Abstract
In the British context pressure groups have been defined variously as:
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‘organised groups possessing both formal structure and real common interests in so far as they influence the decisions of public bodies’ (W.J.M. Mackenzie);1
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‘any organised group which attempts to influence Government’ (Moodie and Studdert-Kennedy);2
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‘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’ (Samuel Finer);3
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‘an association of individuals joined together by a common interest, belief, activity or purpose that seeks to achieve its objectives, further its interests and enhance its status in relation to other groups, by gaining the approval and co-operation of authority in the form of favourable policies, legislation and conditions’ (Peter Shipley).4
Thus a pressure group is any group in society which, through political action, seeks to achieve changes which it regards as desirable or to prevent changes which it regards as undesirable.
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Further reading
Baggott, R., Pressure Groups Today (Manchester: University Press, 1995).
Brennan, T., Pressure Groups and the Political System (London: Longman, 1985).
Byrne, P., The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (London: Croom Helm, 1988).
Crouch C. and Dore, R. (eds), Corporatism and Accountability: Organised interests in British Public Life (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990).
Grant, W., Business and Politics in Politics in Britain, 2nd edn (London: Macmillan, 1993).
Jordan, A.G. and Richardson, J.J., Government and Pressure Groups in Britain (London: OUP, 1987).
Lowe, O. and Goyder, J., Environmental Groups in Politics (London: Allen & Unwin, 1983).
Marsh, D., The New Politics of British Trade Unionism: Union Power and the Thatcher Legacy (London: Macmillan, 1992).
Mazey, S., and Richardson, J.J. (eds), Lobbying in the European Community (London: OUP, 1993).
Middlemass, K., Power, Competition and the State, vol. 3: The End of the Post-War Era (London: Macmillan, 1991).
Miller, C., Lobbying Government (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1987).
Smith, M., Pressure Power and Policy (Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1993).
Rush, M. (ed.), Parliament and Pressure Politics (London: OUP, 1990).
Whiteley, P. and Winyard, S., Pressure for the Poor: The Poverty Lobby and Policy Making (London: Methuen, 1987).
Wilson, D., Pressure, the A to Z of Campaigning in Britain (London: Heinemann, 1984).
Websites
Amnesty International http://www.amnesty.org
Charter 88 http://www.charter88.org.uk
Confederation of British Industry http://www.cbi.org.uk/
Electoral Reform Society http://www.gn.apc.org/ers/
European Movement http://www.euromove.org.uk
European Policy Forum http://www.epflpd.org.
Friends of the Earth http://www.foe.co.uk/
Greenpeace http://www.greenpeace.org/uk/
Trades Union Congress http://www.tuc.org.uk/
Copyright information
© 1999 F.N. Forman and N.D.J. Baldwin
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Forman, F.N., Baldwin, N.D.J. (1999). Pressure groups. In: Mastering British Politics. Macmillan Master Series. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-15045-8_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-15045-8_6
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