citizens influence on gov decisions (20) Flashcards
introduction
There is many ways citizens can influence the government, this essay will discuss a few of them including pressure groups, petitions and voting and how they don’t have much impact on the government overall decisions.
pressure groups- explain
Citizen who specifically band together to influence and effectively change the government decision are called pressure groups. Depending on weather they are an insider or an outsider group, they employ a variety of various techniques to try and exert pressure on the government to affect their polices. A pressure group is an organisation with common goals that uses political tools to influence policy without running for office.
Pressure groups- example
For example , in the pressure group Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) managed to persuade the Scottish Government to make Scotland the first country in the UK to introduce a bottle deposit scheme to help tackle environmental damage and encourage recycling due to come in during 2023
pressure groups- analysis
he more support a group has the more a government is likely to pay attention to it which can make joining a pressure group a highly effective way for citizens to influence government. However, some would argue that joining a pressure group is not effective as it seems. While some organisations are successful , not all are. This may be the case given that is has more to do with the change they seek and potential government sensitivity. No matter how may various approaches ae used, it can be difficult to convince the government to change its view if the topic is one that it opposes
pressure groups-analysis example
for example, the campaign for nuclear disarmament (CND) has been protesting outside the nuclear weapons and in 2021 announced plans to allow itself to get more weapons. To have ben rejected by multiple governments over so long makes cleat that in some cases, joining a pressure group will have little or no effect.
pressure groups- conclusion
Joining a pressure group can be effective to a certain extent as its gets unknown issues out into the world meaning more people could decide to join the pressure group adding more pressure onto the government, but the government easily just ignore the pressure group if the issue being raised is something that they agree with and don’t want to change.
Signing petitions- explain
People or organisation frequently create petitions to demand action. As the government may be concerned about upsetting the signatories who could be future supporters for them or an opponent, the more individuals who sign it, the greater influence it can have. Anyone, weather an individual or a group, may submit a petition. A petition represents the views of the public, a specific organisation or a segment of the public. A law created by the parliament may be contested in the petition on several legal grounds.
signing petitions- example
For example, following the petition to tackle hunger in school holidays by Marcus Rashfod that got over 1 million signatures, the UK government introduced more food support for poorer students in England.
signing petitions- analysis
The popularity of a petition will make a government think carefully before it would reject it particularly as it might get a lot of media attention. However, petitions may not be effective as most people think. The government has the rights to reject petitions if it determined that the signatories will never be supporters of their political party.
signing petitions- analysis example
For example, in recent years the two biggest petitions in UK history have been to cancel Brexit and ban Donald Trump from the UK gaining over 7 million signatures between them. As te conservative party has been supportive of both Brexit and Trump, they chase to ignore the petition and still won the 2019 election
signing petitions conclusion
Overall , signing petitions can be effective as it can raise awareness and 10,000 or more must sign the petition before it goes to parliament meaning that there is a lot of people who stand by whatever the petition is about however the government could quite easily ignore it if it goes against their views.
voting- explain
oting gives people, the power to give their opinions on decisions. People have the ability to vote for their representatives such as Christine Graham who represent midlothian south, they can also vote out representatives they do not want. Further, people have the opportunity to vote in referendums which allows them to have a say in important political decisions.
voting- example
For example, the by-election in Rutherglen and Hamilton. The results shows that labour MP Shanks beat his closest rival, the SNP’s Katy Loudon, by 17,845 votes to 8,399. That is a majority of 9,446 and a resounding swing of more than 20 percentage points.
voting- analysis
This shows that people do show up to vote for whatever best suits their interests. This means that they have taken the opportunity to select representatives that best reflect their political view and who will make decisions on their behaviour. However, although they have voted they may not always get the government or representative they want because the person they voted for doesn’t get elected which is why it is vital that citizens have alternative ways to influence the actions of the government. This could lead to less people voting in the future. When people vote then the results are less representative, which means that less people are influencing decision making.
voting- conclusion
Therefore, citizens ability to influence government decision making is somewhat limited. This is because if they vote for a representative and that representative wins then they have influenced government decision making, however more often than not the majority do not get the representative they chose elected and so have not influenced government decision making and must find alternative ways to influence government decisions because their ability to influence through voting can be severely limited.
