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Relationships Between Pressure Group and Democracy

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‘Relationships between pressure groups and democracy – functional representation, pluralism and pluralist democracy, elitism, criticism of pressure groups.’ 1. Define pressure groups: a group of like-minded individuals that aim to influence the government, public or both 2. What are the two types of pressure groups? Insider; who work with the government, and outsiders; who work against the government 3. How do pressure groups promote democracy? They campaign on behalf of the people. They are consulted by government and try to influence policies to help their section of society. They allow a form of participation and hold marches 4. How do pressure groups limit democracy? They can cause tyranny of majority and suppresses majority’s views 5. Using examples, how far are the criticisms true of UK political system? RSPB, more members than the top 3 parties – undermines representative democracy. Class war, never get into power or have influence – arguable waste of time 6. Define democracy: government chosen for and by the people 7. What is functional representation? The function of associations, usually PG’s, which represent specific sections of society, based on occupation, age, etc. 8. Give an example of functional representation: marches, strikes 9. Describe the differences between elitist system and the pluralist system: pluralism – open access to information and elitist – unlikely to be neutral, favour donors and groups supporting their agenda 10. Describe how the UK is pluralist: we have pressure groups, open access and anyone is able to start a pressure group at any time 11. Describe how the UK is elitist: the governments always made up of wealthy people, which some believe is unfair as they haven’t experienced life of the working class 12. Why do some people get confused between PG’s and PP’s? Because some started

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