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The Key To Effectiveness Of A Pressure The Key To Effectiveness Of A Pressure Group Is A Large Membership Base A pressure group can be described as any organised group that does not put up candidates for election, but seeks to influence government policy. Whilst an organisation such as Friends of the Earth (FoE), with an income of almost two million pounds a year can be described as a pressure group, so too, for example, can the Upminster and Cranham Residents? Association (UCRA), which relies solely on volunteers and whose only source of income is via advertisements in its monthly bulletin. Both however have a certain impact on government policy.
Although FoE tackle much more serious and international issues than the UCRA, the UCRA are more influential on government policy as they are in direct and regular consultation with the government via the MP for Upminster. Whilst in comparison with the job of the British government the UCRA fight for reasonably trivial issues, yet are in their aims, much more successful than FoE. From the above example it can be said that the key to the effectiveness of a pressure group lies not in a large membership base, but in having the platform by which to communicate with the government. However, the above two groups are both insider groups. For an outsider group, achieving one? s aims is far more difficult, but it is important to realise that under democracy, the majority rule, and so therefore it can be said that a large membership base is important in gaining public, and more significantly, government attention.
Having said that though, this does not necessarily mean that the larger a group, the more likely they are of gaining government attention, portrayed by the fact that petitions with thousands of signatures are often ignored by the government. It is important though, to realise that the major advantage of a large membership base is that it commands more attention, but having a lot of members is not the only way to do this. Take for example, perhaps Britain? s most famous ever pressure group, the Women? s Social and Political Union the Suffragettes.
This was a group founded by a small family from Manchester and had very few members, but because of their militant tactics and violent protest (smashing windows, chaining themselves to railings, etc. ), and moreover because they were women, they instantly commanded a lot of public and government attention, and brought the issue of female suffrage to the top of the political agenda. However, whilst a large pressure group can attract a lot of publicity, not all publicity works in favour of the group. To look again at the Suffragettes, and to compare them to another famous group, the IRA, we can see that in spite of the fact that they receive wide media and government attention, they are portrayed to the people as thugs and terrorists, and the government cannot possibly be seen to give in to this kind of violence. In this example, whilst the group has managed to get the government to acknowledge them, this has had a detrimental effect on achieving their aims, and so therefore it can be said that the large scale of the two groups has been a disadvantage rather than an advantage. The failure of the IRA, and the relative success of the UCRA shows us that the likelihood of a pressure groups success lies in its links with the government. This can also be seen in the civil rights movement in America.
Whilst black Americans made up a highly significant percentage of the population, Martin Luther King realised that this paled in significance to the power of the government that opposed them. He realised that the key to effectiveness lay not in attempting to fight the government but simply trying to make them see sense, without having an open confrontation. After all, it is ultimately the government that has the final say, and a group that sets out from the start to threaten them is presumably less likely to achieve its aims than a group who seeks government support rather than government fear. However, it can be said that in a democracy the power lies with the people and so therefore the larger the membership base the higher the likelihood of success. Indeed due to political accountability a government cannot afford to ignore a pressure group that constitutes a significant proportion of the population. It is though, unlikely that a pressure group would have enough power to play a major part in the results of an election.
Therefore it is more important to gain government links and whilst having a large number of members goes a long way towards achieving this, it is not the only way and perhaps not the best way. Evidence would suggest that the most effective way to achieve one? s aims is quite simply to appeal to the government. In fact, the most influential groups are those which represent strong producer interests, the rich and the well resourced. By contrast, groups which represent the poor, the socially disadvantaged or unfashionable minorities come off worst of all.
Thus social inequalities have continued to increase despite the efforts of groups such as Shelter, the Child Poverty Action Group and the Low Pay Unit. In conclusion, the key to effectiveness of a pressure group lies not in a large membership base, but in securing government attention. Whilst a large membership base helps to achieve this it is not the most important factor. It is also important to realise that although a large pressure group does have a certain amount of power, the government holds the ultimate power. Therefore the key to effectiveness is in becoming an insider group, and therefore part of the political infrastructure, not in trying to intimidate the government into submitting to one?
s demands, as, in the interest of sustaining governmental legitimacy they cannot afford to do so.
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Research essay sample on Pressure Group Government Policy
