Socials 11
Pressure Groups/Petitions/Civil Disobedience
Pressure Groups/Lobbyists
Pressure groups have mostly good things about them. Pressure groups are good because they give people a chance to be heard and join a group with people that believe the same things as them. They are also good because they make the government. Another advantage of pressure groups is that they usually fight for good things like the environment or food or things like that. One downside of pressure groups is that the people in these pressure groups are usually very passionate about their cause and will go to great measures to get what they want. For example, some animal activist pressure groups have gone into labs that use animals and break things and vandalize things.
Petitions
Petitions are a very good way of getting the government to listen to an idea if, you can get lots of signatures. The advantages of a petition are that it is a law that the government has to look at the petition as long as you get enough signatures. If the petitions have a lot of signatures, the government will look at it and take it into consideration instead of just ignoring it. One disadvantage of petitions is that just because the government is required to look at it, doesn’t mean they have to do anything about it. Lots of work could go into a petition just for the government to look at it and pass by it because they don’t agree.
Civil Disobedience
Civil disobedience can be useful but, is usually not a good idea. Civil disobedience is good in a way, it shows the government that you don’t agree with something they did and might give them some incentive to re-evaluate the law or whatever it is that you are protesting. The downside of civil disobedience is that in lots of cases you are breaking a law to protest something. While breaking the law you could go to jail, be fined, or even get hurt like Viola Desmond. Civil disobedience also won’t do very much unless there are lots of people protesting. If just one person is protesting something, the government won’t care. In order for civil disobedience to work, there have to be multiple people dedicated to it.