Political Parties, Interest Groups, and Social Movements - Essay Example

Political Parties, Interest Groups and Social Movements Political parties, Interest groups, and Social Movements are three distinct organizations that work under the freedom of assembly, freedom of speech and free associations to influence a government either in political, social or economic arena. As Kenneth (198) conceptualizes it, "we do not have influence on politics on our own unless we combine efforts, so does these organizations operate." Democracy in a state or a nation is achieved when freedom of association and expression are enabled and the existence of Social Movements, Political Parties and Interest Groups manifest some shreds of democracy in that state/nation. However, their distinct differences in terms of formation, structure and ultimate objective distinguishes them. Interest groups are encapsulated within the blanket of pressure groups, which are organizations that are formed on a voluntary basis and are private in nature operating not to form a government but aims at influencing and regulating policies that a government formulates. Pressure groups are either cause groups or Interest Groups (Kenneth 200). Pressure Groups are the groups that aim to influence the government politically, a significant distinctive feature. Interest groups are different from cause groups as they (interest groups) focus on occupational aspects that affect their members; be it issues to do with business, trading, and professional regulations among others. Its main focus revolves around the welfare of those they fight for in occupational capacities. For example, a Teacher’s Union would raise teachers’ grievances to the Ministry of Education concerning delayed salaries. While Interest Groups do not want to become part of the government, Political parties’ primary aim is to become the government and rule. Political parties are organizations formed with clear Structures and hierarchical line of power that commands broad edges of issues affecting people with a belief that given a chance they can provide solutions to those problems. They aim to escalate to power and provide political governance to the people and the issues they touch on are much more general than those of interest groups, which are only about occupational issues. As referenced by Caramani (200), adapted from Huckshorns (1984:10), a political party is a group of independent individuals whose aim is to compete in nominations and run for elections in order to escalate to power and have control of the government. Arguably, political parties aim to escalate to power and capture government offices that give it a mandate for governance. According to Caramani (268), Social Movements are collections of individuals with a clearly recognized rival and are involved in a battle and share a central conviction and unified in practice. Three components are salient in this definition; 1) there’s is a common rival or opponent 2) similar beliefs system and goals 3) collective actions. This, therefore, distinguishes a social movement from any other movement or groups. Central to the definitions across many books is the fact that a Social Movement has clearly labeled opponents, although in some scholarly work it is traced down to political arena where the opponents are considered to be within the political discourse. Having highlighted the various definitions of Political parties, Interest Groups and Social Movements it is necessary to show a distinction between the three. The line between interest groups and political parties might be thin but indeed it exists. As explained in Kenneth (201), the primary objective that Interest groups have differs from that of political parties. For a political party, they aim to form a government and be part of it while an interest group fights for what it requires without being in control of the government. This distinction is Notably, most interest groups focus on one particular area while political parties cover a vast policy area. As earlier on mentioned, political parties campaign for a complete revolution of social policies and a myriad factors in a nation while interest groups only go for what is of their interest. Notably, political parties are, even from their name, political in nature and seek to win an election and take control of the governance while interest groups and Social Movements are not. They (political parties) engage in election to nominate and compete in national elections so that they can be in control of the resources and government offices while the social movements and interest groups are not interested in taking control of the government (Kenneth 203). Social Movements also have many similarities with the other two (interest groups and political parties) but differences also exist. Unlike the political parties and interest groups which are organized into a single bureaucratic units, social movement consolidates different organizations together to work freely, and its formation is not as organized as that of political parties and interest groups. Compared to the interest groups, it has a much more area of interest that it focuses on. However, it has a narrower area of focus compared to political parties (Kenneth 203). They focus on specific life area such as religion and economic class. An example of a social movement is that of socialist movements and Gay and Lesbian Rights Movement (GLRM). It is worth noting that Interest groups can move through Social Movement and climb the ladder to become political parties with a broad focus on vast issues, but with specific political objectives. For example, a mere workers union can emerge to foster for the lower class peoples rights within the society and later on after gaining fame turn to be a political party. The interplay of Political parties, Interest groups and social movements in enhancing democracy is momentous. Democracy is a system that calls for people to join in the decisions regarding policy and laws of the country and making decisions through elections on who is to run the country. Indeed, Political parties, interest groups, and social movements matter a lot in the democratic governance. Political parties are core to maintaining the democratic atmosphere in the 21st century. Right from party nominations to contesting national elections, they provide a forum in which citizens exercise their democratic right of electing leaders they want. Through this, people can exercise their democratic rights. Additionally, political parties also oversee the ruling government to ensure accountability and proper use and allocation of resources. It acts as a substitution to the ruling party in case it cannot deliver to the people who elected it and since democracy is about accountability, this is achieved through the existence of the political parties especially the opposition party. Social movements and interest groups also keep the government in check through political exchange, direct lobbying (Caramani 246). Social Movements provide a forum through which grievances can be channeled. The social movements’ personnel engage the government in a tussle to ensure that the voices of the minorities and other disadvantaged people in the society are heard. The political parties, interest groups, and social movements ensure equitable distribution of resources to all, fight against discrimination stigmatization and favoritism. All these oversight duties and integrity vetting enhance democratic governance in socio-economic and political aspects. In conclusion, to enhance effective and healthy democratic governance, political parties, interest groups and social movements must be active in performing their duties within their jurisdiction area, keep the government on toes, counter-check for the governments accountability and ensure it is delivering to its citizens. However, these are only possible if the environment is created for these movements’ proactive duties. Works Cited Caramani, Daniele. Comparative Politics. Oxford.: Oxford Univ. Press, 2013. Print. Newton, Kenneth, and Jan W. Deth. Foundations of Comparative Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Print. Read More