“Pressure Groups and Politics in Australia”

Based on the article entitled Pressure Groups[1] in the Parlement and Politics in Australia : Political Institutions and Foreign Affairs Fifth Edition written by Paul Henderson explained a few things related with pressure groups in Asutralia, as an organization that aims and seek to influence government policy, without wanting to sit in public office and different with political parties, because the purpose of political parties is get power in public office.[2] According to Eugene J. Kolb, in his book A Framework for Political Analysis, explained that interest group is an organized group of individuals formally and informally and work together to protect or promote a common purpose.[3] Term interest groups and pressure groups often synonymous even though their activities are different. Pressure group activity is more intensive in influencing public policy, either directly or indirectly.[4]

Number of pressure groups in Australia is a lot compared to political parties, as well as the number of its members, and has been active at the national, state, and local levels. Interest groups in Australia can be divided into two large groups . The first group is the sectional group. This group represents one group or particular interest in the community. The second group is the promotional group. This group does not represent one group, but formed only to promote and fight for a particular issue. This group is not limited by the specific interests of its members and their organizations with their underlying beliefs about particular purpose.[5]

Pressure groups in Australia doing its part as a means to advance the interests of the group they represent, therefore they also always involve themselves in politics with the aim of influencing the policies decided by the government. Since the whole process of public policy making moved into one in Canberra in the late 1950s, various pressure groups is seen as an organization that is able to serve as advisors and providers of inputs for planning government policy. So, if these interest groups can be regarded as indicators of the effectiveness of democracy in Australia? The extent to which the role of pressure groups in Australia ?

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[1] Paul Henderson. Pressure Groups dalam Parlement and Politics in Australia: Political Institutions and Foreign Affairs Fifth Edition (Victoria: Heinemann Educational Australia, 1994. Chapter 6), hlm. 180-208.

[2] Gabriel A. Almond. Studi Perbandingan Sistem Politik dalam Mohtar Mas’oed dan Colin MacAndrews, ed., Perbandingan Sistem Politik (Yogyakarta: Gadjah Mada University Press, 2001), hlm. 53.

[3] Haryanto. Sistem Politik: Suatu Pengatar (Liberty, Yogyakarta, 1982), hlm. 73.

[4] H. Mayer.  Australian Politics: A Reader, edisi II (Melbourne:  F.W. Cheshire, 1969), hlm. 187.

[5] Z. Hamid.  Sistem Politik Australia.  (Bandung: PT. Remaja Rosda Karya, 1999), hlm. 299.