This essay will consider the importance of political parties and pressure groups and the limit

to their activities in society. The effective performance of these functions by political parties
depends upon the constitutional framework, the electoral system and the technologies of
communication available to them within a given state. I am going to use the UK as a case
study.

A political party can be defined as “an organisation that sponsors candidates for political
office under the organisations name”.1 Edmund Burke defined political party “as a body of
men united by promoting their joint endeavours the national interest, upon some particular
principle in which they are all agreed”.2

However, political parties are needed in our society because of the following reasons

Firstly, political parties formulate policies and help refine those formulated by the Government.
However, a party as a whole does not generally formulates policy, rather the leadership tend to mark
out the strategy with some consultation with its membership and the public. The formulation and
implementation of these policies is dependent on factors outside the party such as foreign policy, the
economy, social welfare etc. In the UK for instance, the original ideas for policy seem to emerge
from party conferences as evident in the speech of the newly elected Labour Party Leader, Edward
Miliband in the recently concluded Labour party conference.
.
Another importance of political parties is that they provide recruitment opportunities for young
Politicians. The Recruitment Function is the name given to the way that parties recruit almost all
Parliamentary candidates. They also recruit members for other public offices. Almost all
parliamentary and presidential candidates are recruited by political Parties. They also aim to recruit
the brightest young politicians in order to promote their image and provide more choice for the
future. This function is important because young and potential politicians may lack the finance and
infrastructure to contest in the polls, thus their dependence on political parties for financial and
infrastructural support.

Political parties also represent different sections of society. In the UK, within the Labour and Liberal
Democrats parties, members influence and to a large extent determine policies which tend to appeal
to a wider range of people. The importance of this is that political parties have to be in touch with
public opinion and get the balance right in respect of the policies they put forward. In other words,
they link public opinion and the state to some extent and provide representation of views.

The availability of political parties enables the public to have a rough idea of the candidates’
views when they have affiliated themselves with one of the available parties. This will give
the public and especially voters a more informed decision. In other words, they give the
electorate a choice between different approaches during elections thus bringing clarity to the
electoral process.

1
Janda et al (1994) p. 62
2
Burke, Edmund The functions of American parties p.128
Finally, they link the public with the state and authority and also provide links between
opposing points of view and a vehicle for discussion and debate. They provide a channel for
ideas to be brought to the attention of those with power.

On the other part, pressure groups sometimes called interest groups are “associations formed
to promote a sectional interest in the political system.”3 Broadly speaking, pressure group
may be defined as organisations that seek to influence, counteract or reverse government
policy, without itself seeking to govern. “Pressure groups exist as conduits of political
activity and serve the function of organizing and transmitting political pressure from the
pluralistic mass of society into the process of central government.” (Professor Whin Grant)

However, there is need for pressure groups in our society because of the functions they
perform;

Firstly, Pressure groups are seen to enhance the democratic process in that joining pressure
groups is a way for ordinary individuals to participate in the political process. In the UK for
instance, general and local government elections were held every five year period this means
that the participation of most people in politics is limited to casting a vote during these
elections. Thus this gave birth to the notion of democratic deficit i.e. most electorates have
little or no say over decisions of the government affecting their lives between elections.
Pressure groups enable people to express their views and take active measures to influence
the decision of the government. They provide the opportunity for grievances to be voiced and
discussed at local level which may not have been dealt with at central or local government
level. Thus pressure groups are a way of articulating local grievances and can help in the
community building process and help people involved with their local communities.

The activities of pressure groups can be seen as complementary to those of political parties.
They achieve this function by exerting pressure on the government or political parties to
enable their issues to gain or receive prominence by the inclusion such issues on their party
manifestos as if they are already there. By doing so, pressure groups help counter the
monopoly of the political process in parliament. For example, cause groups such as the Green
party4 raises environmental issues for discussion which may be outside the scope of a party’s
manifesto.

Pressure groups also facilitate the distribution of power away from the central government
towards the people who are actually affected by particular decisions. They generate vibrant
opposition to the policies of government that have been formulated with disregard to the
views of the general public or the interests of the minority affected. Through
acknowledgement, pressure groups can exert some influence in the decision making process
through consultation before a particular policy is finally decided. The consultation for
specialist advice made by the then Labour government with the RSPCA and the Kennel Club
in its policy which implemented passports for pets was a classical illustration to this point.
Also, the Association of Chief Police Offices (ACPO) is an example of a pressure group
3
Robertson (1993) Page 240 and Garner, R et al Introduction to Politics (2009) Oxford
p285
4
This is a hybrid of a political party and pressure group because it has elected
representatives in parliament.
which the Tony Blair led government consulted when drawing up the terrorism bill after the
July 7 2005 bombings in London

Pressure groups are also needed because they make governments aware of public views not
shared in political circles. They can also generate new ideas, and devise programmes of
reform, which professional politicians do not have the time to develop. However, one of the
most important functions of a pressure group is the expert knowledge that they can bring to
the government's attention. An example of this is the Royal Society for the Prevention of
Accidents, which helped to draw up the legislation required to make seatbelts compulsory.
Membership of this group includes many experienced casualty doctors.

The next issue to address is whether or not there should be limits on the actions of political
parties and pressure groups.

In the case of political parties, it is my opinion that their should be limit to their activities this
is due to the following reasons;

In the first place, political parties must be seen as representing national interests rather that
the interest of a particular section of society. There should be limit on the activities of a party
that seeks to pursue individual interest or sectional interest. An example of this is the British
national Party (BNP) with fascist ideology which is constituted by white membership. There
is currently a court application aimed at banning the BNP as a political organisation because
of its discriminatory tendencies.

Secondly, political parties especially those in power have the tendency to transform to a
dictatorship. Therefore, in order to prevent this from happening, there should be modalities in
place to make the parties especially those in power to be accountable to the people by
providing checks on the exercise of their functions such as voting in parliament, seeking a
fresh mandate in the polls etc.

Another reason for a limit on the activity of political parties is the way in which they are
funded. Political parties raise funds through members’ subscriptions, private donors such as
companies. This has the tendency to corrupt political parties in their pursuit of national
interests. To limit their activity to this end, all political parties in the UK are required by law
to make a declaration of donations made by private donors above a particular amount.

In the case of pressure groups, there is need to limit their activity on the following grounds;

Firstly, Pressure groups are capable of distorting the democracy process by exercising
disproportionate influence and therefore undermining the notion of democracy. Pressure
groups do not represent society equally and so can be damaging to less influential groups in
society. For example, pressure groups generally favour the stronger groups in society - more
broadly, the sectional groups i.e. the key industrial workers, educated professionals and the
business elite. To limit this, there should be a balance between competing interests in society.
There is also tendency for pressure groups to favour producer groups as against consumer
interests. A bright example of this is the unbelievable strong position of the Bar Council5
which is often accused of being a conspiracy against reform in the public interest e.g. by
maintaining very high fees. The ability for these pressure groups to exert this excessive
influence lies in the fact that its members are strategically placed in positions to give them
unfair advantages e.g. in the defunct government of Tony Blair, PM Tony Blair is a barrister,
as was 48 other MPs.

Another argument in support of limiting the activity of pressure groups is that they are
unelected and can be unrepresentative. They are unrepresentative and can hardly reflect the
broad mass of society or even their members. This occurs in pressure groups whose leaders
are usually unelected and a largely non existence of a democratic structure. In this way,
political inequality is reinforced as power is concentrated in the hands of a small group of
dominant leaders of these groups. e.g. the Law Society where although a formal democratic
structure is in place, it tends to be largely oligarchical in practice and despite the fact that a
very high percentage of qualified solicitors belong to it, the official spokesperson of elected
officials in reality don’t speak on behalf of all its members. Therefore the ideas and opinions
expressed by these elites may in actuality be contrary to those of the members.

In conclusion, it is my opinion that political parties and pressure groups serve very important
roles in a democratic society based on the points already highlighted regardless of their
shortcomings.

Bibliography:

Almond, G et al (2006) Comparative Politics Today Pearson Longman

Blondel, J (1990) Comparative Politics: An Introduction Philip Allan

Birch, A. H. The British System of Government 10th Edition Routledge

Garner, R et al (2009) Introduction to Politics Oxford

Websites:

http/:www.coursework.info accessed 9th and 10th December 2010

http/:www.wikipedia.org accessed 9th and 10th December 2010

5
The governing body for Barristers in England and Wales