Essay
UK Politics Democracy essay plans
- Module
- UK Parliament
- Institution
- PEARSON (PEARSON)
4 A* Level essay plans UK Politics Democracy essay plans
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DEMOCRACY:Evaluate the view that pressure groups harm democracy:
- Enable and enhance pluralism. Although the unwavering influence of insiders can be said
to concentrate power into the hands of the few.
- In many ways pressure groups are essential within any democracy
Representation
- Enhance representation of minority interests preventing majority rule. This is particularly
important when the government has a large majority and is able to dominate Parliament,
e.g. the role of the Stop the War Coalition regarding Blair and the Iraq War.
- Enables populism and combats the elitism present within both the Commons and Lords.
- This is also important considering the nature of FPTP which has led to an
unrepresentative Commons. For example, despite the Green party having only one seat in
the Commons the role of numerous environmental pressure groups have been highly
influential and enabled their views to be represented - e.g. Greenpeace campaigning on
the banning of petrol and diesel cars.
- Act as a mediator between politicians and the public - informing the govt on key issues.
- Political parties cannot provide adequate representation for the full range of diverse
interests and opinions in a modern democracy because their key function is to aggregate
interests into a coherent political entity capable of governing the country
- Role of Occupy Movement which expressed opposition to social and economic inequality
and to the lack of perceived "real democracy" around the world - used direct action and
protested worldwide (however, they failed due to too broad aims and not aligning with
the govt)
- Due to the importance of wealth/insider status in determining success, pressure groups
serve to undermine democracy.
- Thwart the representation of the majority and only serve to enhance elitism and
overrepresented minority views. Serve to reinforce the privileged and undermine
representation of neglected interests.
- Lobbying MPs is often highly elitist and corrupt and works as a mechanism for powerful
groups to influence at the expense of the public interest.
- Use of direct action only benefits the minority but creates widespread disruption, e.g.
RMT railway strikes prior to 2012 were successful despite the disruption caused.
- Pressure groups which represent both sides of the argument can ensure great quality
debate - e.g. nuclear power, and the Iraq war.
Participation
- With a declining participation in conventional means, pressure groups are of ever
increasing importance. They provide an alternative way to participate in the political
process.
- Enable participation between elections.
, - Important role considering the nature of FPTP which encourages low turnout due to the
wasted votes - so encourages participation particularly for minority views which lack
representation within Parliament.
- E.g. RSPB has over 1 million members which is more than the membership for political
parties and has enabled the RSPB to influence govt policies such as them helping the
stopping of wind turbines in key bird flight paths.
- National Trust also has a singiifnat number of members - 5.37 million (although most are
merely ‘chequebook’ members).
- Elections give policy-makers only a crude and infrequent idea of public opinion upon
which parties must aggregate issues to form a manifesto, citizens are also only able to
cast a single vote and cannot indicate which issues matter post. Therefore, politicians
through conventional means lack a detailed guide - so pressure groups play an important
informing role and offer wider participation.
- Stop the War Coalition involved over 750,000 people and was a clear example of the
public engaging in politics - low turnout is a result of election apathy.
- In reality, many pressure groups do not offer effective means of participation. This is due
to the importance of wealth and insider status in attaining true success.
- For example, CBI is far more successful than TUC despite TUC having 5.5m members.
This is due to the nature of the government in power meaning the extent to which they
enable participation is down to the government in power. Result of deindustrialisation has
led to their decline.
- Many pressure groups are highly corrupt and elitist undermining democracy. Arguably,
the apparent diversity and pluralism of the political process is a misleading facade and
businesses due to the economic growth and tax they provide have a special salience in
making demands on politicians - able to find a way to buy political power.
- Many members do not actively participate and are simply cheque-book members.
- Encourage illegal direct action which has a number of external costs to the majority, e.g.
just stop oil, insulate britain, and extinction rebellion. Perhaps it can be argued that these
are the methods necessary to warn of the environment problem - government and society
have not taken action far enough.
- Encourage a weak form of participation which is thin and sporadic.
Influencing policy
- Force the government to make better and more informed decisions, based on people's
wants and requirements, because pressure groups represent and defend causes initiated by
citizens.
Key in improving the quality of policy, e.g. BMA - role in smoking ban legislation.
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