erest law through organizations such as the CDF. As a public interest organization, one tends to make an assumption that the founders of such groups, as well as the attorneys who work for such groups, and the people who support such groups are motivated by a desire to put right some social wrong. In the case of organizations such as the CDF, there is almost always an element of the concept of social justice among the motivations for the founding of such organizations and the pursuit of the cause identifying the movement exemplified by such organizations (Frankel, 1993, pp. 362-363). Social justice, however, is rarely the sole motivation for the creation of such movements and organizations, and frequently is not even the dominant motivation. As often as not, self interest is a strong motivator for the individuals involved in public interest advocacy of social causes and for individuals and groups active in the support of such causes (Feldstein, 1988, p. 45).
The functioning of the self interest model may be illustrated through a consideration of the activities of the Children's Defense Fund in the promotion of the organization's agenda through the legislative process largely through the efforts of CDF staff attorneys. While the CDF finances most of its organizational activities through contributions and grants (both public and private), the CDF looks to the federal government to either (1) finance the programs that the organization promotes, or (2) enact legislation mandating that either government at the state or local level or private entities finance CDF promoted programs (Cohen, 1992a, p. 21; Cohen, 1992c, p. 13; Flax, 1992, p. 10). Children's issues pursued by the CDF largely concern those factors that apply to children living in economically deprived households--outside of the realm of political correctness these issues concern children living in poverty (Cohen, 1992b, p. 20). The CDF, in th...