What is a pressure group?
They are organisations that try to influence decision making and public policy for a particular cause or interest group.
What is a sectional pressure group?
A pressure group that represents a specific section of society such as a trade union or employer’s association.
What is a promotional group?
A pressure group that promotes a specific cause rather than the interests of its own members.
What is a dual-function group?
Groups which are both sectional and cause based
Give three examples of sectional pressure groups.
- Institute of Directors
- National Farmers’ Union
- Age UK
Give three examples of promotional pressure groups.
- Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
- Electoral Reform Society
- Liberty
What is an insider group?
A pressure group that operates inside the political system through contacts with ministers, MPs, peers, and official committees. They are regularly consulted by government.
What is an outsider group?
A pressure group that have no special links with government but seek to influence decision makers by mobilising public opinion from the outside.
What is pluralism?
A political system where a wide range of beliefs, ideologies and ideas are tolerated. Power is dispersed and not concentrated in a few hands.
What is functional representation?
The representation in a body of particular sections of society based on age, gender, income, e.t.c.
What are the five main functions of pressure groups?
- Influence and inform policy makers
- Inform/educate the public
- Functional representation for sections of society
- Create opportunities for political participation
- Scrutinise legislation
Give an example of a pressure group informing or educating the public.
Friends of the Earth have a ‘Youth & Education’ network whereby they provide free resources for primary school teachers to use.
Give an example of a pressure group scrutinising government legislation.
The BMA successfully convinced government to amend the 2012 Health and Social Care Act to include increased protection for patient information and confidentiality, as well as an explicit duty for the Health Secretary to have national oversight over the training of new doctors.
Give an example of a pressure group providing avenues for political participation.
The Taxpayers’ Alliance has over 18,000 members and encourages wider participation via its online petitions. For example, in 2012 they held a petition against the introduction of a 5p charge on carrier bags by the Welsh government.
Give an example of a pressure group delivering functional representation.
The Muslim Council of Britain represents over 500 Mosques and lobbied to remove the ‘glorifying terrorism’ clause from the 2006 Terrorism Act as they felt that it unfairly targeted Muslims.
What are the five main characteristics of pressure groups?
- They influence decisions.
- They propose amendments and influence the implementation of policies.
- They operate on a relatively narrow range of issues.
- They operate at varying levels of government from ministers to parliament to local assemblies and governments.
- They can operate in the law courts to challenge the implementation of a decision.
What are the main factors that influence the power/success of pressure groups?
- How close the group’s philosophy is to he government’s own agenda
- The finances of the group
- The size of the group
- The organisational structure of the group
- Opposition to the group
- Whether or not the group has insider status
- Celebrity backing?
Give an example of a pressure group that was successful because it shared a similar philosophy to the government.
The Taxpayers’ Alliance ideology is closely aligned to that of the Conservative Party.
In 2012, the Taxpayers Alliance was highly supportive and wanted to amplify the raidcal Welfare Reform Act 2012 that introduced a hard welfare cap of £300 per person per week as well as the notorious under-occupancy penalty (bedroom tax).
Give an example of a pressure group that was successful because of its size (and vice versa).
Friends of the Earth (200,000 members) and the Countryside Alliance (100,000) have lots of influence due to their large size.
Trade unions influence declining due to declining size as evidenced by loss of block voting power in Labour Party elections and inability to stop cuts to public services in 2010.
Give an example of a pressure group that was successful because of its wealth.
In 2009, seven banks backed by the British Bankers Associated overturned a ruling that the Office of Fair Trading could investigate their system of charging for overdrafts.
November 2009: Office of Fair Trading versus Barclays Bank and others
Give two examples of pressure groups using ‘direct action’ to exert their influence?
- The anti-fuel tax lobby blockaded fuel depots to publicise its case for lower petrol taxes.
- The Occupy London movement occupied key public spaces in tents such as St Paul’s cathedral in Late 2011/2012.
Give an example of a pressure group lobbying the House of Lords.
A coalition of Christian churches lobbied the Lords to include an amendment to the 2010 Equality Act that would give them grounds to exclude homosexual people.
Give an example of a pressure group using letter writing as a method for exerting influence.
Burma Campaign UK ran a letter-writing campaign to ask Foreign Secretary Hague to put pressure on the Burmese government to release political prisoners.
Give an example of a pressure group being consulted by ministers and achieving a policy change.
Michael Gove consulted the Howard League for Penal Reform - the Howard League encouraged him to scrap the criminal courts charge. In December 2015, the charge was scrapped.
