In what way have pressure groups become more important in recent years?
In recent years, the importance of pressure groups in politics has risen. This is due to a number of reasons including media influence, the use of different tactics and membership of the groups. In the 1970’s Labour government, the first ‘pressure groups’ were formed, however they were very different to the pressure groups of today. The functioned under ‘tripartism’, an alliance between the government, businesses and state affiliations, to discuss and set out legislation applicable to them. Under the same government, the relationship between the trade unions and government grew stronger; the trade unions had influence on government policies and even some control over them. However, under Thatcher, this ‘relationship’ was completely diminished, they no longer held any power, they became outsider groups. Under New Labour, trade unions had links with them inside government and they encouraged ‘responsible groups’.
One possible reason for the rise in importance of pressure groups could be media and technology now used. Technology has vastly improved since the early seventies, with a computer being in nearly every household now, and now the media has the ability to reach those who didn’t have access before, this can then raise the profile of certain pressure groups, an example of this would be the coverage of the Occupy Wall Street protest in the UK which prompted a similar protest, Occupy London. In recent years, pressure groups have begun to use media seeking actions, to gain more coverage, they have also used more radical direct action, like the Greenpeace protest in February 2008 at Heathrow airport against short-haul flights which gained large press coverage and was therefore seen nationwide. The media also gives pressure groups an opportunity to advertise their group, their campaigns and also to educate people about their cause, such as the recent AV referendum ‘yes’ campaigners, who helped to educate the public on the Alternative vote and how it would affect our voting system. However, media coverage of anything, including pressure groups, is often quick and superficial so the message of the group could be short lived, such as Children in Need, they’re only really publicised once a year, the rest of the time their cause isn’t concentrated on. There is always a possibility of media bias too, so the coverage of a pressure group could be one sided or they could chose not to publicise it at all.
