Advocacy group
Groups use varied methods to try to achieve their aims, including lobbying, media campaigns, awareness raising publicity stunts, polls, research, and policy briefings.
Some powerful advocacy groups have been accused of manipulating the democratic system for narrow commercial gain,[3] and in some instances have been found guilty of corruption, fraud, bribery, influence peddling and other serious crimes.
[4] Some groups, generally the ones with less financial resources, may use direct action and civil disobedience, and in some cases are accused of being a threat to the social order or "domestic extremists".
[8] As editor of the paper The North Briton, Wilkes vigorously attacked the new administration of Lord Bute and the peace terms that the new government accepted at the 1763 Treaty of Paris at the end of the Seven Years' War.
After a later period of exile, brought about by further charges of libel and obscenity, Wilkes stood for the Parliamentary seat at Middlesex, where most of his support was located.
[11] This was the first ever sustained social advocacy group – it involved public meetings, demonstrations, the distribution of pamphlets on an unprecedented scale and the mass petition march.
However, the movement was careful not to cross the line into open rebellion – it tried to rectify the faults in governance through appeals to existing legal precedents and was conceived of as an extra-Parliamentary form of agitation to arrive at a consensual and constitutional arrangement.
Wilkes was returned to Parliament, general warrants were declared as unconstitutional and press freedom was extended to the coverage of Parliamentary debates.
[14] It campaigned for political reform between 1838 and 1848 with the People's Charter of 1838 as its manifesto – this called for universal suffrage and the implementation of the secret ballot, amongst other things.
These tendencies were seen in poorer countries as pressure for reform continued, for example in Russia with the Russian Revolution of 1905 and of 1917, resulting in the collapse of the Czarist regime around the end of the First World War.
To its members, it was also a secret fraternal order, a source of local charity, a provider of entertainment in small municipalities, and a patriotic organization.
According to George Monbiot, the influence of big business has been strengthened by "the greater ease with which corporations can relocate production and investment in a global economy".
[20] This suggests that in the ever modernising world, big business has an increasing role in influencing the bureaucracy and in turn, the decision-making process of government.
As a result of group pressure from the NAACP, the supreme court unanimously ruled that racial segregation in education was indeed unconstitutional and such practices were banned.
Advocacy groups also exert influence through channels that are separate from the government or the political structure such as the mass media and through public opinion campaigning.
Groups such as these have secured the nature of their influence by gaining status as nongovernmental organisations (NGOs), many of which oversee the work of the UN and the EU from their permanent offices in America and Europe.
Group pressure by supranational industries can be exerted in a number of ways: "through direct lobbying by large corporations, national trade bodies and 'peak' associations such as the European Round Table of Industrialists".
To obtain these types of benefits, members would simply pay dues, and donate their time or money to get a feeling of satisfaction from expressing a political value.
[citation needed] Much work has been undertaken by academics attempting to categorize how advocacy groups operate, particularly in relation to governmental policy creation.
The field is dominated by numerous and diverse schools of thought: There are three broad perspectives on how special interest groups achieve influence: through quid pro quo exchange, information transmission, and subsidizing policymaking.
A study published in early 2012[6] suggests that advocacy groups of varying political and ideological orientations operating in the United States are using social media to interact with citizens every day.
Instead of directly amplifying the voices and narratives of historically marginalized populations, social media magnifies their concerns through the perspective of individuals with access to the internet.
That is, the amount of resources or attention a community receives largely depends on the kind of narrative an advocacy group curates for them on social media.
