Analyse the Claim That Pressure Groups in America ‘Damage Rather Than Enhance Democracy'

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• Analyse Why Some Pressure Groups Are More Successful In Achieving Their Aims And Objectives Than Others Essay

  ...Analyse why some pressure groups are more successful in achieving their aims and objectives than others. Pressure groups are organised groups of people who share a common interest that they wish to protect or a common aim that they wish to promote. They seek to influence public policy by gaining access to decision makers who have power. There are two main types of pressure groups; Interest Group and Cause Group – an interest group aims to protect the interests of its members whilst a Cause group promotes issues and policies that do not exclusively benefit the group’s members. Pressure groups perform several different function within the USA, these include; representation, participation, scrutiny and agenda building. Throughout this essay, I will analyse why some groups achieve their aims whilst acknowledging that the majority fail to do so. One of the determining factors as to why some pressure groups are more successful in achieving their aims and objectives than others is which party (Republican or Democrat) controls their aims. This is significant as a pressure groups whose aims are similar to the policies of the controlling party are more likely to achieve their...

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• Pressure Groups Essay

  ...PRESSURE GROUPS ARE AN INTEGRAL PART OF ANY SOCIETY. CRITICALLY DISCUSS. According to Duncan Watts, a pressure group can be an organized group that seeks to influence government policy or protect or advance a particular cause or interest. They can also be described as ‘interest groups’, ‘lobby groups’ or ‘protest groups.’ Some people avoid using the term ‘pressure group’ as it can mistakenly be interpreted as meaning the groups use actual pressure to achieve their aims, which does not necessarily happen. The term pressure group has a very broad definition that does not clearly distinguish between the groups that fall under the term. For example, In Britain we see a pressure group can be a huge organisation like the CBI (Confederation of British Industry), which represents 150,000 businesses, and it can also be a single-issue locally based organisation like CLARA (Central Area Leamington Resident’s Association), which represents less than 300 households campaigning to preserve and improve the town of Leamington Spa. The definition also does not distinguish between the more extreme pressure groups such as the Animal Liberation Front, whose campaigns include the illegal activities...

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• pressure group Essay

  ...INTRODUCTION Pressure group is defined as a non-profit and usually voluntary organization whose member have a common cause for which they seek to influence political or corporate decision makers to achieve a declared objective but not to elected candidates to office. They can also be described as ‘interest groups’, ‘lobby groups’ or ‘protest groups’. The aim of all pressure groups is to influence the people who actually have the power to make decisions. Pressure groups do not look for the power of political office but seek influence the decisions made by those who hold the political power such as cabinet. They are sometimes able to gather sufficient support to force government to amend or even scrap legislation. Pressure group direct their efforts toward influencing legislative, executive branches of government, political parties and sometimes general public opinion. Pressure groups also state that, together with the right to vote and the right to petition, one of main forms is people can make their voices heard in democratic system. The term ‘pressure group’ is relatively recent and fresh, but people in the early stage already tried to organised a groups or activities that can influence government decision before the modern age of representative...

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• Pressure Groups Essay

  ...To what extent have pressure groups changed in recent years? A pressure group is an organised group that seeks to influence government policy, public opinions or protect or advance a particular cause or interest. Groups may promote a specific issue and raise it up the political agenda, represent a particular section in society or they may have more general political and ideological objectives in mind when they campaign. In this essay I am going to analyse the significant changes in the nature and activities of pressure groups that have occurred in recent years and use examples accordingly. In recent times, the importance of the role of pressure groups has been increasing and is likely to continue to do so. A reason for this is the increasing participation in pressure group politics. Membership of pressure groups has been growing substantially whereas in contrast, membership of political parties has been declining. Therefore, this suggests that the general interest in politics has not decreased but the nature of interest and participation is rapidly changing as more people are becoming frustrated with the political parties and so they are turning to pressure groups that campaign for specific issues or causes. An example of this may be...

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• To What Extent Are Pressure Groups Good for Democracy Essay

  ...Pressure groups are formal (Insider) and informal (Outsider) associations whose goals are to further the interests of a specific section of the society to promote a particular cause by influencing the decisions of the government. An insider group is a pressure group which is very involved in the decision making of policies e.g. Cancer Research UK. An outsider group is a pressure who is not associated with decision making as they like to assert their independence and lack political clout e.g. Greenpeace. However there are some outsider groups that want to be affiliated and become an insider, but they have not yet been asked by the government e.g. Association of British Drivers. These groups are also known as “Aspiring Insiders”. These pressure groups are organisations that have the same interest as anyone. However there are groups that focus on a section of society e.g. Trade Unions are for teachers etc. They can also be classified as Interest Groups. These types of pressure groups display both democratic and undemocratic features which are both good and bad for the democratic process. Pressure groups are very informative. They are good at educating people and raising awareness of the general public. They offer independent information to...

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• Democracy in America Essay

  ... Democracy in America Pos/110 June 2, 2013 We live in this country for the land, and the for the free as Americans we rely on many attributes in this world in order for us to live our lives. Our government has supplied us with many great things for us to be proud of. Our government is “the institutions and processes though which public policies are made for society.” (Edwards, Wattenberg, and Lineberry, p. 7). With all these institutions which includes the President, Congress, the courts and all the federal administrative agencies. These are the institutions that make up public policies for us, and to shape the way we live as Americans. The way this system has been operating through all the years has been fair, yet sometimes controversial to some. What should change to shape the way we live is a fair government where corruptness will not take place. Politics is where the corruptness has happen through the years many political figures has shown there side of corruptness. Politics is “the process that determines who we select as our governmental leaders and what polices these leaders pursue. Politics produces authoritative decisions about public issues”. (Edwards, Wattenberg, and Lineberry, p. 9). What makes politics good is that we as Americans gets to pick who we want to make our lives different, and make it better. This has been the process for some time now, and it only has gotten better. What makes it bad...

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• Pressure Groups In The USA Promote Democracy And Widen Opportunity Essay

  ...“Pressure groups in the USA promote democracy and widen opportunity” Discuss. (45) The political system in the US is arguably the most democratic in the world, with an unprecedented number of access points. As a result, there are more PGs, operating at more levels of government and with more impact in the US than any other political system. There are many PGs in the US that work to promote democracy, such as the ACLU who work to defend civil liberties and Common Cause who exist to hold government to account. However, the recent struggle to pass healthcare reform and failure to pass any form of gun control has highlighted how overly dominant special interest groups have become as a result of funding from big business. For this reason, I believe PGs in the US have an overall negative effect on democracy and opportunity. The main reason that PGs in the USA do not promote democracy is because the most influential groups put the interests of a small group before the interests of society as a whole. They tend to spend too much time fighting for their special interest and little time fighting for the wider public interest and as long as their client group is satisfied they rarely consider the implications on society. This has been the case time and time again with anything concerning healthcare reforms. Healthcare companies and...

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• pressure groups Essay

  ...Do pressure groups strengthen or weaken democracy?   Pressure groups do both strengthen and weaken democracy, as they strengthen democracy because the give citizens a voice on a issues, be it big or small, they give a voice all the time when the group is active, they also persuade the government to change things be that laws or how the country is run, they give minorities a voice who normal would not have a voice/ representative in government or parliament, e.g. subgroups small groups on a n issue, they have expert knowledge in there area they support they also have passion and the education, pressure group carats new ideas. Why do pressure groups weaken democracy some things are that they could be seen as selfish that they only stand for one issue for a small group of people and don�t care what will happen to everyone else, they can become too political more cross with a political party then a pressure group so to lose it touch with it�s members, and that some pressure groups do not have an elected head by it�s members so the members of the group do not get a say in who should be there leader. Pressure groups strengthen democracy as they give citizen a...

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