Australian Politics and Policy - Senior, 2019a

Pressure groups and social movements
participation. 29 A behavioural perspective recognises that people seek justice for its
own sake, superseding their self-interest. 30
Cultural models
New social movement theory maintains that most social movements today are
international and largely concerned about their physical and psychological
environment. 31 The internet is an enormous contributor to the global nature of
social movements and dialogue in the public sphere. Social movements can be
considered as sites of shared identity, and can be instrumental in radical identityforming
processes. Old loyalties are detached from conventional views or the status
quo, and transferred to the new movement, bringing a sense of identity. 32
Identity is a factor for both individuals and organisations becoming involved
in or recognised in relation to a social movement. Investing in a political struggle
means being socially identified as a certain kind of person or political actor. 33
An individual may identify with a cause by connecting intellectually, morally or
emotionally with a broader community, but collective identity can be more difficult
to understand at a group level. 34
Whether utilitarian and transactional, altruistic or cultural, motivations behind
group and movement expansion have tended to evolve within the democratic
framework of the post‒Second World War ‘welfare state managed economy’. Even
self-interested groups in a liberal democracy have positive implications: Beer saw
pressure groups as extending the capacity of governments to access a wide range
of opinions and policy proposals, and allowing the development, refinement and
delivery of more complex, customised state services. 35
How do pressure groups work?
Political scientists have identified five levels through which pressure groups or
citizens convey their ‘demands’ to government:
• Concerned individuals acting of their own accord represent interests, or
advocate for others.
• Spontaneous group activity occurs, that is unplanned and unorganised.
29 Flam and King 2005; Kahneman 2003, 1469.
30 Rawls 1971.
31 Habermas 1995.
32 Melucci 1994.
33 Holland, Price and Westermeyer 2018, 287.
34 Fominaya 2010, 394, 398.
35 Beer 1982.
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