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Javeed Ahmad Bhat, Lovely Professional University Unit 11: Pressure Groups

Unit 11: Pressure Groups Notes

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
11.1 Meaning and Nature of a Pressure Groups
11.2 Difference between Political Parties and Pressure Groups
11.3 Kinds and Role of Pressure Groups
11.4 Summary
11.5 Key-Words
11.6 Review Questions
11.7 Further Readings

Objectives

After studying this unit students will be able to:
• Understand the Meaning and Nature of a Pressure Groups.
• Know the Difference between Political Parties and Pressure Groups.
• Discuss the Kinds and Role of Pressure Groups.
Introduction

Recent studies of the role of pressure groups in the sphere of modern empirical political theory have
appeared as a refined version of the philosophical and deductive theories of pluralism. Here the
atomistic liberalism of Locke and the idealistic collectivism of Green that had their clear manifestation
in the works of great pluralists like Figgis, Maitland, Cole and Laski have been replaced by, what
may be called, analytical pluralism of David Truman, V.O. Key, Jr. and Earl Latham who have taken
inspiration from Bentley’s The Process of Government published in 1908. The group theorists, as they
are called, take it for granted that society is a mosaic of numerous groups living in interaction with
each other. Curiously, the groups make claims on the government and the government, in turn, acts
as the adjuster or the balancer of the interests of the social groups. The result is that each of the major
social groups “tends to associate itself with a distinctive interpretation of politics or ideology.” The
emphasis on the dynamics as well as the processes in group theory “is essentially a criticism of the
formalism and static quality of the institutional approach to political analysis that was prevalent in
the early phase of the twentieth century. In addition, the tenacious insistence of group theorists on
the central position of the group was a reaction not only to the atomistic individualism of the so-
called classical liberals but also to a kind of simple psychologism that purported to deal with social
events in terms of human ideas and ideals without a very adequate theory of perception.
11.1 Meaning and Nature of a Pressure Groups

The politics of pressure groups hinges on the psychological foundation of self-interest. It is the cardinal
factor of self-interest that forces men to be in unison with other ‘like-minded’ ones in order to enhance
their position and power to the point of gaining recognition, legitimisation and realisation of their
specific interest. That is, it depends upon the fact that “a man’s skin sits closer to him than his shirt.
And so men think more carefully, as a rule, about their immediate concern than about their general
welfare; they are more likely to perceive their own interests in politics than the larger framework.
“However, the interests of a man are many and multifold. He lives not in a ‘universe’ but in a
'multiverse’ of interests, unless he is a recluse or a man living away from the life of his community.

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