Canada Interest Groups

Interest Groups: 15.3.2013

Globalization occurring at rapid speeds is having vast affects on the Canadian political system. The strong emergence and growing influence of interest groups, gained through institutionalization and immense monetary funding have proven to become a direct threat to political parties in the modern age. This essay will primarily discuss, “Pressure Groups: Talking Chameleons” written by Paul Pross. Following, the analysis of the article, “Wilderness Politics in BC: The Business Dominated State and the Containment of Environmentalism” written by Jeremy Wilson. And finally, discuss and evaluate the vital contents of both
Electronic media has proven to be a large contributor in the sense that it has created an environment encouraging public participation and the notion of making groups less dependent on bureaucracies. This resulting in a diffusion of power, granting more influence to the public sector. Prior to the emergence of these interest groups, political parties were the main vehicle enabling citizens to channel their concerns mainly by elections and enabling communication to and from the government. Political parties alone would not suffice to account for the entire populations aggregated demands and thus governments continue to further support pressure groups to battle the constant problem of communication. Interest groups simply emerged as individuals acting together and attempting to influence public policy in the direction of their common interests. In some cases what originated as little organizations has now emerged into influential contributors to the policy making process. This raising concern that the Canadian democratic system is
Another factor making the political party inferior is its longstanding values, territorial basis restricting it from expansion since political parties aim to accomplish control of legislative. Hence since the legislature is based on a territorial perimeter, the rest of the political party body must follow in this direction. In contrast to some interest groups, political parties have not fully been able to achieve a system which incorporates the public into the policy making process. Pross questioned whether the fragmentation of the political parties endangers long-standing institutions, or if this merely is the politics of the new age. Canada has witnessed the emergence of a new public philosophy “pluralism” started taking the place of the previous representative parliamentary democracy. Pluralism emphasizes the collaboration between government and interest groups. Ideally members of private groups exchange ideas and negotiate with government civil