How are pressure groups undemocratic?

  Pressure groups are organisations that set out to try and influence government policy. However some people see pressure groups as a threat to democracy.

The way in which some pressure groups try to get their point across can sometimes be seen as undemocratic, for example if they are marching in protest against a certain policy, and the march becomes violent. This is not democratic, and happened in the anti-capitalism protest. Often seen in UK uncut and Fathers4Justice.

Another way that pressure groups can be a threat to democracy is that they do not promote public stability. Pressure groups can actually cause conflict between groups of people instead of trying only to influence government policy. It is not democratic for a country to be fighting amongst them.

Pressure groups can also be seen as undemocratic in the way in which they choose their leaders. Leaders of pressure groups are very rarely voted in, and as a result, many people believe that the pressure groups do not put forward the views of all their members. This was believed to be the case in the Snowdrop Appeal. It was suggested that only the views of the leaders of the Appeal were put forward. This in itself is a threat to democracy.

On the other hand, pressure groups can be seen as good for democracy. The pluralist view is that it is undemocratic if the only way in which the public are involved in the running of the country is voting every five years. Pluralists believe that pressure groups are very good for democracy.