9 - Pressure groups and social movements

Summary

Few of us have much influence in politics as individuals on our own; we have to combine with others to have any impact. And that is exactly what people do in democracies. Using their rights of assembly and free association, they organise themselves into a huge number and variety of voluntary organisations – professional and business organisations, trade unions, charities, social clubs, environmental groups, churches, women's groups, community associations, youth clubs, consumer groups, arts, science, leisure clubs and sports clubs. In recent decades, they have also developed a new weapon in the struggle for political power, namely social movements, which are not the same as pressure groups in all respects but have a lot in common with them.

Voluntary organisations and associations, clubs and social movements play an enormously important role in social and political life, and are said to be one of the main foundations of modern democracy. Politically active groups voice the demands of their members and defend their interests in the political arena, as any peaceful group in a democracy is entitled to do. Many groups play a direct role in the consultative machinery of government. Even if they are not politically active, groups help to create a peaceful, integrated and stable social order in which democratic government can operate effectively.

Voluntary associations organise themselves around the interests of social groups and strata, which makes them another example of the way that government and politics are deeply rooted in social life.