Task 5 - GROUP POLITICS Flashcards
- Group Politics. What?
–> Interest groups as major link btw gov and the governed
- Group Politics. Name the 3 groups
- Communal groups
- Institutional groups
- Associated groups
1.1 Communal groups
–> Embedded in social fabric
- Membership based on birth
- Shared heritage
- Traditional bonds and loyalties
Ex: Families, tribes, castes, ethnic groups
1.2 Institutional groups
–> Part of the machinery of gov
- Attempt to exert influence in and through it
- No autonomy
- May become main form of interest articulation (authoritarian regimes)
Ex: Bureaucracy, military
1.3 Associational groups
–> Formed by ppl who purse shared goals
- voluntary action
- common interests / aspirations
- feature of industrialized state
Ex: Interest or pressure groups
1.3 Associational groups. Interest groups characteristics
-> Main function: Deal w gov and public bodies
- variety of forms
- variety of concerns
- local, national or international
1.3 Interest groups. Name the 2 classifications
- sectional or promotional groups
- insider or outisder groups
1.3.1 Sectional groups
- to advance / protect interests of members
- represent a section of society
- ex: trade unions, business corps, trade associations, professional bodies
1.3.2 Promotional groups
- to advance shared values, ideals or principles
- promote collective not selective benefits
- help groups other than members
- ex: NGOs
1.3.3 Insider groups
- enjoy regular, privileged and institut. access to gov
- overlap btw sectional and insider
- with objectives broadly compatible with those of gov + demonstrate that members abide by decisions
1.3.4 Outsider groups
- not consulted by gov / consulted irregularly
- often as weakness
- some choose to be
preservation of ideological purity
protect decentralized power structures
- MODELS OF GPs. Name the 3
- Pluralism
- Corporatism
- The New Right
2.1 pluralist model. Core theme and concept
–> stress capacity of Gs to defend individual from gov and promote democracy
- Core theme: pol power is fragmented
- decisions through complex process
- ensures views of larger number of groups
2.1 pluralist model. some characteristics
- larger representation
- with spread of behavioralism
- GPs as the core of democratic process
- characterized by balance of power
- potential replacement of pol parties
2.1 pluralist model. drawbacks
- elitists: only recognize one face of power (ability to influence decision-making
- marxists: pol power closely linked to ownership of ruling class
- neo-marxists: unequal comp btw business and labour groups
- glob: process leads to corporate takeover of gov