Democracy And Participation- Think Tanks, Lobbyists And Corporations

Question 1

Think tank

Answer 1

A body of experts brought together to investigate and offer solutions to economic, social and political problems.

Question 2

Lobbyists

Answer 2

Individuals or companies paid to persuade decision makers to favour a particular group or cause.

Question 3

What can Think Tanks possibly do?

Answer 3

Influence policy

Question 4

What biases do Think Tanks tend to have?

Answer 4

Many of them can be said to have either a left-wing or right-wing bias, which can affect which political party they influence.

Question 5

What types of Think Tanks are there?

Answer 5

Non-partisan TT

Left-wing TT

Right-wing TT

Question 6

Non-partisan Think Tanks

Answer 6

+ Non-partisan think tanks include RePublica, which focuses on general policy issues, and Chatham House, which prioritises international affairs.

Question 7

Left-wing Think Tanks

Answer 7

+ ‘Left-wing’ think tanks include the Fabian Society, dealing with issues mainly concerning social justice and equality, and the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), which researches and develops various centre-left policy ideas.

Question 8

Right-wing Think Tanks

Answer 8

+ ‘Right-wing’ think tanks include the Adam Smith Institute, which researches and develops free market solutions to economic issues, and the Centre for Policy Studies, which promotes the ideas popular in the premiership of Margaret Thatcher.

Question 9

Lobbyists are professional who are

Answer 9

paid to persuade decision makers to favour a particular group or cause.

Question 10

Are Lobbyists individuals or companies?

Answer 10

They might be individuals or companies and are often employed by businesses, employer groups, pressure groups (e.g. Animal Aid), professional associations, trade unions and even foreign governments.

Question 11

Corporations

Answer 11

A corporation is a large company or a group of companies that operate as a single entity. Corporations’ wealth is often so great, and their importance to the UK economy so large, that governments cannot easily ignore them.

Question 12

What are the three groups?

Answer 12

Think Tanks

Lobbyists

Corporations

Question 13

Think Tanks influence

Answer 13

The Centre for Social Justice had an enormous impact on the 2010-15 coalition government welfare reforms that resulted in the introduction of universal credit.

Question 14

Think Tanks limits to influence

Answer 14

Think tanks aligned to a political party (e.g. the left-leaning IPPR) lose influence when that party is not in power.

Question 15

Lobbyists influence

Answer 15

Lobbying firms spend around £2 billion each year seeking to influence decision makers. They employ around 4,000 people.

Concerns have been raised that influence can be bought.

Question 16

Lobbyists limits to influence

Answer 16

Regulations ban MPs from accepting money from lobbyists in return for agreeing to represent lobbyists’ viewpoints.

Question 17

Corporations influence

Answer 17

Corporations donate to political party election campaigns and they also fund think tanks.

Over a fifth of Conservative Party donations came from corporations in the run-up to the 2019 general election.

Question 18

Corporations limits to influence

Answer 18

Corporations do not always get the policies they want. For example, most large corporations opposed Brexit.