Pressure groups

Abstract

In the British context pressure groups have been defined in a number of different ways. W. J. M. Mackenzie defined them as ‘organised groups possessing both formal structure and real common interests in so far as they influence the decisions of public bodies’.¹ Moodie and Studdert-Kennedy defined them as ‘any organised group which attempts to influence government decisions without seeking itself to exercise the formal powers of Government’.² Samuel Finer defined them as ‘organisations ... trying to influence the policy of public bodies in their own chosen direction, though never themselves prepared to undertake the direct government of the country’.³