Page 263 - DPOL202_COMPARATIVE_POLITICS_AND_GOVERNMENT_ENGLISH

Comparative Politics and Government

Notes on the office of the President, but in a parliamentary system such a focus is laid on the Prime
Minister and key cabinet ministers. These are the real decision-makers and since their number
is quite small, the pressure groups feel that it is easier to have access to this small core of great
administrators than to the very large community of the legislators. We may note so many
instances when pressure groups make every effort to dislodge a Prime Minister or his ministers
if their decisions adversely affect the interests of the pressure groups. Cases of corruption and
maladministration are exposed by interest groups so as to dislodge an unfavourable minister
from the position of influence. It is also possible that some big and powerful groups may have
easy access to the ministers on the basis of their power of money or on the show of their
manpower that may be of great use to them at the time of elections.
3. Bureaucracy: It is said that bureaucracy is a politically neutral organ of government. But a
student of empirical political theory would not endorse this view. No part of government can
be free from the tugs and pull of politics. The bureaucrats have their own interests. The leaders
of the pressure groups manage to establish their links with the bureaucrats of the country. Here
they find the safest berth. The legislators are ‘laymen’ in most of the cases and their tenures are
quite short, the minister are also ‘laymen’ and their tenures are quite shorter, but the bureaucrats
are ‘experts’ in the field of administration and their tenures are quite long. To have easy and
close access to the permanent civil servants of the country is what the groups really want. This
they can achieve by keeping the top public servants in good humour, by offering them ‘gifts’
and ‘benevolences,’ or by giving them ‘rewards’ on various pretexts. The bureaucrats may
oblige their solicitors by putting remarks on the file or by drafting a circular letter in a way that
goes to protect their interests. It is also possible that in the name of being, ‘expert’ the permanent
officials determined the ground of national policy to be adopted and implemented by the
government of the country.
4. Judiciary: It is a political affair. There fore, leading pressure groups take active interest in the
nomination of the judges. They try to manipulate things in a way that the names of their
‘favourites’ are picked by the head of the state and eventually high judicial offices are occupied
by them. If there is provision for the ratification of such names (as by the Senate in the United
States), the pressure groups engage ‘lobbyists’ to have then purpose served. It is likely that
some groups resent the appointment of a particular person as a judge of the Supreme Court
and then they may ask ‘filibusters’ to make it ineffective. Apart form this, there are some
other ways to influence the judges as honouring them at specially arranged public functions,
arranging seminars and symposiums to hear their legal observations and, in return, paying
them ‘suitable honorariums.’ But some other ways may also be adopted to terrorise the judges
as giving something against their integrity to the press, bombarding their homes and offices
with mails and telephones, and preparing ground for their ‘impeachment’.
In addition to what we have said above about the role of pressure groups, two points should be borne
in mind. First, it all applies to a democratic country where the society is pluralistic and political
process is ‘open.’ But differant is as the case of countries with singularistic social system and ‘closed
‘ process of politics. In ‘totalitarian’ countries pressure groups exist but thay have to play a
‘unidirectional’ role. All groups which criticise or oppose the leader and his party in power are forcibly
suppressed. It is a different thing that such groups become ‘underground’ and manage to come up
their a successful coup or in the changed political atmosphere. Second, even in the case of democratic
countries, it should be remembered that what we have said above applies to the advanced countries
of the Western world. It does not apply to the ‘developing’ societies to the same extent where the
level of ‘political culture’ is still very low. But the essential fact remains that pressure groups play
their part in the political process of every country whether modern or traditional, democratic or
totalitarian. Their role affects the working of the government and, in turn, the government “functions
to establish and maintain a measure of order in the relationship among groups”.

Critical Appreciation
The role of numerous pressure groups in the political process of a country has been differently
evaluated by the students of this subject. In its defence, it is said that interest groups have opened a

258 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY