-They have become more important because:
-political participation in the form of party membership has declined, but the membership of pressure groups has risen, becoming another way to get involved in politics

-One reason the membership has increased is because there are more access points, e.g. there are more devolved parliaments to put pressure on

However, in an election, your vote is active as you actually use your vote to try and elect who you want, however, there are chequebook members of pressure groups, who don't help out the pressure group in any other way then funding

Allows groups to have a voice to articulate their interest

They voice their issues nationally instead of locally, putting pressure on the government

Their representation is specific rather than the general

Alternative form of representation (functional representation)

This is an asset to democracy, as they can represent people with a particular concern, all over the country, even though there may only be 2 people with that concern in a certain constituency

However, some pressure groups have much more influence and power than others

Raising awareness is a core activity of Pressure Groups

The point of this is because sometimes issues are not known about, and as soon as people know about them, these issues may be easily resolved in parliament

One way they do this is through social media

Citizen's often find out about an issue through a pressure group

If a Pressure Group has the public on their side, most of the time (Anti-Iraq War protest not included) the government will listen to the pressure group, because they want to be re-elected

e.g. FGEM - the government consulted FGEM and other similar groups, and formulated new policies to protect young women from FGM (female genital mutilation)

Pressure Groups can be involved in Policy Formulation

They pressured the government to putting information on packaging (e.g. Smoking Kills)

They also pressure the government into making smoking inside illegal

This is good for democracy because it adds informed information into policy making

However, it will often only be one side of the argument informing the government

Pressure groups are key because they let their members know about new policies, and therefore make sure the policy implementation is a success

As they are key to making these policies work, this means they have a fair amount of power

e.g. Over the last 30 years, farmer's have had 3 crisis' (Salmonella in eggs, Mad Cow Disease and Foot and Mouth) - The government worked with the National Farmer's Union to implement policies to solve these crisis', and the way the Farmer's Union helped them was making sure that the policies were implemented successfully