Political action committee (PAC) is a group or fund-raising organization that aims to support certain candidate or political leader and promote the interests of a particular business circle or social class (Lowery & Brasher, 2004). PACs have the capacity to resolve a great number of urgent problems that American society currently faces. In this case, we need to develop an action plan in order to address such issue as increasing level of unemployment in the country. The major task is to impact the policy of the government in order to alleviate the situation that has recently emerged. Provided that we are at the initial stage of this work, we should first clearly determine who should be supported. This can be done only if the members of this committee conduct thorough examination of the factors contributing to unemployment in the United States.
Therefore, the first step that should be taken is research the economic and political environment in the country. Of course, PACs do not normally resort to such measures because as a rule their mission has already been stated by others (Dye, 2007). Yet, we are starting this campaign practically from point zero. Therefore, preliminary analysis should be made. There are several approaches to the origins of financial crisis and subsequent job shortage. Such scholar as Robert Reich believes that these difficulties arise due to such processes as: 1) increasing globalization and respective off shoring of the US-based jobs; 2) inflow of immigration; 3) constant computerization of the workplace, which means that menial jobs, requiring minimum skills are performed automatically (Reich, 2008). Political Action Committee cannot possible hinder technical progress and political influences are unlikely to be of any avail. However, off shoring and immigration can be addressed; this requires changes in labor, employment, taxation and immigration laws which should prohibit or at least diminish some illegal practices. Hence, PAC should support the political leader who expresses similar views on this problem and proposes concrete changes in the public policies.
The second phase of this mission would be to gather information and collect facts that substantiate the position of the candidate and male the argument more convincing. The sources and data should be reliable, understandable and authoritative for the target audience. Furthermore, it is very much advisable for PAC to determine which layers of the population, or organizations they can appeal to. In other words, who will be willing to invest capital in the election campaign of their candidate? For this purpose various sociological surveys can be carried our, as well as interviews (Lowery & Brasher, 2004). But we can hypothesize that this program will be followed by average employees, who are in constant danger of being made redundant, middle-rank managers, who share the same misgiving; those people who are in search of a suitable position, and naturally trade unions. Trade unions may advocate these changes in labor and immigration legislation because if the situation further aggravates, these associations of workers may simply cease to exist.
Then the question arises how this message can be conveyed to the recipients. Political Action Committee should determine the strategies enabling to achieve the maximum effect. There are several methods that can be equally useful for this campaign, for example, public conferences which offer our candidate the opportunity to bring his or her ideas home to the public. Although, a conference may be very time-consuming, it offers sufficient time to make ones positions and ideas clear to the audience. But this is only one of the channels; moreover, no one can ensure that wide range of population will receive the candidates communication. Therefore, we may remember about emailing, letter-writing, demonstrations etc.
Another strategy that may be very efficient is face-to-face contacts. It stands to reason that the most influential adherents of the new political course may be willing to talk to him in private. These may be leaders of trade unions or owners of some companies who are in line with views promoted by the PAC. The aim set at the very beginning can be achieved under the indispensible conditions that the methods of influencing the public opinion are skillfully alternated with one another and used in an unobtrusive manner (Lowery & Brasher, 2004). This plan may appear to be slightly ambitious to critical onlooker and certainly there is great likelihood the amendments to existing laws will not be adopted. The outcome of the campaign will strongly depend upon the eloquence of the politician, his or her charisma (the quality possessed only by very few people), the assistance of other federal or non-profit organizations and so forth. Nevertheless, we can argue that in the course of American history, many important political and legal decisions were taken owing to the work of Political Action Committees (Dye, 2007). Finally, even in the event of failure, the operations of this group should not be stopped because one has to assess overall results of the program, its advantages and disadvantages, strong and weak points of the argument, the use of strategies, capacity to attract supporters and other criteria.
It is possible to address the problem of unemployment by other means. We may presume that someone may occupy a position in governmental agencies for instance, United States Department of Labor or Immigration Service. This official will have immediate access to the authorities. But the above-mentioned plan is more likely to yield results because PACs appeal not only to politicians and officials, but to average citizens as well, their actions attract attention of many community members, and the cumulative effect of public pressure is usually more profound.
Bibliography
- Dye. T (2007). Who’s running America? The Bush Restoration. Academic Internet Publishers.
- Lowery. D (2004). Brasher. H. Organized Interests and American Government. Lyn Uhl.
- Reich. R (2008). Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life. Alfred A. Knopf..