Unit 3 - Pressure Groups - MID

Specification details, see:

http://www.edexcel.com/quals/gce/gce08/gov/Pages/default.aspx

This Unit 3 topic on US Pressure Groups is that final of the four topics we'll study (beginning spring term 2015). The significant role pressure groups (or, as Americans tend to call them, Special Interest Groups) play in US politics is illustrated by the fact that pressure groups are often referred as the '4th branch of government'!

With this in mind I'd like you to take about 10 minutes to watch this brief introduction into the role and some of the controversies of pressure group activity in the USA. Produced by CitizenU.org I want to you listen to what is being said/explained (even if the delivery is not what it could be!). CitizenU is a non-partisan organisation that seeks to better educate the public, with a goal of making government more accountable to the people it governs. They also end here by asking some conceptual questions that we will be assessing ourselves during this topic ~ the nub of which is do pressure groups enhance the democratic process, or are they merely a manifestation of elitism?

For further understandings of this topic, I also will be going through this PowerPoint on lobbying and the 'lobbying industry' during the course ~ feel free to view it. We'll assess both the process and theoretical implications of lobbying as a manifestation of pressure group activity in US politics (all good democratic pluralistic political activity, or elitism writ large!?):

As per ~ topic delivery is derived from these sources: