Despite widespread interest their activities, pressure groups rarely have any significant influence over government policy. Discuss.

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Despite widespread interest their activities, pressure groups rarely have any significant influence over government policy.

  The argument whether pressure groups rarely have any significant influence over government policy has been a debated subject. It is debatable whether pressure groups can have any significant influence on the governments policy or activity however in the last decade the public has seen some success of both insider and outsider groups through campaigns and change in the public consciousness. The term ''significant'' influence defines the accomplishment of the groups main aims or purpose, success can also be defined as the attainment of popularity which is very interesting , as, outsider groups obtain popularity on many occasions such as, Stop the War protest in 2003 but the government claimed that the protest was not representative of the public opinion even though it had thirty million supporters, and even though the group achieved popularity it failed to achieve its aims.

There are certain factors which affect a pressure groups success, this is why some pressure groups are more  successful than others. The factors include group aims, status, public mood and methodology. The group aims of a group are very important in determining whether the group will be successful,sometimes, pressure groups have important aims but they don't fit in with the mood of the public, resulting in  the gaining of no or little support. Outsider groups have limited resources and less chance of success when compared to insider groups but this is not always the case as in 1997 the outsider group Snowdrop  proved to achieve its aims and influence the government policy. The group had the aim to ban hand guns and the public reaction to the High School Massacre in 1996 encouraged the public to support the Snowdrop Campaign,this made their aims achievable. The sympathetic reaction of the public towards the victims supported the Snowdrop campaign and encouraged the government to pass the Amendment Act in 97.

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 Group status, resources and methodology of a group are a very important factor to a groups success. Insider groups have a higher status when compared to outsider groups and this increases the groups chances of success. For example the BMA British Medical Association is a core insider group which lobbies the government and has much higher status than fathers4Justice as they have limited finance and their extreme direct actions have gained them a lower status. Often insider groups have unseen influence as they don't use direct actions and their actions are much more private. It appears that it ...

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