The Effect of a Large Membership on the Success of a Pressure Group The success of a Pressure group is based on a number of factors. One of these factors is Membership of Pressure Group. Mass membership is extremely useful if the group wishes to make an impact on the media. Large scale demonstrations, marches or even strikes are newsworthy and may catch the public imagination, but they necessarily lead to influence. In fact, the use of indirect methods, such as demonstrations, can be interpreted as a sign of weakness rather than strength. The social background of the members can be very important as well. A membership with middle-class, public schools, and university backgrounds can be very important in building contacts with members of the civil service or the government. This is why insider groups like BMA and Bar Association maintained insider status for a long time. Similarly members of the Friends of the Earth had senior managerial, administrative, professional, educational, technical and scientific occupations. But still the size of membership of a group is by no mean the most important. There are other factors such as knowledge, wealth and importance in society. Pressure groups with knowledge know the issues and the political system because a great deal of their influence depends the credibility they can build with the decision makers. MPs, minister and civil servants turn to pressure groups for information. To achieve an insider status the information must be reliable. A weal informed group will be aware, for example, of the limited power of MPs and will use them to ask questions of ministers propose amendments to legislations and perhaps introduce private member bill. As minister rely on civil servants for their advice so a civil servant is an excellent target for a pressure group activity. Wealth too determines the nature of a pressure group the trade union movement’s members are particularly wealthy but their numbers make the movement relatively rich. Instead of a big membership a group can also have small in number but rich members.
Social Influence Research - Do the Ends Justify the Means? To what extent does the importance of social influence research, justify the methods used in its investigation? The debate about ethics in psychology focuses on two areas: protection of participants and benefiting society. This is a double obligation dilemma as if some psychologists are not allowed to do certain experiments because of ethical restraints; this can cause problems with validity.
Adolescent years are a time period in a human beings life where we search for a place that we are most comfortable. It is a time where we try to find friends with similar interests and those who will easily accept us for who we are. Once we are accepted by those friends, we tend to do more things with hopes of getting approval from “the group.” Trying to fit in during adolescence is a significant factor for self-motivation because it determines the level of being accepted and popularity amongst our peers. Through our year of adolescence we experiment and try to discover oneself as a person, but we also find what our strongest traits are that are used in order to be accepted, or to feel more popular. Popularity is defined as a state of being liked or accepted by a group of people (cite). As the group of people gets larger, so does that person’s popularity. For some people, popularity may come easy due to their charisma or looks, but there are those children who feel lonely due to their lack of popularity.
Sectional and Promotional Pressure Groups Sectional groups protect the interests of a section of society and act on their behalf, they are sometimes referred to as ‘self interest’ groups, some examples of sectional groups include BMA (British medical Association) and the TUC (Trades union congress). However promotional groups promote and argue a cause that is for the greater good – rather than sel interest, examples of promotional groups include Greenpeace U.K, Amnesty international and shelter. What methods do pressure groups employ to influence the political process? When thinking of ways to influence the political process pressure groups have to be careful when discussing tactics. They can either choose to take a direct approach, using direct action which includes demonstrations or they can opt to take action which is not such high profile.
Distinguish Between Sectional and Promotional Pressure Groups Sectional groups seek to represent the common interests of a particular section of society. As a result, members of sectional groups are directly and personally concerned with the outcome of the campaign fought by the group because they usually stand to gain professionally and/or economically. Trade unions, employers' associations and professional bodies are all sectional groups and membership is usually restricted. Promotional groups endeavour to promote a particular cause, and for this reason are sometimes called 'cause' groups. They are not self-interested in that the achievement of their objectives is not necessarily of direct professional or economic benefit to the members of the group.
According to Coleman & James (1961) ‘cohesion tends to be weaker and moral tends to be lower in a larger group than in a smaller one.’ The reason they state this happens is because, in the majority of cases there is a lack of intimacy within the group and in extremely large groups the members are almost strangers to one another.
Firstly, one may think the size of a group is a factor and more people
The Influence of Pressure Groups on the Government This essay will outline the significance to which pressure groups have an influence on government and explain how they have fared under New Labour governments. Whilst the term ‘pressure groups’ may be relatively new, the concept itself dates back as far as 1787. The Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade was led by William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson and successfully campaigned for the abolition of the slave trade. (Jones, 2004, p233) Pressure groups are formed by a group of people who share a common interest or goal.
Step one to take an assessment of your situation is an extremely important step that is often disregarded. Organizations often look at the challenges they face but they don’t necessary identify membership opportunities. While working for AmeriCorps I was a part of the team that worked with state commissions to help their state nonprofit programs run well. This position also required that I participate in the yearly grant review process. Basically we would read through all the applications and pick chose the “best of the best” based on things such as the needs in the state, if they were focusing on a presidential initiative, how they have done in the past and what they plan to do. This process only weeds out a few and than we look at their potential for success. This always goes to recruitment and retention. If you can’t recruit and retain your program will have little to no success. For those who were unsuccessful during the grant review, were encouraged to work with their programs at the beginning of the year to identify their shortfalls and later this assessment process became mandatory. An important point that Levin made was that an organization needs a historical perspective, meaning it is helpful to be aware of their successes and failures and to learn from them (364).
Pondering regarding my fellow classmates’ posts and additional article readings, I consider that groupthink, persuasion, and genetics should be additional concepts that I should have in mind when addressing individuals in a health psychology setting. Regarding groupthink, I must have in mind that changes on behaviors can be hindered if the environment does not help. Studies regarding groupthink have found that in real life, a majority of people can make change the decision of an individual even it is not in accordance with the individual’s will, (Aroson, Wilson, & Akert, 2007). For instance, let us say that I am assessing a client that needs to change eating habits. He/she might have the desire, but if most of his/hers immediate family members
Simmel showed that a large group size has a different structure than smaller one. Whenever there are two members (dyads) the relationship has a particular hold on each other. There is a responsibility of each member to the collective action of the group. This form of group is like no other, the decision of one to leave will dissolve the fundamental reality
Our behavior usually is controlled and decided by us, but that is not always the
The Point of Pressure Groups Pressure groups are a collection of people that stress the points in which they want the Government to notice in order to bring about change. This is done for two different reasons. Firstly, it is done by sectional groups that are groups sectionally involved in defending their own economic interests, and bringing about change to improve the state of their interests such as the Confederation of Business Industry and National Farmers’. Secondly are cause or promotional groups that are organised to campaign on behalf of causes with no direct link to economic self-interest such as the RSPCA and National Trust. Pressure groups fall into two categories, which are insider and outsider groups.
As progress of the society, knowledge standard of people are constantly increased. People no longer blindly obey the government when they are dissatisfied with the policies and exercising different channels to express their views, it reflects the raise of civic participation and political awareness. This essay is purported to discuss the statement – “The power of pressure groups to influence government is, in reality, limited.” with examples of Hong Kong.
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.
The Effects of Pressure Groups on the Government A pressure group is an organised interest group, which seek to influence the formulation and the implementation of public policy. In both the United Kingdom and the United States of America, membership to political parties has decreased, meanwhile membership to pressure groups have increased. Pressure groups differ from political parties in that they do not seek to win political office; in addition, they concern themselves with sectional policy rather than a wide range, and therefore pressure groups aim to protect or advance a shared interest. The first amendment of the US constitution claims citizens have the “right of speech, petition and association”. Seeing as the constitution is sovereign, it plays an essential role in protecting the rights of organised interests.