Chapter 12 Chapter Overview

Interest groups, or pressure groups as they are also known, are private associations that attempt to influence the decisions of government without out assuming the responsibility of managing government. Successful interest groups can play a major role in the making of public policy in Canada. When studying interest groups it is important to remember the wide variety of active groups and targeted issues and causes. In many cases, power and influence is linked to access to money. There is debate whether business groups enjoy a privileged position within Canada’s political system. Some argue that the influence of business interests depends on the policy area and that state actors actually have considerable autonomy to act independently of the pressures and demands placed on them by societal interests.

Several prominent perspectives take different views of the role of interest groups in the political system and try to understand the roles of groups in society. Pluralism views organized interests as the central facet of political life and politics chiefly in terms of the activities of groups. Class analysis views interest groups as bearers of more fundamental interests and ideologies, namely their classes. Corporatism is characterized by the direct participation of organizations representing business and labour in public policy-making. Neo-institutionalism views institutions as key actors in policy-making and emphasizes the impact that structures and rules, both formal and informal, have on political outcomes. 

With interest groups, there are winners and losers when it comes to levels of influence on policy-making. The keys to success for interest groups include organization and financial resources. Other important factors for success are their ability to influence segments of the electorate, their capacity to inflict damage on the economy, and the cohesiveness of the group. Society’s most powerful interests prefer to operate behind the scenes, while those without direct influence attempt to sway public opinion through public action, such as protests and demonstrations.        

Federalism has a significant impact on the activities of interest groups. The existence of two levels of governments effectively gives interest groups two opportunities to secure favourable policy outcomes. On the other hand, federalism can reduce the internal cohesion of groups that also opt to adopt a federal structure. Groups will attempt to influence public policy by directly lobbying key policy-makers, by attempting to influence public opinion, or by taking judicial action.