Pressure Groups

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What is a Pressure Group?

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A group that tries to influence public policy in the interest of a particular cause.

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Type Classifications

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Sectional/Interest Groups;- Represent one section of society such as The National Farmer's Union

Cause/Issue/Promotional Groups;- Seek to promote a cause rather than the interests of its members, such as Greenpeace or Friends of the Earth

Dual Function Groups;- Both sectional and cause based such as the Countryside Alliance that represents people who live in rural areas but also campaigns for a better quality of life in the countryside which supposedly affects us all New Social Movement- Broadly based, fairly informal movements that emerge around a particular issue. They are characterised by mass demonstrations and media campaigns that are designed to create maximum publicity and to put political pressure upon decision makers. Examples of which could be the Occupy Movement, or Plane Stupid

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Method Classifications

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Insider;- One that has succeeded in becoming part of the decision making process. They take part in the development of policy through contact with Ministers, MPs, Peers and, official committees. They are regularly consulted by Government. The Confederation of British Industry is a good example of such a pressure group which reports on how businesses are operating and what its attitudes towards issues such as business taxation, employment regulations, trade, and economic policy in general. The National Farmers' Union is an example of a pressure group that has a permanent seat on a government policy committee or agency.

Outsider- One that has no special links with government but seek to influence decision making by mobilising public opinion. They either prefer to remain outside the governing process in order to preserve their independence and freedom of action, like Greenpeace for instance. Or they would like to be insiders and have not been invited into the governing process, like the Association of British Drivers

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Democracy within Pressure Groups

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Educating and informing the public about important political issues;- Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)

Representing groups interests;- The Automobile Association (AA) represents the interests of motorists

Provide opportunities for political participation;- 38 Degrees makes it simple for people to participate in a wide variety of campaigns, local and national

Protecting the interests and opinions of minorities;- Health groups such as the Multiple Sclerosis Society try to protect the interests of those suffering particular diseases

Acting as a safeguard against the power of the state;Dispersing power more widely;- Gives politically active parts of the population access to decision makers which is particularly effective when considering mass membership groups such as Age UK or unions representing public service workers

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Undemocratic features of Pressure Groups

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Some groups wield more influence than their place in society warrants; Some groups have influence simply because they have large financial resources available to them;

Insiders have influence at the expense of outsiders;

Digitalised democracy carries a variety of dangers;
- Misinformation in online campaigns is easy
- May give the impression that a cause has widespread support, when it is a reflection of internet users, rather than true supporters
- Excessive influence form the 'mass population' may not be well informed

Some groups leadership may not represent accurately the views of their members, they may be undemocratic internally;

Pressure groups cannot be made democratically accountable for what they do and propose;

Wealthy, influential groups may give influence to elites rather than their wider memberships

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Methods: Insider/Outsider

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Parliamentary methods;
- Some groups pay retaining fees to MPs in return for which they will raise relevant issues as much as possible in parliament
- All the large pressure groups have MPs who are committed to representing them in parliament
- Pressure groups can seek to gain leverage in amending laws in the House of Lords, which can promote new legislation. The amendments to the Equality Act allowing exemption of Christian churches in discriminating against gay people was achieved by a coalition of Christian churches. Live Music Act 2012 was a Lords Private Members Bill

Direct Action;
- Pressure groups may seek to obtain the highest level of publicity for the cause as possible to mobilise support
- Father4Justice have dressed up as 'super-heroes- and placed themselves in positions where they will attract media attention
- Greenpeace destroying GM crops and the Animal Liberation from freeing animals from experimentation laboratories or by threatening laboratory workers
- The Occupy movement set up camps on various parts of the UK to protest against the excesses of capitalism and the financial world (St. Pauls Cathedral)

Mobilising public opinion;
- If pressure groups can demonstrate to leaders that their intersts command widespread interest among voters then leaders are forced to listen such as with Age UK in the 2005 General Election pushing hard on issues such as the sixe of the pension, council tax rebates for the elderly, etc
- Plane Stupid has been very successful in mobilising public support through educating about the dangers of increasing air transport

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Success of Pressure Groups

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Philosophy;
- Where a group's beliefs and aspirations are similar to that of the government of the day, success is very likely Taxpayer's Alliance campaign to reform the welfare benefits system to take pressure off taxpayers led to the radical Welfare Reform Act of 2012

Finance;
- Pressure groups often make party donations and can use the funds available to them to increase their cause

Size;
- Large pressure groups generally have more influence due to having a large sections of the voters as members such as Age UK who are a large pressure group who represent pensioners 70-80% of which generally vote yet this doesn't help trade unions

Organisation;
- The ability of a group to organise successful demonstrations, to raise its public profile and persuade its members to take visible action is very important. Plane Stupid, the Countryside Alliance, Occupy, and Greenpeace are all examples of movements that have been successful because they have been well led and have captured the imagination of the public and the media

Opposition groups;
- Where groups don't have opposing pressure groups there is a greater chance of success, when they do it becomes a battle of wills. ASH and the Tobacco Industry and FOREST (pro smoking)

Insider Status;
- Insiders such as CBI are more likely to get their views heard than outsidersCelebrity Involvement- Joanna Lumley campaigned on behalf of Gurkhas, rio Ferdinand tweeted his opposition to the NHS Reform Bill 2012

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Changing Nature

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Participation;
- Political awareness has been shifting from party politics to pressure groups which have higher membership than ever before

Access Points;
- Pressure Groups now have more access to the political process than ever before as decision making is now spread over a much wider range of institutions. This process has four facets, the importance of the European Union, the devolution of powers to national regions, the growth of policy making bodies outside the traditional party system, mobilisation of public opinion via the media and/or the internet, and the increasing importance of the courts as a result of the passage of the Human Rights Act 1998

The European Union;
- The growing jurisdiction of the European Union has meant that pressure groups have had to switch many of their activities to the European Commission, the Committee of the Regions, the Social and Economic Committee, and various other Union institutions. in 2010 there were 4400 accredited lobbyists attached to the European parliament- Pressure groups have also had to unite with their European Counterparts if they are to exert effective pressure. So we have seen the development of an increasing number of 'federated' groups across Europe

Devolution;
- Policy areas that have been devolved such as health, education, transport, planning, industrial development, agriculture, and local government services. Pressure groups that are involved in these policy areas have had to move some of their operations to Edinburgh, Cardiff, and Belfast