5 Pressure politics
Group pluralism
Arriving at political decisions involves complex processes that vary according
to the issues, the circumstances at the time the decisions are being taken,
and many other institutional and personal factors. Three major sources can
be determined from which the eventual solutions to problems are generated:
the institutional machinery of government itself, the party system, and inter-
ested groups. Most decisions will involve all three of these structures in some
degree or another, but as we have already seen the role of political parties
in terms of policy formation is relatively weak, and a vacuum is created to
be filled by the complex structure of interest groups. This separation of the
functions of selecting leaders, and of initiating and influencing policy, gives
to the American political system its peculiar flavour and complexity, which
will become fully apparent only when we look at the behaviour of Congress-
men and Senators and their relationship with the president and the adminis-
tration. Party politics and pressure politics criss-cross and merge to produce
an ever-changing pattern of legislative and executive behaviour.
But how do we distinguish between the party system and the structure of
interest groups? After all, many of the persons involved in one of these pat-
terns of behaviour will be involved in the other as well. Formally, the differ-
ence between political party and interest group is that the former organisa-
tion nominates candidates for public office, and the latter does not. If a group
attempts to put up its own candidates for election, it becomes a political party
and subject to all the legal provisions that in the United States regulate the
operations of political parties. Yet this relatively straightforward distinction
does not mean that in practice a sharp, clear line can be drawn between the
two forms of political organisation. Holders of elective office, wearing a party
label, may be very closely associated with particular interest groups, and al-
though such groups do not formally nominate candidates they may publicly
endorse a particular party or its candidate, contribute to campaign funds and
either secretly or openly work to elect or defeat particular individuals. The
membership of party and group may overlap to the point where a particular