Pressure groups have existed in all States and in all ages. But only in modem times they have become numerous and important in both democracies and dictatorships. In democracies, they work openly, while in dictatorships not so openly. “Groups are devices by which the individual fulfils personal value and felt needs.” We shall first enumerate different types of pressure groups and then discuss their methods of working and exercising influence, and lastly their effects on the politics of their countries.
Pressure Group:
A pressure group may be defined as a group of individuals organised for promoting their special economic or some other interest by influencing the government or a public officer. The means used by pressure groups to apply pressure or influence on the government, legislators, administrators, political parties are agitation, persuasion, ‘political sniping’ public opinion-mongering or even bribery.
Pressure groups of various kinds.
Most of them are organised for the protection or promotion of economic interests e.g. of trade unions or trade and industry chambers; some are for educational, social and religious purposes or reform. They are all interest groups. A few of them are set up for promoting some humanitarian or philanthropic purposes, e.g. the CND (.ufe’vC’Apipaign for Nuclear Disarmament or the Greenpeace. Some pressure groups ma>Y consist of one or two individual while others are of large in size and numbers.
Interest Group:
A pressure group may also be called an interest group. An interest may be defined as “any conscious desire to have government policy, or the authoritative allocation of values, move in a particular general or specific direction.” We may, therefore, define an interest group as one which ii organised to promote interest by concerning itself with government policy. Mere sharing of common interest by a group does not make it an interest group: it must try to turn government policy in its direction and share in the political process. When an interest group uses pressure of any kind, it becomes a pressure group. The two tei.-ns are, indeed, interchangeable. The difference between the interest and pressure groups is of degree, not of kind: the former lays emphasis on an interest or cause, while the latter on pressure or influence.
Lobby:
A lobby is a pressure group which works in a legislature to influence the legislators to make laws in the interest of the group. Thus a lobby consisting of men who, knowing all about the inner workings of the legislature, use means, fair or foul, to induce the legislators to use public treasury in the interest of its members. In the U.S.A., every important sector of the national economy has its lobby in the Congress. Thus there are farmers’ lobby, the labour lobby, the railroad lobby, school lobbies, etc.,. etc. There are even one-man lobbies for some humanitarian activity, such as a lobby- against sale of narcotics, etc. In fact, there are hundreds of lobbies in the U.S. Congress of various types.
Cause Group:
A cause group is a pressure or interest group which seeks to promote some cause not of direct benefit to its members but of general benefit for all, e.g. the CND or the Greenpeace or the American Civil Liberties Union.
A faction is a pressure group which works in a political party. They are all sons of pressure groups. They may be one-man group or they may consist of several or many members. They may be loosely organised or are well-knit organisations. They work for private or group, interests. “Pressure in itself, obviously, is neither good nor bad. One can influence the government to his own financial benefit; but one can also influence the government to relieve famine in India”. These groups originate in the felt heeds and or share sympathies of some individuals which are of such interest to them as to become organised to influence government or any public body. Examples of pressure groups are too many to be enumerated. Trade unions, chambers of commerce, manufacturers, and bankers associations, farm organisations, business and professional societies, religious reform and racial group organisations of women, of war veterans, of the aged, etc.
How do the pressure groups work?
The pressure groups put pressure at the following institutions in order to further their interests or causes: (a) the legislature, (b) political parties, (c) the executive or administrative organs of the government, (d) the public at election times, and (e) the public at other times. Methods used by pressure groups vary according to the institutional structure of the State (unitary or federal, etc.), the nature of the party system (centralised or decentralised) and the political culture.
Pressure groups may be exclusive or partial groups. A pressure group is exclusive if it is only concerned to act in the political field, to
intervene with public authorities, e.g. the lobbies. A pressure group is a partial group if political pressure is only a part of its activities, while it has also other objects and means of action, e.g. a trade union, which is mainly concerned with the welfare of its members, and only acts politically in times of strikes, or the like.