Question

what are public interest groups ? how do they look after the public interests ? explain

Answer 1

When an organisation puts forward a common or general interest that needs to be defended then such group or organisation is called a public interest group. These groups promote collective interest of a particular section of the society.

Their working is simple. They pressurise the government to listen to them and make policies accordingly.

1. They try to gain public support for their goals by carrying out information campaigns, organising meetings, filing petitions, etc.
2. Most of these groups try to influence the media to give more attention to these issues.
3. They organise protest activities like strikes or disrupting government programmes.
4. Rather than getting directly engaged in party politics, they seek to exert influence on political parties.
5. Interest groups raise issues that are taken up by political parties.
6. They may form a political party as we see from real –life politics that most of the new leadership of political parties comes from interest or movement groups. E.g. formation of AAP party.