To What Extent Are The Wealthiest Pressure Groups The Most Successful Ones

Large numerical support is a factor for large pressure groups success. Large numbers in a pressure group lead to success. They can exert more pressure on the government because they can claim to represent public opinion.  For example the RSBP has a membership of over one million members which makes the government much more likely to listen to it as it is so large and for the government to ignore them could mean that they lose support from voters who are members of the pressure group. Another example would be the TUC who have about 7 million members, if they publically support a political party at election time that political party would see an increase in number of people potentially voting for them. Large pressure groups can protest as well, this gives the pressure group media attention and pressures the government, for example the success of the people's fuel lobby in 2000 was due to their popular support. Numerical support pressures the government in many ways as they cannot afford to lose votes over them and direct action by a large number can increase this pressure even more into convincing the government to change its policies.

Expertise is important for pressure group success. Without good knowledge on their area a pressure group would not succeed in influencing the public or government. An example of a successful pressure group due to expertise is the BMA; because the BMA have such specialist knowledge of the NHS and medicine then they are always consulted by the government on legislation giving them significant influence over politics. Oxfam is another example of an influential pressure group due to specialist knowledge; their specialist reports produced on many different aspects of aid and charity means the government looks to them on this issue to help them. This means they can influence the government to do certain things because of their knowledge. Expertise makes a pressure group invaluable to the government as they need advice and information on many issues that these pressure groups must provide.

Media support is important for a successful pressure group. The media alerts people and the government to a pressure groups issue and if a pressure group can gain the media’s support they can gain massive public support and influence the government. For example the Ghurkha campaign in 2008 was successful because the media backed it which pressured the government to back down on the issue and allow the Ghurkhas to stay. Another aspect of media support is celebrity support, celebrities attract media and public attention raising the status of a pressure group, the Ghurkha campaign had Joanna Lumley supporting them and that was a major factor for their success because she brought about the large media attention that won her campaign.

In conclusion I agree that wealthy pressure groups are the most successful because they are able to purchase influence through many different ways and get what they want, almost all of the pressure groups in the limelight or who are successful are evidently wealth, this is not to say however that wealth is their only factor for success public support, expertise and media support are also important for their success. It could be argued that these could be obtained through wealth however we can see that wealth does not completely drop the veil over people’s eyes as we see some wealthy pressure groups such as the CFI come under increasing pressure from the public.