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Pressure Politics in Industrial Societies: A Comparative Introduction
The authors focus on the ways in which various models of the distribution of power in society treat interest groups and evaluate their significance.
308 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1986
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July 23, 2024
Society has become highly complex and in the vastness of its various activities and interactions, the individual seems to have lost his identity. The individual feels that he cannot achieve anything by his own efforts as nobody would give any importance to him. Thus in order to gain greater bargaining power and make his point of view effective and forceful, he joins with other people who share his ideas and values and constitutes a particular group. For the purpose of achieving their objectives individuals organise themselves into various kinds of groups.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, the individual was taken as the basic unit of the state, but this has now been reduced only to a moral proposition.
In the modern complex society it is difficult to imagine the existence of the individual in total isolation from the group. People feel the need for the group because only through the group alone they can exert pressure on the government to achieve their interests. Thus the group complexity of the present day social system has a psychological justification behind it and millions of citizens accept membership of various groups.
This has resulted in an enormous and complex pattern of social interactions. What the people can achieve through these groups, cannot be achieved through the political parties as the parties are mostly power oriented and cater to the broader national issues as against parochial and group interests.
In the modern society there is group interaction instead of individual interaction and the individual's relationship with others is mediated and expressed through groups rather than through direct personal contact. Group behaviour conditions the individual's social perceptions and responses as he learns everything through the process of group socialization.
Thus without the support of a group the individual may feel helpless and frustrated as nobody would give any importance to his views and suggestions.
The book under review is considered to be a modern Political Science classic. The book has the following chapters:
1. Pressure Groups and the Distribution of Power
2. Problems of Pressure Group Analysis
3. Businessmen and Bureaucrats
4. Trade Unions
5. The Group Politics of Farming
6. Environmental Pressure Groups
7. Churches and Pressure Group Politics
8. The Military as Pressure Group
9. Conclusion
Alan Ball shows, how Pressure groups operate at different stages of the political process. They try to seek nomination for their candidates by the various political parties at the time of election.
They help their favourite candidates with money and resources to improve their electoral prospects and vehemently oppose the candidates who are likely to be hostile to their interest.
In a modern industrial-liberal Ddemocracy, the Pressure / Interest groups perform the following functions:
1. Pressure groups are a form of association and a means of communiqué between the mass and the elite. They provide channels of access for increasing contribution and their institutionalization is an acute element in the development of a responsive political system, for they are indicators of the political microclimate by which decision makers can create and evaluate policy.
2. The interest groups articulate the interests of its members. In the process, the demands are considered and amendments made to quarter diverse views of its members. While the interest group makes demands on society for the benefit of its members, it also serves to confine them. Interest groups not only act as agents of interest articulation, but they also increase the political consciousness and participation of their membership-democratic achievements, although they may strain on the responsive capacity of the system.
3. In liberal democracies, interest groups have been reservoirs of political leadership. This has been particularly true of trade unions.
4. Further, Pressure groups are a mode for social incorporation. They bring individuals from ascriptive relationships into new and modern associations for the manifestation of common interests; they may bridge the gap not only between the mass and the elite but between traditional divisions within the society en bloc. Interest groups may thus serve as go-betweens of both vertical and horizontal incorporation.
For the promotion of particular interests, they try to pressurise public opinion and the opinion leaders. They try to effect the process of lawmaking at the committee stage which is most susceptible to their manipulation, as political bargaining is earlier here than in the open proceedings of the legislature.
A must read for all students of Political Sociology.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, the individual was taken as the basic unit of the state, but this has now been reduced only to a moral proposition.
In the modern complex society it is difficult to imagine the existence of the individual in total isolation from the group. People feel the need for the group because only through the group alone they can exert pressure on the government to achieve their interests. Thus the group complexity of the present day social system has a psychological justification behind it and millions of citizens accept membership of various groups.
This has resulted in an enormous and complex pattern of social interactions. What the people can achieve through these groups, cannot be achieved through the political parties as the parties are mostly power oriented and cater to the broader national issues as against parochial and group interests.
In the modern society there is group interaction instead of individual interaction and the individual's relationship with others is mediated and expressed through groups rather than through direct personal contact. Group behaviour conditions the individual's social perceptions and responses as he learns everything through the process of group socialization.
Thus without the support of a group the individual may feel helpless and frustrated as nobody would give any importance to his views and suggestions.
The book under review is considered to be a modern Political Science classic. The book has the following chapters:
1. Pressure Groups and the Distribution of Power
2. Problems of Pressure Group Analysis
3. Businessmen and Bureaucrats
4. Trade Unions
5. The Group Politics of Farming
6. Environmental Pressure Groups
7. Churches and Pressure Group Politics
8. The Military as Pressure Group
9. Conclusion
Alan Ball shows, how Pressure groups operate at different stages of the political process. They try to seek nomination for their candidates by the various political parties at the time of election.
They help their favourite candidates with money and resources to improve their electoral prospects and vehemently oppose the candidates who are likely to be hostile to their interest.
In a modern industrial-liberal Ddemocracy, the Pressure / Interest groups perform the following functions:
1. Pressure groups are a form of association and a means of communiqué between the mass and the elite. They provide channels of access for increasing contribution and their institutionalization is an acute element in the development of a responsive political system, for they are indicators of the political microclimate by which decision makers can create and evaluate policy.
2. The interest groups articulate the interests of its members. In the process, the demands are considered and amendments made to quarter diverse views of its members. While the interest group makes demands on society for the benefit of its members, it also serves to confine them. Interest groups not only act as agents of interest articulation, but they also increase the political consciousness and participation of their membership-democratic achievements, although they may strain on the responsive capacity of the system.
3. In liberal democracies, interest groups have been reservoirs of political leadership. This has been particularly true of trade unions.
4. Further, Pressure groups are a mode for social incorporation. They bring individuals from ascriptive relationships into new and modern associations for the manifestation of common interests; they may bridge the gap not only between the mass and the elite but between traditional divisions within the society en bloc. Interest groups may thus serve as go-betweens of both vertical and horizontal incorporation.
For the promotion of particular interests, they try to pressurise public opinion and the opinion leaders. They try to effect the process of lawmaking at the committee stage which is most susceptible to their manipulation, as political bargaining is earlier here than in the open proceedings of the legislature.
A must read for all students of Political Sociology.
Displaying 1 of 1 review