Pressure Groups
A reminder about behaviour versus the state
Talk a bit about pressure groups - reflective of diversity within society which is why you will
find a lot of textbooks talking about the link between a wide range of pressure groups,
articulating concerns at a societal level.
Strong civil society
For some theorists the existence of pressure groups is essential to a proper functioning
democracy.
Freedom of association
Freedom of speech
“The Stuff of democracy” S. Finer
For others it is corrosive and eats away at the fabric of democracy represented by the
sovereignty of an elected assembly - in our case the House of Commons.
In this type of view sectoral interests (explain sectoral) e.g. the trade unions and/or big
business or any other group with economic advantages will seek to place their own narrow
interests above those of the common good and ultimately subvert democracy.
Number of ways we can talk about groups
Define a range of different groups
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Public Interests groups and voluntary associations
Pressure groups and social movements
Seeking to bring about change through political activity
What then distinguishes groups from parties?
 Parties want to become government (green peace want to influence govt policy)
 Parties have broad policy interests (the BMA are concerned with only health policy, some
exist only to fight a single issue (e.g. the anti poll tax federation)
 Parties are primarily political (The ramblers association say only become involved in
politics when their interests are threatened)
 Parties fight elections (The BMA is powerful but does not fight elections)
Sometimes the distinction is blurred
 Some groups do have a wide variety of policy concerns e.g. green peace - if you want to
save the environment you have to change everything!
 Some groups e.g. CBI and TUC support parties and their members finance them quite
considerably.
 New Social Movements emerged in the 1970s to articulate and politicise a whole new
range of issues
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CND
The environment
Women’s movement
Minority groups
Gay and Lesbian Organisations
Different types of group
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Interest groups (major sectional interests like TUs, IoD, BMA, NUS)
Cause groups (fighting a good cause or idea RSPB, Consumers Association etc. etc.)
New social movements (already explained)
Episodic groups (not normally political but may become so if the circumstances arise)
Fire brigade groups (fight a specific issue e.g. poll tax)
Peak Associations (e.g. the TUC, CBI national and international peak associations)
Insider groups (recognised by the government as those groups representing legitimate
interests. NFU legally entitled to be consulted over pricing matters. Insider groups get
privileged access to government but are then required to play by “the rules of the game”
Outsider groups (the opposite of above)
Cross Bench Groups (groups that are neutral between parties - sometimes a strong link
between groups and parties sometimes not)
Techniques
Approach Civil Servants
Consultation (insider Groups)
Enables technical consideration of policy matters
Avoids mistakes
Ministerial and Cabinet level links
Outsiders have to make ‘public’ rather then ‘private’ cases
Approach Westminster
Sympathetic MPs
Select Committees
Backbench Committees
Political parties
Some groups with strong links to parties like:
Tus with Labour
ERS Liberal Democrats
NFU Conservatives
Try to influence policy detail at party level
Public Campaigns
E.G. Snowdrop
Courts
Abolition of capital punishment
European Union
European law has primacy - 80% of trade goes on in the EU makes sense for groups to switch
their focus to the international level especially the EU.
Policy Communities
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Tightly organised ‘networks’
Resource sharing
Delivery of members
Difficult to penetrate
Theories of the Policy process
Pluralism
Elitism
Marxism
The New Right Case
Pluralism
Sees groups as integral to democracy
Diverse groups representing diverse interests within society
Competing groups in society contest all issues
Groups are not equal - often a mistake made by students is to infer that pluralists think all
groups are equal - although pluralists do argue that all groups have some resources which they
can bring to bear upon the process of decision making
So:
No groups are powerless
No one group is all-powerful
No fixed power structure
Power is non hierarchically organised - no structure of power
Groups do not get everything that they want - compromise
Pluralist democracy works reasonably well - not perfect but…
Elitism
The distribution of power in society reflects inequalities of wealth - some groups are wealthy
some are not.
Wealthy interest groups are powerful because they have time, money, organisational
cohesion, good contacts in positions of power. Poor groups who represent minority groups,
the mentally ill or the homeless have little money and few resources to draw upon in order to
make a difference.
Groups compete for influence within a political system and within rules of the game that are
systematically loaded in favour of middle and upper class interests.
Dominant financial interests - City of London
Organisations are internally oligarchic - remember Michels ‘iron law of oligarchy’ (Cf.
Lecture2 on Power)
A small national elite controls all major decisions and leaves smaller less significant issues
open to democratic decision making.
The wealthy dominate the political system.
The New Right Case
Hostile to the idea that pressure groups should influence government (critical of some of the
normative claims of pluralism)
Governments are elected to represent the public good, not the narrow self-interests of one or
other group
Groups distort the market especially trade unions who negotiate false wage levels. If they
were exposed to market competition they would get what they are worth.
By protecting their sectional interests groups slow economic growth and cause
unemployment, inflation and high public expenditure.
This is because hyper pluralism (too many demands) causes government overload and an
inability to govern.
New right critics point to the 1970s
Groups may be consulted but power should remain firmly in the hands of government.