When The Arguments For and Against Have Been Taken Into Account, It Is Clear That Incresingly, Pluralistic Society Pressure Groups are A Supplement To Democracy. How True Is This?

Authors Avatar

When The Arguments For and Against Have Been Taken Into Account, It Is Clear That Incresingly, Pluralistic Society Pressure Groups are A Supplement To Democracy. How True Is This?

This essay will consider the main arguments both for and against pressure groups being a supplement to democracy and assess the extent to which they do serve as a supplement to democracy in today’s increasing pluralistic society.

The government has always had to deal with groups in society but over the last two centuries pressure groups have become an indispensable feature of the British political system, as these groupings have more effectively organized themselves in response to society’s increasing complexity and the increasing government intervention in more areas of life. E.g. the committee for effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade was formed in 1787. Society has also generally become more pluralistic and more aware of rights, which altogether, has served as a stimulus for the increasing relative importance of pressure groups.  Far more citizens of the UK are now members of pressure groups than political parties.

Broadly speaking, a pressure group may be defined as an organisation that seeks to influence, counteract or reverse government policy, without itself seeking to govern.  “Pressure groups exist as conduits of political activity and serve the function of organizing and transmitting political pressure from the pluralistic mass of society into the process of central government.” (Professor Whin Grant)

Western societies especially are very pluralistic, in that they consist of many different groups representing the very broad population spectrum. These groups include numerous age variations, different class and religious denominations, various ethnic mixes, ranging geographical demography’s, etc.

Pressure groups mobilise public opinion with the main aim of influencing those who have the power to make decisions in their favour.

Perhaps the most basic classification of pressure groups is between sectional groups and cause groups. The former are groups aiming to represent the interests of a particular section of society e.g. the Bar council which represents the interests of barristers. The latter are groups that pursue a particular set of objectives e.g. the group Liberty who despite only 5000 members has successfully contributed to the incorporation of the European convention on human rights (later this year). However many groups are a hybrid of the two categories e.g. the group Shelter who is sometimes labelled a sectional cause group as its section is the homeless and its cause is homelessness.  From the cause group classification stems two further sub categories in the form of attitude cause groups and political cause groups. Attitude cause groups seek to change people’s attitudes about a particular issue or policy and comprise of nearly all environmentalist groups e.g. Greenpeace who aim to change people’s attitudes to the environment. As its name suggests, political cause groups aim to change the political system or process in some way. E.g. Charter 88 who protest for the strengthening of civil liberties by campaigning for an entrenched Bill of Rights and other constitutional changes - generally working for a move towards moderate socialism. A further classification of pressure groups exists in term of their status and strategies they adopt. Insider groups are those are those with direct access to the decision makers they’re trying to influence e.g. ministers/civil servants and outsider groups who don’t.

Join now!

Pressure groups take numerous forms. They can be permanent or temporary, they can work together or be directly opposed etc. The main functions of pressure groups are to enable participation in national and local politics between elections and to provide the decision makers with specialist knowledge of their issue(s).

Pressure groups are seen to enhance the democratic process in that joining pressure groups is a way for ordinary individuals to participate in the political process.

In our representative democracy, representatives are chosen infrequently and are elected by a majority. This means that in reality, the extent ...

This is a preview of the whole essay