PRESSURE GROUPS

Conventionally, political parties are the bodies which are regarded as providing the mechanism through which people’s interests are represented in the political system. They also function as a means of political communication, in that individuals can express their own views to politicians by becoming members of political parties and can represent their party’s viewpoint to others in the community.

Pressure groups can be seen as providing an additional form of representation within the political system and an additional channel of political communication.

The difference between political parties and pressure groups is as follows:

> Political parties are aggregates of interests, organised on a territorial basis. Their main aim is to attain political power in central and local government.

> Pressure groups are based on interests or issues and causes and are organised on a functional basis. Their main aim is to influence the decisions of those who have political power, but not to seek it for themselves.

With the smaller political parties - for example, the Green Party - which have little likelihood of attaining any political power, the distinction is somewhat blurred as they may act very much like pressure groups for much of the time.

Pressure groups are sometimes referred to as interest groups or lobbies.