only take place in 1992; EU and US agriculture are still governed by a relatively protectionist regime.^[1]

In agriculture, agribusiness is a generic term that refers to the various businesses involved in the food production chain, including farming, seed, agrichemicals, farm machinery, wholesaling, processing, distribution, and retail sales. ... The food industry is the complex, global collective of diverse businesses that together supply much of the food energy consumed by the world population. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... An agricultural subsidy is a governmental subsidy paid to farmers to supplement their income, help manage the supply of agricultural commodities, and bolster the supply of such commodities on international markets. ... “USDA” redirects here. ... The Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development or DG AGRI is a Directorate-General of the European Commission. ... Berlaymont, the Commissions seat The European Commission (formally the Commission of the European Communities) is the executive branch of the European Union. ... The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is a system of European Union agricultural subsidies and programmes. ... Protectionism is the economic policy of restraining trade between nations, through methods such as high tariffs on imported goods, restrictive quotas, a variety of restrictive government regulations designed to discourage imports, and anti-dumping laws in an attempt to protect domestic industries in a particular nation from foreign take-over...

See also

• Regulatory capture
• War theory

Regulatory capture is an economic phenomenon in which a government regulatory agency becomes dominated by the interests of the industry that it oversees. ... It is proposed that this article be deleted, because of the following concern: unsourced apparently Original research/essay If you can address this concern by improving, copyediting, sourcing, renaming or merging the page, please edit this page and do so. ...

Notes

References

• Gordon Adams. The Iron Triangle: The Politics of Defense Contracting, Council on Economic Priorities, New York, 1981. ISBN: 0-87-871012-4
• Graham T. Allison, Philip Zelikow; Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis; Pearson Longman; ISBN 0-321-01349-2 (2nd edition, 1999)
• Jack H. Knott, Gary J. Miller; Reforming Bureaucracy; Prentice-Hall; ISBN 0-13-770090-3 (1st edition, 1987)
• Francis E. Rourke; Bureaucracy, Politics, and Public Policy; Harpercollins; ISBN 0-673-39475-1 (3rd edition, 1984)
• Hedrick Smith; The Power Game: How Washington Really Works;