Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Pressure Groups #2
- How do pressure groups help democracy?
- They widen participation
and are attractive to
women and young people
- They promote debate and raise public
awareness of a range of issues e.g.
Human rights and the environment
- Make government
aware of public opinion
between elections
- Allows for groups/causes
to get noticed when they
wouldn't have otherwise
- How do pressure groups hinder democracy?
- Self interested groups bypass public
debate and use financial muscle to
get what they want, e.g. F1
- Unelected groups have no right
to influence a democratically
elected government
- Well organized groups can
get their way even if a public
opinion is against them.
- Pressure group
influence isn't level
- Is PG influence increasing? - YES
- Women and young people
are attracted to these
rather than parties
- PG membership is
increasing and voter turnout
is decreasing (51% in 2001)
- Can be argued that in a global
economy, large businesses
have more power than parties
- PG focus on issues which
appeals to the public
whereas parties don't
- Is PG influence increasing? - NO
- Most PG
campaigns fail
- PG's often have to
work through parties
- Only parties can form
government and form an
opposition which can offer
electoral choice