Australian Politics and Policy - Senior, 2019a

Pressure groups and social movements
• Education by pressure groups also takes several directions: educating their
constituency, the decision makers (such as politicians and regulators), policy
advisors (in the form of bureaucrats or political staffers), and the wider
community, including the media. This may entail a variety of strategies,
including speaking events, educational literature, letters, submissions to
government, talking on radio and even doorknocking.
• Scrutiny provides an ‘audit’ role: conducting research where necessary, ensuring
politicians and bureaucrats are aware of information and arguments, making
sure information used by policy makers or in the media is correct, and
checkingcorrectproceduresarefollowed.Ifnecessary,itmeanstakingmatters
to court for judicial review. 39
Strategies used to influence policy makers
Pressure groups demonstrate these roles in the strategies they employ, including:
• Direct and indirect lobbying of politicians, policy advisors and political parties,
and the public. Indirect lobbying aims to change government policy through
lobbying people and bodies which themselves may have influence on government
decision-makers, such as lobbying political parties and the public.
• Agenda-setting through lobbying activities, media work, or direct communications
with the public.
• Electioneering through mobilising support or opposition for candidates or
parties based on their policy positions, or influencing public opinion so that
the wider public is inspired to act.
Pressure groups and issue movements can be more experienced and successful than
other political players in pursuing their policy agenda: not even political parties can
fully control their agenda, as others propose issues that affect it. Ian Marsh notes
that ‘veto power’ can be exercised by stakeholders who are negatively affected by a
policychange,andthiscanbemoreeasilymobilisedthansupportforthepotential
beneficiaries of change. He observes:
Together, interest groups and issue movements challenge the integrating, opinion
forming and agenda setting capacities of the major political parties. They do this
by advancing and defending a widened and more differentiated political agenda. 40
Yet despite any success, a group’s reliance on electoral tactics over party politics
or bureaucratic involvement is a sign of weakness. This is because it depends on
a concerted campaign rather than integration into the policy system. Similarly,
although protest can be powerful, it is a less assertive form of leverage because it is
39 Matthews 1980, 464.
40 Marsh 1995, 47–8, 101–2.
437