Pressure Groups What is a pressure group? A pressure is an organisation that does not put up candidates for election, but tries to influence government policy or legislation. For example, in March 1998 around 300,000 people went to London to protest about the Labour government's rural policies for example the Countryside March - the government reacted by announcing plans for a Ministry of Rural Affairs and by publishing a white paper investigating all aspects of rural life. Pressure groups also provide a means of participation in local politics between elections. They can also be described as interest groups, lobby groups or protest groups. A pressure group can be a large organisation like the CBI (Confederation of British Industry), which represents 150,000 businesses, and it can also be a smaller scale pressure group like CLARA (Central Area Leamington Resident's Association), which represents less than 300 households campaigning to improve Leamington Spa. There are quite a number of smaller pressure groups which are only set up in order to influence one decision (e.g. a group may be set up in order to protest against a telephone mast being erected). The aim of all pressure groups is to influence the people who actually have the power to make decisions and they seek to influence the decisions made by those who do hold political power. Pressure groups provide a means of popular participation in national politics between elections. They are sometimes able to gather sufficient support to force government to amend or even scrap legislation. A pressure group can use a variety of different methods to influence law and government legislation. Firstly, it can inform legislators of its member's preferences. Alternatively it may give financial incentives or time to help with an election campaign. Also its members may threaten, as a group, to vote in mass against a party. Fourthly, a pressure group may speed up legislation by writing bills. Finally, a pressure group may attempt to influence members of the executive, who have some law making input and who can partly decide the strength and
The law making process is a lengthy process. First, a representative must have an idea for a new law and they become the sponsor of this bill. The representative must present to the bill to the Clerk of the House if it is in the house (H.R. Bills), or in the Senate (S Bills). The Government Printing Office, GPO, then prints the bill and distributes it to each representative. The Speaker of the House, for further study, then assigns this bill to a standing committee within the house. The standing committee studies the bill and its contents and has two options, either to release the bill with a recommendation to pass it or lay it aside so it cannot be voted on. If the bill is released, it may be voted on or sent into debate within the house and needs a majority vote for the bill to move onto the Senate. Within the Senate, the bill must go through one of the Senate’s sixteen standing committees, and as with the House of Representatives, the bill is either released or pigeonholed. If it is released, a simple majority passes the bill. The bill takes another step into a conference committee, which is made up of members of the Hou...
Interest groups, lobbyists, large corporations, and PACs try to influence the congressional committees' bills so they can have a say in the legislative process. When an interest group hears about a bill that is being debated on in a committee, they try to influence a members vote and they try to get a part of the bill changed. For example, a lobbyist came to me on a bill I proposed on making health care plans have no minimum requirement on benefits the company gives to its patients. He told me about how he did not get the right treatments and tests done on diseases he has and now is suffering badly from them. It was because the health plan did not have to give him anything extra. He changed my mind on the bill, and I changed the bill to setting a minimum standard on benefits given to patients.
The KKK was set up to build an all white society based on Christian beliefs. They claim that
Most legislation originates from governmental departments and agencies. In committees, a majority vote decides and often, compromise must be reached in order for a bill or law to survive committee action. This frequently requires that a delegate alter his position in order to achieve a compromise. This compromise may or may not reflect the wishes of the people he/she represents. The Modern Bureaucracy in the United States serves to administer, gather information, conduct investigations, regulate, and license.
The Human Rights Campaign is the largest gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender advocacy group in the nation. With over 400,000 members, the group is able to lobby very effectively in Washington and has an impressive legislative record. The HRC began in 1980 as a fund to raise money for gay-supportive congressional candidates. It was meant to be a response to the successful right-wing groups at the time, including the National Conservative Political Action Committee and Moral Majority. By 1984, the Human Rights Campaign Fund was effectively supporting congressional candidates, raising over 475,000 dollars. By 1990, the HRC had a membership of 25 thousand, and was organizing marches in the capitol. Between 1990 and the present, the Campaign grew to it’s current size nearing half of a million members, and the group’s PAC contributed over 5 million dollars to lobbying efforts. These efforts focus on four issues: First, it lobbies to increase efforts to fight HIV/AIDS. Secondly, the HRC aims to use federal legislation and workplace advocacy to combat discrimination in the workplace. Third, an effort is made to pass legislation against anti-gay hate crimes. Lastly, the Campaign works to pass legislation addressing lesbian health issues.
In today’s politics, interest groups play a large role in the government system. An interest Group is defined as 'an organized body of individuals who try to influence public policy.' This system is designed so that interest groups would be an instrument of public influence on politics to create changes, but would not threaten the government much. These organizations are either made up of people who represent a different organization or people who represent themselves. Interest groups represent the citizens’ interests and views, while expressing their own needs as well. They are the link between people and politics, giving a way for the public to voice their opinions. Members of interest groups use different tactics to basically impose their wants or needs onto the government by lobbying, educating, and campaigning.
Essentially, interest groups use many different tactics to accomplish their central goals but this paper will detail 2 of them. The first being lobbying, which is the act of persuading businesses as well as government leaders to help a specific organization by changing laws or creating events in favor of that group. Interest groups use this technique by hiring someone to represent them and advocate their cause to on the behalf of the entire group. These hired representatives usually have more than enough experience within the political field and are able to persuade connections within the government for help with their concerns. This method gets a lot of criticism because although lobbyist offer their input to government officials on pending laws, they only look at what is favorable for their cause. When trying to make a difference you have to not only reflect on your argument but on the side affects of that argument as
The “advocacy explosion” in the United States in the 20th century has been caused by the extreme increase in the number of interest groups in the United States. The general public views the increase and the groups themselves as a cancer that has come to the body of American politics and is spreading. The explosion in the number of interest groups and interest group members and finances has had an effect on the decline of the American political party and partisanship, the effect on democracy and the public interest, and the bias that has come with interest group competition.
1. What is the difference between a. How does lobbying work in government? Lobbying is an enormous business. A lobbyist is an advocate who seeks to influence members of the government (like members of Congress) to endorse legislation that would advantage their group. The lobbying occupation is a lawful and essential part of our democratic political procedure that is not extremely well implicit by the broad population.
When I looked over the list of possible interest groups that I could choose from Health Insurance Association of America (HIAA) automatically stood out to me. I chose this interest group because my major is Physical Therapy and I figured it would be interesting to track this semester because of the changes currently happening in health care right now. I had never heard of this interest group before so I had to find their website. When I started searching for it I had some difficulty finding it because another interest group kept coming up called America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP). I kept looking at it and found out that HIAA had merged with American Association of Health Plans (AAHP) to form America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP). America's Health Insurance Plan's URL is www.ahip.org that they use to post updates.
In our countries government, Congress plays a major role in decision making. They’re primary role is to pass laws. These laws start off as bills. Bills can only be introduced by members of Congress. Although these bills only come from Congressman, there are many people who influence these bills. Such as the president, regular citizens, offices in the executive branch, and many others. The bills right off the bat do not have a very good chance of passage. Only one out of every ten bills even gets any attention at all. This is because they must go through many tests and hearings before they even have a chance of landing on the president’s desk. These steps in a bill becoming a law are very important, and make sure that all bills passed into law are the best of the best.
they have and how effectively they can influence institutions of power. The power of the A pressure group is an organised group which has one of its principal purposes the exercise of influence on institutions. political) in order to secure decisions favourable to the interests. the group represents or to discourage decisions from being taken which would be unfavourable to those interests. Pressure groups also are slightly more complex and have many different forms, statuses and.
Before a law is passed it spends a great deal of time in the hands of officials in Congress, and even
This essay explores pressure groups and their role in democracy and society. It also discusses how pressure groups use the media as a communication strategy to influence.
Groups are the essence of life in a society for the reason that everyone is born into one, such as to a mother and father. Your family, church congregation, faculty at a university, and sports teams whether professional or not are all examples of groups. In a general sense, " Groups are people who have something in common and who believe that what they have in common is significant." Societies are the largest and most difficult groups that are studied by social scientists. They are people who share a culture and a territory; they also contain smaller groups within itself. " The types of groups within a society are primary groups, secondary groups, reference groups, social networks, in-groups and out-groups."