Unit 7 - Pressure Groups Flashcards
What is a pressure group?
A collection of people with similar interests and policy aims to influence the government and other people think about an issue to achieve their aims
How are pressure groups able to exist?
- Multiple access points
- Culture
- Constitutional rights
- Campaign finance
- Direct democracy
How do multiple access points, culture and constitutional rights enable pressure groups to exist?
-Multiple access points - can target many different areas of government due to separation of powers
-Culture - culture of pressure gorups more than in the UK - they drove the campaign for civil rigths or obergefell v hodges
-Constitutional rights - they are protected for freedoms of speech, freedom of assembly (right to gather), petition government to redress grievances (if youre unhappy, you have a right to try get the gov to change that) - protected in first amendment - federalism may impact this, they don’t have to be listened to, the nature of them has changed as a result of new technology being developed
How do campaign finance and direct democracy enable pressure groups to exist?
-Campaign finance - they can donate to PACs etc. but aren’t always effective and there are restrictions on them
-Direct democracy - power directly held by the poeple - pressure groups have a greater control over direct democracy as they can pressurise ordinary people which is easier than the gov can lead to tyranny of the majority
What are insider pressure groups?
-close ties to parties, or the govenrment e.g. the NRA strong ties to the republicans
-they are thus well funded as they have close ties as they are better able to make an influence
-they spend heavily in elecitons through PACs or super PACs
-they are typically run by those with professional experience in what they promote
What are outsider pressure groups?
-pressure the public not the gov through direct action (raising awareness through rallies, protests etc.), protest, demonstrations etc.
-ordinary people make change
-they are often anti establishment and anti government as they try to force the gov to do what they want not work with them
What are promotional/cause pressure groups?
-they fight for a particular cause
-they focus on issues that will benefit all of society in their opinion, so are therefore altruistic not selfish as they want everyone to have a better life
What are interest pressure groups?
-what they want will only benefit those who are members of the groups not society as a whole
-the opposite of cause groups
-large corporations are thus often referred to as interest groups such as businesses
What examples of pressure groups are there? What type of pressure group are they?
-madd - mothers against drink driving - outsider promotional pressure group
-National association of manufactures - outsider interest pressure group
-National rifle association of America - insider interest pressure group
-NORPAC - promoting US-Israel relations - insider promotional pressure group
-AMA - American medical association - insider interest pressure group
How are social movements different from pressure groups? Examples?
They are less formalised (no leader, no person in control of finances, they are not a corporation, have no coherent strategy) but still play an important role
Examples: me too movement, BLM (argued to be a social movement at first but has now become a formal pressure group), occupy Wall Street, march for our lives
Why and when did social movements come about? Why have they increased in popularity?
-they began in the nineteenth century
-‘New social movements’ developed from the 1960s and the civil rights movement
-Social media has allowed social movements to proliferate leading to ‘start-up’ social movements which has increased their popularity and may later evolve into pressure groups
