The ‘special interest effect’ refers to the bias of government in favor of policies that

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When evaluating the question about the 'special interest effect,' we examine what the term implies about how government policy tends to be shaped by concentrated benefits and diffuse costs.
Option 1: 'support small groups at the expense of large groups.' This aligns with the classic description of the special interest effect, where a policy may confer sizable, concentrated benefits on a small group while imposing broad, diffuse costs on the larger population, making the small group more motivated to lobby.
Option 2: 'serve consumer interests at the expense of businesses.' This framing suggests a general public interest orientation affecting consumers and businesses, but it does not capture the core idea of a policy serving a narrow, well-organized group while harming others; the concept is more about targeted benefits rather than a broad consumer-versus-business dynamic.
Option 3: 'support large groups at the expense of small groups of business firms.' This presents an opposite dynamic to the special interest effect, where a policy would favor broad, diffuse holders instead of a narrow group; it contradicts the typical pattern of concentrated benefits.
Option 4: 'serve national interests, such as national defense.' This option describes a justified or broad-area objective rather than the mechanism of the special interest effect, which emphasizes selective gains for a small group rather than universal or broad national aims.
In sum, the essence of the special interest effect is the tendency for policy to be shaped to benefit a small, organized faction at the expense of a larger, less organized population, which makes Option 1 the most consistent with that concept, while Options 2, 3, and 4 depict different framings that do not capture the same selective-benefit dynamic.

SP25 G202 Kreft & Mafi-Kreft Self-Test Quiz 2

The ‘special interest effect’ refers to the bias of government in favor of policies that

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