Pressure Groups

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Pressure Groups What is a pressure group? A pressure is an organisation that does not put up candidates for election, but tries to influence government policy or legislation. For example, in March 1998 around 300,000 people went to London to protest about the Labour government's rural policies for example the Countryside March - the government reacted by announcing plans for a Ministry of Rural Affairs and by publishing a white paper investigating all aspects of rural life. Pressure groups also provide a means of participation in local politics between elections. They can also be described as interest groups, lobby groups or protest groups. A pressure group can be a large organisation like the CBI (Confederation of British Industry), which represents 150,000 businesses, and it can also be a smaller scale pressure group like CLARA (Central Area Leamington Resident's Association), which represents less than 300 households campaigning to improve Leamington Spa. There are quite a number of smaller pressure groups which are only set up in order to influence one decision (e.g. a group may be set up in order to protest against a telephone mast being erected). The aim of all pressure groups is to influence the people who actually have the power to make decisions and they seek to influence the decisions made by those who do hold political power. Pressure groups provide a means of popular participation in national politics between elections. They are sometimes able to gather sufficient support to force government to amend or even scrap legislation. A pressure group can use a variety of different methods to influence law and government legislation. Firstly, it can inform legislators of its member's preferences. Alternatively it may give financial incentives or time to help with an election campaign. Also its members may threaten, as a group, to vote in mass against a party. Fourthly, a pressure group may speed up legislation by writing bills. Finally, a pressure group may attempt to influence members of the executive, who have some law making input and who can partly decide the strength and

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