Pressure groups Flashcards
What are pressure groups?
Groups of like minded people who campaign for their collective interests and/or in pursuit of a common cause.
What are the roles of pressure groups?
Participation- provide people with an avenue for non electoral participation between elections. encourage citizens to get involved in the political process.
Representation- represent their members sectional interests or advance a common cause, by aggregating and articulating the common interest of a given group
Education- source of specialist knowledge. They help govs weihj up mertits of proposed policies. Activties also serve to educate the broader public/ raises awareness of their chosen cause or interest
What are social movements?
Bring together political parties and pressure groups that operate in a given area of policy. e.g the green movement green peace,
Why people join groups?
-We are naturally social creatures
- make us more influential so we can affect our lives
-a civil society includes groups like trade unions, charities and self help groups,
This is constituted from the associate tendency which includes those public grops that are about the personal realm of the family but beneath the state
Why pressure groups have grown
(6 reasons) first three
Governments have become increasingly involved in issues such as education, health and housing. people want to see these issues improve/make groups to represent the poor
Growing complexity +specialism of modern life. people are in sub groups like amblunce/paramedics in meidc
There has been a surge of interest in single issue campaigning e,g gay rights, animal rights
Why pressure groups have grown
(6 reasons) last three
Since the middle of the 20th century there has been ethnic minotries in a multicultural society/encouraged formation of groups like the muslim council of Britain, anti Nazi league
the emergence of new issues and the onset on materialsm
feminism, gender equality, envirmnt
improvemts in communcatopn
