Answer:

A pressure group is an organized group of people that aims to influence the policies or actions of the Government. Pressure groups can therefore act as a channel of communication between people and the government.

Pressure groups are defined by three key features:

♤ They seek to exert influence from outside, rather than to directly exercise government power. Pressure groups do not make policy decisions, but rather try to influence those who do (the policy-makers). In that sense, they are ‘external’ to the government.

♤ They typically have a narrow focus. In some cases, they may focus on a single issue (for instance opposing a planned road development).

♤ Their members are united by either a shared belief in a particular cause or a common set of interests. People with different ideological and party preferences may thus work happily together as members of the same pressure group.

Pressure groups promote democracy in a number of ways:

♤ Supplementing electoral democracy

♤ Widening political participation

♤ Promoting education

♤ Ensuring competition and debate

Supplementing electoral democracy- Pressure groups supplement electoral democracy (making up for its defects and limitations) through the following:

♤ Pressure groups keep government in touch with public opinion between elections.

One of the weaknesses of elections is that they only take place every few years. By contrast, pressure groups force the government to engage in an ongoing dialogue with the people, in which the interests or views of the various sections of society cannot be ignored.

♤ Pressure groups give a political voice to minority groups and articulate concerns that are overlooked by political parties. Elections, at best, determine the general direction of the government policy, with parties being anxious to develop policies that appeal to the mass of voters. Pressure groups are therefore often more effective in articulating concerns about issues such as the environment, civil liberties, global poverty, abortion, violence against women and the plight of the elderly.