Do interest groups help to promote democracy or to undermine it? Give your opinion. (UPSC CSE Mains 2016 - Political Science and International Relations, Paper 2)
Interest groups can have both positive and negative effects on democracy, depending on how they operate. An interest group is an organised association that aims to influence the policies or actions of the government. They perform the essential democratic functions of aggregating and articulating public opinion.
- Interest groups act as the ‘free schools of democracy’, teaching people political and organisational skills. They are recruiting grounds for political leaders and encourage the politics of accommodation, understanding and compromise. By bringing together different people with different backgrounds and opinions, interest groups give people a sense of belonging, a purpose, and are indispensable ways of organising minority interests.
- Interest groups also provide a network of organisations outside and independent of government. Moreover, they provide governments with technical information and specialist knowledge and can help implement public policy efficiently and effectively.
- However, at times the interest groups may also undermine democracy by being stringent with their narrow, sectional concerns. They can be exclusive, keeping out some sections of the population and not representing their views (e.g., women, minorities).
- Moreover, interest groups are responsible only to their own members. If interest groups have too much power, then representatives and the responsible government will have too little.
- Lastly, these groups may lose their critical independence of government and may propagate the government’s agenda. On the other hand, governments may be ‘captured’ by private interests resulting in fragmented public policy, preventing governments from developing coherent policies.
- In the ultimate analysis, as Miller says, ‘politics rests ultimately upon the conflict and accommodation of interests’. And interest groups help to prevent governments from imposing unfair burdens on the unorganised masses, thus ultimately contributing to democracy.
Ultimately, the impact of interest groups on democracy depends on factors such as transparency, accountability, and the extent to which they represent the interests of the broader public.
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