Pressure Groups Flashcards
Outsider group
Pressure group that is not consulted by government
Insider group
Pressure group that enjoys regular access to government
Pressure group
Organisation whose members share common interests and which seek to influence government
Sectional/Insider groups:
Represent a particular section of society and exists to advance or protect interests of its members
Features of sectional/interest groups:
Concerned to protect or advance the interests of their members
Membership is limited to people in a particular occupation
Members are motivated by self-interest
Promotional/cause groups:
Based on shared attitudes or values - exists to advance particular values, ideals and principles
Features of Promotional groups:
Seek to advance particular ideals or principles
Membership is open to all
Members are motivated by moral or altruistic concerns
Functions of Pressure groups:
Use PREPP
Participation - stop the war Representation - Outrage Education - Occupy/Amnesty Policy formation - ASH Policy implementation - NFU
Pluralism:
Theory of the distribution of political power that holds that power is widely and evenly dispersed in society rather than concentrated in the hands of an elite
How are PGs more significant than parties:
PGs have much larger membership than parties
PGs able to mobilise large numbers of people to demonstrate
Single issue politics has come to the fore
Pressure groups remain less significant than parties:
British government remains essentially party government
PGs simply frustrate each other’s demands
PGs still represent minorities in society
Pressure groups strengthen democracy by:
PGs provide essential freedom for citizens to organise
Help to disperse power
Provide functional representation
Apply scrutiny to government
Pressure groups don’t strengthen democracy:
Powerful insider groups are favoured
PGs often not representative of their members
PGs are essentially sectional
Factors influencing power of Pressure groups:
Size of membership - Make poverty history
Government support - CBI under conservatives
Insider status - NFU
Financial resources - WWF
Organisation - Fuel lobby
Strategic position - NFU
Backing of public - Hacked off
Celebrity support - High grant = hacked off
Pluralist society:
Diverse society, where the people in it believe all kinds of different things and tolerate each other’s beliefs even when they don’t match their own
Elitism:
Belief that a society or system should be led by an elite
Civil disobedience:
Refusal to comply with certain laws considered unjust, as a peaceful form of political protest
Lobbying:
Act of attempting to influence government leaders to create legislation or conduct an activity that will help a particular organisation
Social movement:
Type of group action. Large, sometimes informal, groupings of individuals or organisations which focus on specific political or social issues
Chequebook participation:
Pressure group in which activism is restricted to full time professionals, with the mass membership serving primarily as a source of financial support through subscriptions and donations
Aims of a pressure group:
Seek to exert influence from the outside
Typically narrow issue focus
Members united by a shared belief or common set of interests. E.g. CBI, represents interest of 200,000 businesses within UK
Differences between PGs and Political parties:
PGs exert influence whereas PPs want to win power
PGs have narrow issue focus whereas PPs have broad issue focus
PGs have shared interests and a common cause whereas PPs have shared preferences
Examples of sectional PGs:
NUT
CBI
BMA
Examples of promotional PGs:
Amnesty international
Differences between sectional and promotional PGs:
Sectional PGs defend interests whereas promotional PGs promote causes
Sectional PGs have a closed membership whereas Promotional PGs have open membership
Sectional PGs benefit members only whereas Promotional PGs benefit wider society
Characteristics of insider PGs:
Access to government e.g. CBI, NFU
High profile insider groups, CBI
Low profile insider groups, Howard League for Penal Reform
Prisoner groups (quangos), dependent on the government
Characteristics of outsider PGs:
No access, or rarely and not at a serious level, e.g. CND
Potential insider groups, Countryside alliance
Outsider by necessity, they lack the skills to become an insider
Ideological outsider groups, groups with radical arms like Stop the War Coalition
Differences between insider and outsider PG:
Insider PGs have access to policy makers whereas outsider PGs have no access to policy makers
Insider PGs usually have a low profile whereas outsider PGs have a high profile
Insider PGs have mainstream goals whereas outsider PGs have radical goals
Successes of PGs:
Wealth - government listens to those with economic power e.g. CBI
Size - large groups claim to represent public opinion
Organisation and leadership - helps groups to mobilise resources effectively
Governments views - groups more likely to succeed when sympathetic with government
Problem in distinguishing between interest and cause groups:
Some groups possess both characteristics
Some groups contain members with both sectional and promotional motivations
Some groups may mask their sectional motivations by adopting the language of a promotional group
How have PGs become more powerful in recent years?
Protests such as stop the war in 2003 have attracted huge numbers of supporters
Huge growth in the ‘politics of protest’
Breakdown in community and rise of individualism has meant increasingly that people look for tailor made groups to represent their beliefs
Loss of ideology of major parties
PGs have not become more powerful in recent years as:
Tuition fee protestors in 2010 did not succeed in making government change its policies
Stop the War have not achieved their aims
Many large groups simply have ‘chequebook’ members
Why do PGs have differing rates of success:
Quality of access that PG has to government and other decision makers
Some groups are likely to be consulted by all governments, whatever their political persuasion
PG is likely to be more successful if aims run with grain of public opinion
Organisation of the PG
Why are some PGs more successful than others: how do PGs seek to achieve their aims
Influencing ministers and civil servants -BMA on NHS reform
Influencing parliament - MPs can introduce Private Members Bills
Courts - Liberty on HR issues
Parties - parties happy to adopt policies if they are popular with the public
Media - RSPCA employ dozen media specialists so obviously think it must have some effect
Direct action - Plane stupid protest regarding 3rd runway at Heathrow
