Democratic Politics

Mobilisation & Organisations
Nepal :
(1) The struggle involved many organisations other than political parties. All the major labour unions and their federations joined this movement. Many other organisations like the Organisation of the Indigenous People, teachers, lawyers and human rights groups extended support to the movement.
(2) In a democracy several different kinds of organisation work behind any big struggle. These organisations play their role in two ways. One obvious way of influencing the decisions in a democracy is direct participation in competitive politics. This is done by creating parties. Contesting elections and forming governments. But every citizen does not participate so directly. They may not have the desire, the need or the skills to take part in direct political activity other than voting.
Pressure Groups :
(3) (a) There are many indirect ways in which people can get government to listen to their demands or their point of view. They could do so by forming an organisation and undertaking activities to promote their interest or their viewpoint. These are called interest groups or pressure groups. Sometimes people decide to act together without forming organisations. These groups prefer to call themselves movements. Pressure groups are organisations that attempt to influence government policies. But unlike political parties.
(b) Pressure groups do not aim to directly control or share political power. These organisations are formed when people with common occupation, interest, aspirations or opinions come together in order to achieve a common objective, describe many forms of collective action : Narmada Bachao Andolan, movement for right to information, anti-liquor movement, women’s movement, environmental movement. Like an interest group, a movement also attempts to influence politics rather than directly take part in electoral competition. But unlike the interest groups, movements have a loose organisation. Their decision making is more informal and flexible. They depends much more on spontaneous mass participation than an interest groups.