106 Pressure politics
drug-store owners in New York City or Los Angeles to achieve common aims
even if his views on all matters other than retail prices are completely at
odds with those of other members of his profession. Interest groups thrive
upon the fragmented character of the government system. A group that is
frustrated at one level or in one department of the government can quickly
switch its efforts to another level, or to another point of access, in order to
try to get its views adopted. Thus it could well be argued that it is interest
groups rather than political parties that bring into some sort of coordinated
relationship the various branches of the government – federal, state and lo-
cal – although it could also be argued, with equal justification, that it is the
conflicting demands of interest groups operating through different levels
and branches of the government that generate the sharp conflicts that arise
between the parts of the government machine.
However, this description does not give full expression to the complexity
of group politics. It suggests that there are clearly identifiable groups in the
population each with its common interest, but this is not really the case. How
does one define or designate an ‘interest’? The black community might seem
to be a group with an obvious interest in common, and yet that community
is represented by a wide range of organisations, some more militant than
others, with differing aims, varying from the desire to integrate blacks fully
into American life to the intention to set up a separate black state or states.
Similarly, there are sharp divisions of opinion within the business community
or between labour unions, or within a group of professional people such as
schoolteachers, about the way in which their aims should be pursued. Thus
we must turn our attention from the existence of different groups of people
in the community at large who can be labelled as economically, racially or
socially similar in interest to the actual organisations, in their enormous
number and variety, that figure on the political scene.
Interest groups and organisation
We have seen that the existence of a distinct group in the electorate, such as
the black community, may be an important factor in the outcome of political
battles at election time. But politics is a continuing process, in which inter-
ested groups may wish to be involved at every stage of government activity,
and in order to achieve this they must be organised. Thus, the importance
of the black community does not lie simply in its potential voting power, but
also in the numerous organisations that capitalise upon that potential by
bringing pressure to bear upon government agencies to further the black
interest as they see it. The associations and organisations that come into ex-
istence to express new demands or to defend old positions vary considerably
in the form and durability of their organisational life. Some are ephemeral
operations which come into existence in response to a particular stimulus,
say the threat of government regulation of the affairs of a particular sec-
tion of the community, and expire as soon as a decision has been taken or a