: Pressure Groups and Parties
: Pressure Groups and Parties
A ‘Haze of Common Knowledge’ or the Empirical Advance of the Discipline?
The central paradox in reviewing the contribution of British political scientists to the understanding of these intermediary institutions is that both the number of scholars and the output have been considerable, yet the international impact has been relatively modest. Two explanations seem plausible. First, with a few notable exceptions, the centre of gravity of these studies has coincided with the centre of gravity of British political science as a whole – it is largely atheoretical in its research style. A second possible explanation is that studies in these fields have tended to focus on activities (of groups and social movements) or on office-holding (parties) and have been much less interested in power as a concept. Relatively little is known about the effects that this activity has on outcomes in terms of public policy or the distribution of power in society.
Keywords: intermediary organizations, pressure groups, political parties, social movements, political science, Britain, power distribution
British Academy Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.