Do pressure groups promote democracy and participation or do they
concentrate power?
Promote democracy:
Informative function
• Information to policy makers:
o Expertise and knowledge that improves the quality of legislation, lending to more
effective policy
o PGs are highly informed and many institutional groups are made up of professionals
o The American Bar Association grades judicial candidates, and offers expertise to
members of the Senate when voting
o Groups such as the ACLU and NAACP submit amicus curiae briefings to offer guidance to
the Supreme Court
• Scrutiny:
o In providing expertise, PGs are indirectly scrutinising government legislation, thus
carrying out an important constitutional check
o “Pressure groups provide much needed scrutiny, helping citizens to hold representatives
accountable” (York, 2016)
• Educating the public:
o Media campaigns (issue advertising) educates the public on important issues, improving
the quality of voting and increasing voter participation
o Producing Congressmen’s voter records improves accountability and transparency e.g.
the League of Conservation of Voters’ ‘Dirty Dozen’ announces biannually the most
environmentally unfriendly Congressmen (11 of the 12 lost in 2012); or, the NRA grades
candidates from A+ to F, and to a similar success rate, with it’s Victory Fund boasting a
90% success rate
o Some education can come through illegal methods, but to equal success:
§ E.g. Edward Snowdon in 2013 – an employee of the NSA – leaked thousands of
documents to journalists, exposing the fact that the NSA had been secretly
collecting the phone records of millions of Americans, as well as data from sites such
as Google and Facebook; this led to extensive government investigations
Representation
• Minority views/specific interests:
o PGs protect and enforce the views of minority groups that would have otherwise been
excluded from the elitist nature of politics – showing the benefits of pluralism
§ E.g. NAACP and its advocating of black rights through the Civil Rights Acts and
the abolishing of the ‘separate but equal’ precedent in Brown v. Topeka in 1954
§ The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) backed Obergefell v. Hodges in
2015 ruled that the US government must accept same-sex marriages that have been
approved by their states
• More recently, the ACLU have advocated the opposition to the ‘bathroom
bills’, whereby they are lobbying for members to veto the proposed state-
wide bills that prohibit transgenders to use the bathroom of their choice
• Began in March 2015, when the Governor of South Dakota vetoed the bill
in his state after the ACLU set up a meeting with a transgender group, to
which he said helped “put a human face” on the impact of the bill, and their
influence has been enough for the NBA to threaten to move scheduled
games from Charlotte, and for Disney and Marvel to stop filming in Georgia
o These cases demonstrated outcomes that may not have occurred without PG influence
o Robert A. Dahl’s theory of polyarchy states that the government is constantly in touch
with the citizens, and treats them as political equals
• Participation and involvement:
o The problems of dualism (two-party system) and the majoritarian system means that
many views are underrepresented, especially between election; PGs offer direct
involvement and representation that works around the flaws of the current system
concentrate power?
Promote democracy:
Informative function
• Information to policy makers:
o Expertise and knowledge that improves the quality of legislation, lending to more
effective policy
o PGs are highly informed and many institutional groups are made up of professionals
o The American Bar Association grades judicial candidates, and offers expertise to
members of the Senate when voting
o Groups such as the ACLU and NAACP submit amicus curiae briefings to offer guidance to
the Supreme Court
• Scrutiny:
o In providing expertise, PGs are indirectly scrutinising government legislation, thus
carrying out an important constitutional check
o “Pressure groups provide much needed scrutiny, helping citizens to hold representatives
accountable” (York, 2016)
• Educating the public:
o Media campaigns (issue advertising) educates the public on important issues, improving
the quality of voting and increasing voter participation
o Producing Congressmen’s voter records improves accountability and transparency e.g.
the League of Conservation of Voters’ ‘Dirty Dozen’ announces biannually the most
environmentally unfriendly Congressmen (11 of the 12 lost in 2012); or, the NRA grades
candidates from A+ to F, and to a similar success rate, with it’s Victory Fund boasting a
90% success rate
o Some education can come through illegal methods, but to equal success:
§ E.g. Edward Snowdon in 2013 – an employee of the NSA – leaked thousands of
documents to journalists, exposing the fact that the NSA had been secretly
collecting the phone records of millions of Americans, as well as data from sites such
as Google and Facebook; this led to extensive government investigations
Representation
• Minority views/specific interests:
o PGs protect and enforce the views of minority groups that would have otherwise been
excluded from the elitist nature of politics – showing the benefits of pluralism
§ E.g. NAACP and its advocating of black rights through the Civil Rights Acts and
the abolishing of the ‘separate but equal’ precedent in Brown v. Topeka in 1954
§ The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) backed Obergefell v. Hodges in
2015 ruled that the US government must accept same-sex marriages that have been
approved by their states
• More recently, the ACLU have advocated the opposition to the ‘bathroom
bills’, whereby they are lobbying for members to veto the proposed state-
wide bills that prohibit transgenders to use the bathroom of their choice
• Began in March 2015, when the Governor of South Dakota vetoed the bill
in his state after the ACLU set up a meeting with a transgender group, to
which he said helped “put a human face” on the impact of the bill, and their
influence has been enough for the NBA to threaten to move scheduled
games from Charlotte, and for Disney and Marvel to stop filming in Georgia
o These cases demonstrated outcomes that may not have occurred without PG influence
o Robert A. Dahl’s theory of polyarchy states that the government is constantly in touch
with the citizens, and treats them as political equals
• Participation and involvement:
o The problems of dualism (two-party system) and the majoritarian system means that
many views are underrepresented, especially between election; PGs offer direct
involvement and representation that works around the flaws of the current system
