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Question 1

Which of the following provides the most accurate definition of a pressure group?

a) A group which seeks to represent a section of the community

b) Any group which tries to influence public policy without seeking the responsibility of government

c) A group which seeks to represent a belief or principle

d) Any political organization which is not a political party

Question 2

Which of the following pressure groups is best described as a sectional insider group?

a) The National Farmers Union

b) The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament

c) Howard League for Penal Reform

d) Radical Alternatives to Prison

Question 3

Which of the following is best described as a promotional outsider group?

a) The British Medical Association

b) The Confederation of British Industry

c) The Trade Union Congress

d) Reclaim the Streets

Question 4

Which concept is being described below?
"A system of both ad-hoc and formal consultation between government, business and organized labour, particularly in respect of economic policy".

a) Clientelism

b) Policy network

c) Polyarchy

d) Tripartism

Question 5

Which of the following statements expresses a New Right belief about pressure groups?

a) Pressure groups are legitimate participants in the policy process given that the intensity of pressure group competition ensures that no one set of interests predominates

b) The power of intermediate organizations should be reduced in the policy process

c) Given that they lack a mass membership, think tanks are illegitimate participants in the policy process

d) The policy process is dominated by the interests of capital and so concentrated in too narrow a range of interests

Question 6

Which of the following statements is false?

a) More people are now members of pressure groups than political parties

b) The current Labour government has been keener to develop closer relations with business interests than its Labour predecessors

c) Pluralists believe that there is equality in pressure group resources

d) The Thatcher government privileged different interests to those which were consulted by previous post-war governments

Question 7

Which of the following would usually hinder a pressure group seeking to secure 'insider' status?

a) The group has close relations with the print media which it is known to be willing to exploit to secure its objectives

b) The group has an ideological affinity with the government of the day

c) The group has the ability to undermine the implementation of government policy

d) The group has information which is otherwise unavailable or costly to secure for the government

Question 8

A Marxist analysis of pressure groups and policy networks in Britain would argue which of the following?

a) Dominant coalitions emerge during the policy-making process which are based upon the exchange of resources

b) Influence in the policy process is mediated by topocrats to the advantage of establishment interests

c) The interests of business are pre-eminent in a series of closed economic policy networks

d) The representatives of organised labour and business are co-dependent and involved in a positive sum-game

Question 9

Which of the following statements accurately expresses a clear distinction in the relationship between pressure groups and the Labour governments elected since 1997 and the Conservative governments which held office between 1979 and 1997?

a) The Labour governments since 1997 have sought a more distant relationship with the trade union movement than existed between 1979 and 1997

b) The Labour governments has enjoyed a closer relationship with rural interests than existed between 1979 and 1997

c) Labour has revived the corporatist and tripartite institutions which the 1979-97 governments abolished

d) New Labour has a lukewarm relationship with the representatives of organised labour where the 1979-97 governments were overtly hostile

Question 10

Which of the following statements most accurately identifies the 'New Unionism'?

a) The movement amongst trade unionists which advocated opposing Thatcherism through militant industrial means, including the use of a General Strike

b) A pragmatic mentality amongst trade unions which sought to respond to their increasing marginalisation by seeking an accommodation with government rather than undertaking active resistance

c) The conflict which emerged between the Thatcher governments in the mid-to-late 1980s and trade unions representing public sector professionals

d) The unions which formed in new industries during the 1980s and 1990s such as financial and customer services and which emerged to organise part-time workers

Oxford University Press, Online Resource Centre, Chapter 21.

Chapter 21

Instructions

Question 1

Question 2

Question 3

Question 4

Question 5

Question 6

Question 7

Question 8

Question 9

Question 10