Zusammenfassung der Ressource
(9) Has there been a decline in pressure groups?
- Growth of Pressure groups
- The growth of promotional groups
- Look at simply in terms of political
participation, groups certainly appear
to be becoming more important.
- Over half the cause groups now in
existence have been created since
1960, and the membership of many
leading pressure groups dwarfs that
of contemporary political parties
- RSPB have 1 million members
- National trust has the largest voluntary
organization in Europe with a
membership 3.4 million
- Linked to this has been the appeal of the
"new politics", characterized by greater
political activism and the spread of
grass-roots participation
- "New" types of political participation include political
protest and what has been called cyberactivism
- Political action based on the use of
"new" technology-the Internet, mobile
phones, e-petitions, electronic voting,
and so on.
- Examples of the
politics of protest
- CND 1960's
- Anti poll tax 1990
- Anti-globalization
London 2000
- Student fee protest 2010
- More access points
- A variety of Pressure groups have also
benefited from the fact that hew
pressure point have emerged in the UK
politics
- Devolution has allowed pressure groups to exert
influence through the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh
Assembly and the Northern Ireland Assembly
- The Passage of the Human rights Act 1998, has substantially
increased pressure-groups activity focused on the courts. This has
especially benefited groups that represent the interest of minorities,
and groups that have an interests in civil liberties issues
- The process of European integration has encouraged many
pressure groups to look to exert influence through EU bodies,
especially when they fail to influence the domestic policy process. It
has also led to the formation of a range of European-Wide pressure
groups
- European small
Business Alliance
- European Free
Trade Association
- Friends of the
Earth Europe
- European Association for the
Defence of Human Rights
- Globalization
- Globalization has strength Pressure
group in a number of way. In particular,
there is general agreement that business
groups have become powerful in a global
age .
- This is because they are able more
easily to relocate production and
investment, so exerting greater
leverage on national government
- Such trends have strengthened pressure on government in
the UK and elsewhere; for instance, to cut business taxes
and reduce corporate regulations
- Example Non
Government
Organisation
- World Development
- World social forum
- Decline of Pressure groups
- The end of corporatism
- The high point of pressure-group influence came in the 1970s. This was a period of
so-called tripartite government or corporatism. A particularly close relationship
developed between the government and leading "peak" groups, notably CBI and the TUC.
- Economic policy was therefore
developed through a process of
routine consultation and group
bargaining
- Corporatism was dismantled in the 1980s,
with the coming to power of thatcher
government. Their approach was to keep
group consultation at arm's length.
- alvow strict anti corporatism died with
thatcher fall, the free market idea still
dominates all subsequent government
approach to the economy
- A decline in meaningful
and active participation
- An alternative explanation of the decline of pressure groups
challenges the idea that recent years have witnessed an upsurge in
group activity. This suggests that while group membership may have
increased, these members have become increasingly passive. This
is the phenomenon of "chequebook participation."
- Political activism is therefor
increasingly confined to a small
class of full-time professionals.