A detailed, in-depth summary of chapter 12 of the book Politics by Andrew Heywood. The summary includes all terms and definitions and is sufficient scope for the exam. This book is often used for first-year political science courses.
CHAPTER 12 – GROUPS, INTERESTS AND MOVEMENTS
GROUP POLITICS
- Major linkages between government and the governed in modern societies
- Interest groups have more distinct and clear-cut position
- Cleavage → social division that creates a collective identity on both sides of the
divide
- Start – Britain and The Anti-Corn Law League in 1839
o Later Society for Women’s Rights in France in 1866
- Association → a group formed by voluntary action, reflecting a recognition of shared
interests or common concerns
Types of groups
- Are we concerned with groups or with interests?
- Do groups have to have a certain level of cohesion and organization or is it just
people with the same interest?
- Interest → that which benefits an individual or group: interests are usually
understood to be objective or real
- Alexis de Tocqueville
o French politician, theorist, and historian
o Democracy in America
o Critique of US democracy with its equality of opportunity – tyranny of the
majority
Communal groups
- Embedded in social fabric, membership is based on birth rather than recruitment
o Families, tribes, ethnic groups
o Found on the basis of shares heritage, traditional bonds and loyalties
o Africa
- But also continue to survive in advanced industrial states – Catholic groups in Italy
and Ireland
Institutional groups
- Part of the machinery of government – attempt to exert influence through that
- Enjoy no measure of independence
- Example: bureaucracies and military
- Authoritarian regimes – USSR and heavy industry economic interests
- Now: military-industrial complex
- Interest group → (pressure group) organized association that aims to influence the
policies or actions of government, they differ from political parties because:
o They seek to influence from outside
o They typically have narrow focus
o They seldom have broader programmes features
, Associational groups
- Formed by people who come together to pursue shared but limited goals
o Voluntary, common interests
- Increasingly important in industrial societies
o Local, national, and international
o Anti-constitutional and paramilitary groups excluded
- Direct action → political action taken outside the constitutional and legal framework;
direct action may range from passive resistance to terrorism
- Two most common classifications:
- Sectional and proportional groups
o Sectional groups → exist to advance or protect the interests of their members
▪ Trade unions, business corporations, trade associations, professional
bodies
▪ Functional groups – groups engaged in production, distribution and
exchange of goods and services
o Promotional groups → set to advance shared values, ideals, or principles
▪ Pro-life/pro-choice
▪ Public interest groups
▪ Save the Whale, National Association for the Advancement of
Coloured People
- Non-governmental organizations → private, non-commercial group or body which
seeks to achieve its ends through non-violent means (usually international politics)
- Insider and outsider groups
o Insider groups → enjoy regular, privileged and usually institutionalised access
to government
▪ Compatible in the government
o Outsider groups → not consulted by the government or only irregularly and
not on senior level
▪ Lacking support from government
▪ Have to ‘go public’
▪ Radical and protest groups
Models of group politics
- The role of groups reflects the political culture, party system or institutional
arrangements
Pluralist model
- Most positive image of group politics
o Defending individual from the government and promoting democratic
responsiveness
- Political power is fragmented and dispersed
o A. Bentley – The Process of Government
- All groups have potential to access the government
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