The strengths of the economic approach are its ability to bring to bear the machinery of rational choice on a set of questions that political theorists have debated for centuries. While not well equipped to consider normative issues such as whether groups are good or bad, economists can provide us with considerable insight into the process of group formation and maintenance. Further, the economic approach provides predictions about what are the likely outcomes of democratic politics, and how groups shape that process. This information is important,for we cannot judge interest groups' worth without truly understanding what they arc and what they do.