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Engaging with Pressure Groups: A Path to Activism and Influence

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Discover the power of joining a pressure group for continuous engagement with the government. Explore the rise of new social movements and the impact of various types of pressure groups on policy and society.

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Engaging with Pressure Groups: A Path to Activism and Influence

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  1. Pressure Groups -Getting Involved POL771 - ywfoo@lincoln.ac.uk

  2. Join a pressure group? • Joining a pressure group can provide us with continuous opportunities for involvement and communication with government • Membership of political parties has declined and yet membership of ‘new social movements’ – especially environmental – has increased correspondingly. (Nye, 1997)

  3. Sectional or Interest Groups • Are mostly motivated by the particular economic interests of their members, e.g. • Trade unions, professional bodies such as the BMA, British Medical Association • Membership of sectional groups is limited to those who are part of the specific interest, such as miners, doctors

  4. Cause Groups • Promote an idea that is not related to the personal interests of its members, e.g. • Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), Ramblers Association, Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth • But note, the two types of pressure groups are not mutually exclusive; they regularly seek to influence each other

  5. Other species of group include • Peak organisations (umbrella groups who represent broad bands of groups such as employers, i.e. the CBI and the TUC) • ‘Fire brigade’ groups (form in reaction to a specific problem and dissolve when issues are solved. Often ‘single issue’ groups) • Episodic groups (usually non-political but will campaign when their interests are affected i.e. sports clubs campaigning for more school playing fields)

  6. Pressure Groups & Gov’t • Groups can be useful to government; offering necessary expertise on policy • Groups may know about possible resistance to a new line of policy • Support by a group can help to ‘legitimise’ policy

  7. Wyn Grant (1985)

  8. To get heard… • Authority • Information • Compatibility of objectives with those of the government • Compatibility with public sympathies • Reliable track record • Possession of powerful sanctions

  9. From peaceful to violent protest… • Working for a pressure group often means working hard at routine jobs, stuffing envelopes, petitioning • Trade unions threaten to use the ‘denial of function’ approach • Some groups test the law • Others will go further and deliberately break the law as part of their strategy

  10. Direct Action • A change in political culture over the last decade; direct action is increasingly respectable • Why? • Endorsement of the middle classes – and this is • Crucial in terms of how the media cover such stories

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