Political Science 1020E Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: World Wide Fund For Nature, Amicus Curiae, Mass Society

• School: Western University
• Department: Political Science
• Course: Political Science 1020E
• Professor: Bruce Morrison

Document Summary

Aim to influence, not to become, the government: not running in elections, rather trying to shape the policies of political parties. Like parties, interest groups emerge alongside representative government. Add modern mass society cleavages: class, ethnicity, region, religion and more. Institutional groups parts of the government: develop interests in the government, if there are military members of the government, they tend to favour the support for funding for the military. Associational groups: voluntarily chosen, considered based on detached identities, a complex web of competing interests . Sectional groups: represent the narrow, material interests of that groups interests, not focusing on the broader world, aims to advance itself. Promotional groups: built to advance an environmental or social agenda that are not always run by those impacted, national organization for women, world wildlife fund. Groups try to influence: bureaucracy, legislatures, courts (amicus curiae), parties and the media (changing the way people view the world to support the influenced parties)