Taking Action: Citizens and Pressure Groups

The question behind the list

You can already list what a citizen can do to achieve their aims and hold the powerful to account: sign or start a petition, demonstrate, vote, join a pressure group, join a political party. That list is worth having and it takes about a minute to learn. It is also not what this part of your specification is really asking. The interesting question is what happens when people act together and have to choose. Two campaigning groups can want change just as badly and go about it in completely different ways. One is in meetings with civil servants; the other is on the street with placards. It is tempting to read that difference as a difference in how strongly they feel, or in how reasonable they are. It is almost never either. By the end of this module you should be able to say what it actually is, and that single idea will carry you through every question this topic can ask.

Words for groups that campaign

Five terms, and a warning. The last four sort groups in TWO different ways, not one, and mixing the two up is the commonest mistake on this topic.

Type the group

Two axes, two questions

A student writes: "It is a cause group, so it must be an outsider group." What is wrong with that?

• The two labels answer different questions, so one does not follow from the other
• Nothing is wrong; cause groups are outsider groups by definition
• Cause groups are actually political parties
• It is wrong because cause groups have no members

In the room or outside it

This is the axis that explains tactics. Read the two columns and notice that the differences in what each group DOES all follow from the difference in what each group HAS.

What makes a group an insider

Select the TWO things that make a group more likely to be treated as an insider group.

• It has expertise or information that government departments find useful
• Its aims are broadly compatible with what the government of the day is trying to do
• Its members feel more strongly about their cause than other groups do
• It organises larger demonstrations than other groups

Why marching is not strength

Here is the idea to take away, and it is worth more marks than any list on this topic. Tactics are not a measure of how strongly a group feels. They are a function of the access it has. A group that is consulted routinely does not need to march, because it is already being heard in the room where the decision is taken; marching would achieve less than the meeting it already has, and might cost it that meeting. A group with no such access marches because publicity and public opinion are the only routes left to it. So when you see a demonstration, the safest inference is not that these people care more than others. It is that they are outside the room. Your specification names three reasons tactics vary, and all three are versions of the same point: the nature of the cause, the group's relationship with government, and its membership base. A small group of specialists with useful expertise will lobby; a large group with numbers and no invitation will demonstrate. Neither is the more committed. They are playing the hands they hold.

Why the tactics differ

Your specification gives three reasons why pressure groups use different tactics. The nature of the _____ affects what will persuade anyone. The group's _____ with government decides whether it is consulted before decisions are made or hears about them afterwards. And its _____ base matters, because a group whose strength is _____ will use methods that show them, while a group whose strength is expertise will use methods that show that instead. Taken together they mean tactics reflect a group's _____ rather than the strength of its feelings.

The sentence that judges

Four sentences from an answer about pressure group tactics. Select the ONE that JUDGES rather than EXPLAINS. That is the sentence an examiner marks down.

• Groups without routine access rely more heavily on publicity and public opinion.
• Groups that demonstrate are less reasonable than groups that agree to negotiate.
• A group with expertise government needs is more likely to be consulted directly.
• A group may lose access if it publicly embarrasses the department it deals with.

Say why access changes tactics

Assemble a sentence explaining why two equally committed groups campaign differently.

Which tactic works best

An exam question asks which pressure group tactic is most effective. What is the strongest way to begin your answer?

• By saying it depends on the group's access, its membership base and the nature of its cause, then showing how
• By stating that lobbying is most effective, because it reaches decision-makers directly
• By stating that demonstrations are most effective, because they attract the most attention
• By stating that petitions are most effective, because they show how many people agree

Group types drill

Five quick questions on the terms this specification expects you to use precisely. Three lives.

Judging a campaign fairly

A question describes a hypothetical group campaigning to keep a local service open, says it organised a demonstration and a petition, and asks you to evaluate how effective its tactics were likely to be. Here is an answer that would score well. The group's choice of tactics fits its position. As a cause group open to anyone in the area, its main resource is numbers and local sympathy rather than technical expertise, and a demonstration and petition both display exactly that resource. If it has no routine access to the decision-makers, these are close to the only routes available, so the choice is reasonable rather than merely dramatic. Their effectiveness, however, depends on who is deciding. Public pressure works where the decision-maker is answerable to those same people, such as elected councillors, and works far less well where a decision rests on criteria the public cannot influence. It would therefore be worth the group also seeking a meeting and putting its case in the terms the decision is actually being made in, since that is the route an insider group would have used from the start. Notice what that answer does. It explains the choice by the group's position, judges effectiveness against who is listening, and reaches a conclusion. It never says the group was right, and it never calls anybody unreasonable.

Choosing tactics for your group

You advise a hypothetical sectional group representing people in one occupation. It has technical expertise and is consulted regularly by the relevant department. Take the decisions in order.

• A change to regulations is being drafted. What is the strongest first move?
• A member suggests a public campaign attacking the department by name. What is the risk?
• A second group, a cause group with many members and no access, wants to work together. What should you expect?
• The change goes ahead anyway. How should the group judge whether its tactics failed?

Evaluate the tactics

"Some pressure groups are more effective than others simply because they campaign harder." Evaluate this statement, using the terms from this topic, and reach a conclusion.

• Name three actions an individual citizen can take to achieve their aims
• Explain the difference between a cause group and a sectional group
• Explain the difference between an insider group and an outsider group, and say why it is a separate question
• Give the three reasons your specification names for why tactics vary between groups
• Explain why an insider group is unlikely to demonstrate
• Explain why effectiveness cannot be judged from the tactic alone
• Reach a conclusion on the statement, and make clear what it gets wrong about why groups differ