Prelim (2) revision Flashcards
Explain in detail three reasons why people want to join a pressure group
P- They feel strongly about an issue
E- Many people are passionate about a cause and think they will have more success in getting something changed than by voting or joining a political party
E- People who are concerned about the enviroment may decide to join greenpeace or extinction rebellion and take part in activity to promote their cause
P- They feel they cant make a difference on their own
E- Joining a pressure group increases their collective influence and gives them strength in numbers making difficult for the government to ignore their views as they may loose the next election
E- Greenpeace have 130,000 scottish supporters which is more people than members of the SNP
P- Influence the uk government
E- Elections are only held every 5 years or so joining a pressure group gives people a chance to influence the government and put iteams on the political agenda inbetween elections
E- Many pressure groups including greenpeace, back heathrow and againts third runaway at heathrow
Describe in detail three methods used by pressure groups
P- Holding a protest
E- This allows the group to show the level of support for an issue and may gain media attention in the hope that the uk government will take action
E- In April 2019 extinction rebellion members stripped off in the house of commons public gallery to raise awarness of the climate crisis
P- Submitting petition
E- This is a list of signatures which will show the uk government public support for an issue and can lead a debate in the uk parliment
E- In 2016 European movement uk gained signatures on a petition to allow british nationals to retain their EU citazenship is they wished to do so after brexit
P- Lobbying MPs and cabinet secretaries
E- The pressure groups will encourage their members to contact their MP and may even employ professional lobbyists to try to convince MPs and the Uk government to support their cause
E- Recycling targets in the UK were cut in 2016 after successful lobbying from the British plastics federation
Advantages of using the first past the post as the stystem to elect mps t o the uk parliment
P- Its easy for the voters to understand
E- This is because its straight foward to use as all you do is put an “x” beside the candidate of your choice and the candidate with the most votes is declared the winner
E- Here in Kirckaldy and Cowdenbeath Neale Hanvey (Alba) is our MP because he polled more votes that any other candidate
P- You have directly elected candidates
E- Most people will know who there MP is. MPs also deal with reserved matters, you can vist there surgery if you have a problem that needs to be dealt with.
E- Here in Kirckaldy and Cowdenbeath Neal Hanveys surgaries are advertised in local newspapers like the fife free press and on face book
P- Its harder for extremist parties to get elected
E- In a democracy everyone should have a voice but the vast majority of democrats beleive that extremists views have no place in a democracy. Some forms of PR like the list system have allowed extremist parties to be elected
E- It would be very difficult for a party like the BNP to get elected under TPTP
