Darcey Sharpe asks: are pressure groups really democratic?

Are pressure groups really democratic?

Many will have seen the news in the past few weeks headlined by the Extinction Rebellion protests, whilst these protests have calmed down in the wake of the announcement of another General Election taking place on 12th December, there are many more pressure groups around that focus on all areas of life. First of all, a pressure group is a group that tries to influence public policy in the interest of a particular cause and we can see that pressure groups can aid democracy in several ways. Firstly, they help to protect minorities. They achieve this by representing the issues of minorities, bringing about substantive change that can help this group. For example the Disability Discrimination Act of 1995 came about after over 100,000 disabled people engaged in mass protest. Therefore, pressure groups and their actions have helped a struggling minority and this promotes democratic rights for all. Secondly, pressure groups ‘bridge the gap’ in the electoral process. Without pressure groups, people wouldn’t get the chance to hold government to account, apart from once every 5 years when they vote. Pressure groups highlight issues that people want the government to address. Finally, pressure groups encourage political participation and social responsibility from the public . Pressure groups can be seen, by the public as an alternative to political parties. Political party membership has decreased, the membership of pressure groups is on the rise. For example, the Conservative party has just over 500,000 members. However, the National Trust has close to 4,000,000 members. The reason for this increase in membership of pressure groups is largely down to the significant ease of wider communication thanks to the internet which allows society easy access to sites like ’38 degrees’ where people can sign petitions online.

On the other hand, there are many other undemocratic features of pressure groups which could threaten democracy. Pressure groups reinforce inequality. Big business groups such as trade unions will always have more influence than public interest groups. The government is wary of their influence in trade and industry. Therefore the government will always take note of their demands. In this way larger and richer pressure groups with more political clout, will always have more impact on government policy and decisions. Douglas Hurd said pressure groups were ‘serpents that strangle efficient government’, implying that governments can never make decisions with several different pressure groups lobbying from each side, as they cannot please everyone. This is especially true with the Budget, where government already has a hard enough job in deciding how to disperse money. It is ironic that many pressure groups are themselves undemocratic in the running of their groups, such as Green Peace are internally hierarchical. Big pressure groups for industry rarely seek to campaign for the greater good, but only want to further their own monetary advantages and sphere of influence. Direct action is undemocratic as the effect on government is often disproportional to the size of the group.

 

Whilst there are some cases in which pressure groups have disrupted effective democracy in the UK, for the most part pressure groups can enhance democracy. Without the Suffragettes, women would not have the vote. In 2019, Hong Kong students are protesting in an attempt to gain democracy.

 

Darcey Sharpe

12MEZ