POLITICAL PARTIES AND

PRESSURE GROUPS
Dr. Khalid Manzoor Butt
 POLITICAL PARTIES
 Concept of political parties emerged during renaissance ( Reasoning, realism,
pragmatism) and the Industrial Revolution.
 Conscious Middleclass, Peoples political participation, Cities became political
centres, feudalism became weaker. Currency and democracy and Rights of
people.
 Modern governments is a representative government. It is, therefore, a party
based system of government. The number of parties in a state may be one, two
or many. Conservative and Labour party

 Wherever a group of persons seeks to acquire political power by collective

action, there a political party comes into being.

 But something more is also needed. There should also be political structure of
the state which provide opportunities to various groups to purse interest and
advantages by capturing political power.
DEFINITION OF POLITICAL PARTIES
 We may define a political party as a group of persons, more or
less organized who hold the same or nearly the same opinion on
issues confronting the state and who seek to obtain control of
government by winning elections in order to realize their aims and
interest.

 A Political party is made of five elements: members, principles,

programme, leadership and governmental power.

 Maclver defines a political party as “ an association organized in

support of some principle of policy which by constitutional mean
it endeavors to make determinant of government”
DEFINITION OF POLITICAL PARTIES
 Lord Bryce defines political parties as “organized bodies with
voluntary membership, their concerted energy being employed in
the pursuit of political power”

 Max Weber defines the political party as

“a voluntary organization of propaganda and agitation, seeking to
acquire power in order to procure chances for its active militant
adherents to realise objective aims, or personal advantage, or
both.”
KINDS OF POLITICAL PARTIES
 In general there may be at least four type of political
parties

Liberal or Progressive
Reactionary Parties Parties

Political
Parties
Radical or
Conservative Parties Revolutionary Parties
 KINDS OF POLITICAL PARTIES
 Reactionary Party:
It consist of such people who wish to revert to the older order, whether it actually existed
in the past Nazi party in Germany, or the Fascist parties in Italy. Tehreek e Taliban
Pakistan (TTP), Daish, Jamat ud Daawa. Sunni Tehreek, Sipha Sahaba Pakistan (SSP).

 Conservative Party:
Conservative party seeks to preserve the prevailing system unchanged., PML,
(A,B,C….), BJP.

 Liberal or Moderate Party:

Liberal or moderate or progressive parties are those which advocate social change,
progress and freedom. MQM, ANP, PPP, Congress

 Radical or Revolutionary Party:

They stand for radical changes and outright progress in social and political life and
organization. TTP, JUI, JUP, Jamat e Islami.
FUNCTION OF POLITICAL PARTIES
 They organize and formulate public opinion the general will.

 They select candidates for public offices. They select candidates

for elections, to plan, organize and run election campaigns and to
win them by winning majority of votes for their own candidates.

 They endeavor to obtain government by constitutional methods.

The aim of the political party is to obtain control of government.
Hence political parties endeavor to capture governmental power by
peaceful and constitutional methods of winning elections.
FUNCTION OF POLITICAL PARTIES
 They criticize the Government.
 Political training for people
 Political modernization

 Frame work of their economic and political plan

 Grooming political leaderships

 They control their members in the legislature.

 The political parties perform an important function of holding
together their members in the legislature. This is particularly so in
the parliamentary system, in which the majority party in the
legislature also forms the cabinet. If it is to remain the ruling party
and preserve its power, it must remain party in the legislature.
PRESSURE GROUPS
 A pressure group may be defined as a group of individuals
organized for promoting their special economic or some other
interest by influencing the government or a public officer.

 The means used by the pressure groups to apply pressure or

influence on the government, legislator, administrators and political
parties.

 Pressure groups of various kinds. Most of them are organized for

the protection of economic interest, like trade unions some are for
educational, social and religious purposes or reforms. A few of
them are set up for promoting some humanitarian purposes.
ORGANIZATION AND WORKING OF THE
PRESSURE GROUP
 The organization of each pressure group varies according to
its interest, purpose and sphere of operation. Some consist of
few members while other of many. Some are well organized
while others are loosely so.
 But every pressure group tries to be well organized so as to
influence the government and public. It includes supporter,
public figures and many prominent people, both as member
and as officers.

 They bring pressure on the law makers, government official

and bodies. The groups also contain campaigns of propaganda
in order to manufacture public opinion.
ORGANIZATION AND WORKING OF THE
PRESSURE GROUP
 The pressure groups use the newspapers, radio and television. They
present petitions and pass resolutions at mass meeting. They send
letters and telegram to public officials, visit their offices and use
every known method to publicize their programme.

 Thus many governmental policies and laws in America are adopted

by the federal and state and local governments under the influence
and pressure of these pressure groups.
FUNCTIONS OF THE PRESSURE GROUPS
 They provide information of a specialized and technical nature to
the government and administrators, which enable them to make
laws and enforce them or make policies and implement them.

 They act as intermediaries between the people and the

government. They transmit and communicate ideas from the
people to the government. They enable the people to participate
in the activities of the government. They enable the government
to ascertain the reactions of the people to the government
policies.

 They act as a check on political extremism. One group may

demand one type of policy from the government, while another
may oppose it.
FUNCTIONS OF THE PRESSURE GROUPS
 The minorities parties and communities and such other small
group can influence government through their pressure or
interest groups.

 In between two elections, they act as watchdogs over public

policy and administration at the time when the people can
exercise little or no influence on the government. In this
respect, pressure group are more effective than the political
parties.
 DISTINCTION BETWEEN POLITICAL
PARTY AND PRESSURE GROUP
 Pressure groups stand for the interest or well-being of a special
group or class while the political parties stand for the general
welfare or common good of the whole nation.

 The pressure groups concentrates on one or on a small group of

issues, while the party advocates in general terms a large number
of policies.

 The pressure groups are interested in policies, the political parties

in candidates.
 The party organize public opinion, it is a conglomerate of opinion
while the pressure group endeavors to make a public opinion.
 POLITICAL PARTY AND PRESSURE
GROUP DISTINGUISHED
 The basic distinction between the two is that the political
parties aim at the control of the government in order to achieve
their programme and ideas but the pressure groups do not seek
to obtain control of the government. Unlike the political parties,
they are not willing to assume the responsibility for solving the
problems of government.

 Pressure groups often operate within the framework of political

parties.
 Sometimes a political party may become so small and limited
that it may be no more important than a faction or a pressure
group.
POLITICAL PARTY AND PRESSURE
GROUP DISTINGUISHED
 Political parties are public organizations, operating among
and before the people, but pressure groups often work behind
the scenes and try to avoid public scrutiny.
 Secrecy is essential to pressure groups but not to the political
parties. This fact makes the parties responsible to public
opinion, but the pressure group can operate irresponsibly.