Pressure groups

• Pressure groups


  Organisations that try to influence government policies in the interests of a particular cause
• Campaigns


  Often aim to affect policy making, for example changing the law so as to create a new criminal offence
• Pressure groups


  Organisations that try to influence government policies in the interests of a particular cause
• Pressure groups


  • Play an important part in policy making, both by gaining public support for change and by persuading the politicians who make the laws that change is needed
  • Usually have a clear 'cause' which they promote
• Insider pressure groups


  • Greenpeace (concerned with protecting the environment)
  • Howard League for Penal Reform (aim to improve conditions for individuals in prisons)
• Outsider pressure groups


  • Just Stop Oil (often engage in civil disobedience or direct action)
• How pressure groups promote their cause

  1. Mass demonstrations and traffic disruption (direct action)

  2. Individual action (often illegal)

  3. Petitions

  4. Social media campaigns
• Pressure group campaigns


  • Extinction Rebellion (mass demonstrations)
  • Just Stop Oil (individual action)
  • Fathers 4 Justice (individual action)
  • The Snowdrop Campaign (petitions)
  • British Lung Foundation (media advertising)