Unit 11 Flashcards
There are two forms of non-electoral organizations.
1.social movements
2.interest groups
An INFORMAL network of activists who are trying to transform the values of society. Examples of this include the women’s movement, the antiglobalization movement, and the civil rights movement.
Social movements
a group that brings together people with common interests for the purpose of influencing the political process. An interest group is NOT putting forward candidates for elected office. Examples of interest groups include Green Peace, the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, and the National Rifle Association (the NRA, a powerful American interest group).
Interest groups
Four Main Functions of Interest Groups and Social Movements:
1.Provide means for citizens to express views to government and participate in political system. Groups and movements provide a link between citizens and government, outside of political parties. They provide an alternative way of expressing views to government, outside of running for political office, voting, or writing to your representative.
2.Influence policies followed by governments.
3.Influence views held in society. Some movements are interested in changing what “regular people” think about issues, not just influencing government policies. For example, the women’s equality movement or the environmental/green movement.
4.Provide information and legitimacy to governments and to international organizations. Some of these groups have lots of expertise, and so they can help governments with important issues. When governments work with interest groups, then those groups are signaling that the government is legitimate, and policies may be seen more positively by the public, because they emerged from consultation with experts and interested parties.
Difference between Interest Groups and Social Movements
Interest groups are more organized than social movements, and they tend to use more conventional ways to achieve their goals. They’ve got a clear organizational structure, with, for example, a president, secretary, treasurer, and so on. They have narrow goals, usually policy-oriented. They are well organized, they have financial resources, and they tend to be focused on the state, and changing state policies.
Social movements are like large networks. They have broad goals, they’re loosely organized with a very informal structure, they don’t have many financial resources, and they tend to be focused on society, and in particular, changing society’s views. For example, the “environmental movement” is a social movement, whereas Greenpeace is an interest group.
Social movements and interest groups try to influence policy in a number of ways:
1.Politicians – interest groups tend to organize during election campaigns. They create campaign-related advertising, they might support certain candidates and even fund certain campaigns, and they will try to influence political parties while those parties are competing and likely to listen because they want to secure votes.
2.The bureaucracy – The bureaucracy plays an important role in forming public policy so groups will often work with different departments and individual bureaucrats, even in a partnership of sorts, in order to make policy changes. We call these partnerships “policy communities”.
3.Lobbying – Some groups also hire professional lobbyists to try to influence government. Lobbyists talk to individual representatives (as well as cabinet ministers and bureaucrats) to try to convince them to do what the group wants. Lobbyists are those who have political connections, and groups hire them because of those connections, because they want their issues to be raised to individuals who can do something about them. What this means, however, is that groups with money can afford to hire lobbyists, while less affluent groups cannot afford to do this.
4.The courts – Because the role of the courts is so important, and perhaps more importantly, because the ability to ACCESS the judicial process is so important, there is even government funding available to support groups’ ability to advocate on behalf of individual cases that they support. Legal cases are expensive, and so by being able to tap into financial support, groups are able to hire really good lawyers and fight better cases on behalf of the claimant and the issue.
5.The media – groups try to get media attention, not only to get what they want, but also to fuel public discussion. As the public becomes more informed about an issue, there’s an opportunity for discussion and debate, and it becomes possible that public opinion may change, thereby leading politicians to enact new legislation that reflects the changes in society. Groups that are good at “sound bites” tend also to get more attention, compared to complex discussions about really scientific and philosophic issues.
6.Transnational level – Globalization has an important impact, it means that a lot of issues are not confined to a single country’s borders. For example, human rights and the environment. Many groups are actually “transnational” - meaning that they seek to organize across state borders, in order to influence not only national governments, but also international organizations and global public opinion. GreenPeace is an example of a transnational group.
Are interest groups too powerful
Some say the answer depends on who you talk to. Right-wing people think that left-wing organizations are too powerful; left-wing people think that right-wing organizations are too powerful. The issue here is that, really, they just don’t like what they see from an ideological perspective.
Others say it depends on the context. If there is not really another democratic avenue - e.g. free and fair elections, then maybe interest groups play a really key role in organizing people and getting governments to do certain things.
Finally, there are others that say that it depends how much money is involved if the only groups to play a role are the rich ones, then it’s a problem for the way that policy is made in society.
