Page 260 - DPOL202_COMPARATIVE_POLITICS_AND_GOVERNMENT_ENGLISH

Unit 11: Pressure Groups

1. A specific interest is the root of the formation of a pressure group. It follows that there can be no Notes
group unless there is a specific interest forcing the individuals to actively resort to political
means in order to improve or defend their positions, one agianst another. As birds of the same
feather flock together, individuals having a common interest come together to fight for the
protection and promotion of their interests. As this fight requires active participation for the
sake of potential articulation, it becomes essential that the members of a group have a serious
and stable base. That is, there is no group at all where a body of people take things non-seriously,
or they disperse after signing a resolution or witnessing a football match. In the true sense, a
particular organised group “claims to represent, not only those who are actually members of it,
but also all those who are potentially members of it, by virtue of some common characteristic
which they share with the groups.
2. Pressure groups play the role of hide-and-seek in politics. That is, they feel afraid of coming
into politics to play their part openly and try to hide their political character by the pretence of
their being non-political entities. It sometimes creates the problem of their political character
and it becomes a matter of dispute to say whether a particular group is a political entity or not
as it seems to confine its interest to the domain of economics or sociology. The part played by
them for the sake of expediency leads to the problem of their role identification. It may,
nevertheless, be pointed out that the role of pressure groups dwindles between the poles of full
politicisation like that of political parties and non-politicisation like that of social or cultural
organisations. Eckstein is very right in his assessment that pressure group politics “represents
something less than the full politicisation of groups and something more than utter
depoliticisation: it constitutes an intermediate level of activity between the political and the
apolitical”.
3. The above point leads to the issue of differentiation between a pressure group and a political
party. While the latter is a bigger organisation committed to certain principles and programmes
and plays an open role in the politics of the country, the former has a limited clientele and
strives to play the role of either a splinter group within a political party or shifting its loyalty
and support from one party to another and, at the same time, pretending its aloofness from
politics. However, both have a political complexion. While a political party plays politics by
virtue of its profession, a pressure group does likewise for the sake of expediency. They, for this
reason, resemble each other in being “informal and extra-constitutional agencies that provide a
good deal of propulsion for the formal constitutional system”.
4. Keeping in view the degree of political involvement, pressure groups may be termed either
‘sectional’ or ‘cause’ groups. They may also be called political and semi-political groups.

They are political or sectional groups when they have a long-range interest and strive to
have a part in the political process for the common needs of their members which are not
of a transient kind.

In contrast, cause groups are formed for a very short occasion to protect or propagate a certain belief,
as religious or humanitarian, and all of their activities are by no means related to the process of
governmental activity. While the former “represent a section of the community” and their concern is
confined to looking after the interest of their members (as farmers or labourers or businessmen), the
latter represent some belief or principle (as abolition of capital punishment) and “seek to act in the
interest of that cause”.
Viewed in a wider perspective, pressure groups may be classified into four parts-’institutional’ groups
(like government departments) which exist to perform functions and keep the governmental process

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 255