Are Pressure Groups Democratic?

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  • Created by: lgs08130
  • Created on: 13-04-14 18:41

Are Pressure Groups Democratic?

Advantages

  • People have a natural desire to participate and make their voices heard, as they allow people to support particular causes between elections
  • In Liberalist democracies, pressure groups play a large role as they protect citizens rights, even when they have given the government sovereignty
  • In pluralistic democracies they are important as they represent dispersed power (not all power is with government), and the many different pressure groups act as counter-veiling powers, a concept crucial to plurality.
  • Many pressure groups are internally democratic, for example CND has regional representatives who are elected by members, and a leader elected out of these representatives.
  • Pressure groups are becoming more and more important as more traditional forms of representation such as political parties and MPs are becoming ideologically obsolete due to partisan-dealignment.
  • Pressure groups play a key role in educating the public and providing government with information and expertise.

Disadvantages

  • Pressure groups reinforce inequality. Big business groups such as trade unions will always have more clout than public interest groups, as they have the backing and interest of the government, whose duty it is to promote economic growth. In this way the larger and richer pressure groups will always have more influence- this is itself is elitist.
  • Douglas Hurd said pressure groups were 'serpents that strangle efficient government'. Governments can never make decisions with several different pressure groups lobbying from each side as they cannot please everyone. This is especially true with the budget, where government already has a hard enough job in deciding how to disperse money.
  • Many pressure groups lack legitimacy as they themselves are not democratic- groups such as Green Peace are internally hierarchical, which is undemocratic.
  • Big pressure groups for industry rarely seek to campaign for the greater good, but only want to further their own monetary advantages.
  • Direct action is undemocratic as the effect on government is often disproportional to the size of the group.

Evaluation

Which side is more convincing?

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