“Explain the advantages and disadvantages of pressure groups/ lobbyists, petitions, and civil disobedience as ways to make change in your world. Use specific examples from case studies in the text and in class to highlight your arguments.”
Pressure Groups and lobbyists can be a good way to make change since they can speak for the people of the country and bring awareness to certain things that might be overlooked. The advantages of lobbyists is that they are usually someone with experience with the government and may have a good reputation, which gives them a good chance of making a change. The disadvantage of both pressure groups and lobbyists is that they might be influencing the government to make a change that won’t benefit the public. In the case study about the NAFTA this pressure group was not appealing to the general public because they happened to be a group of CEOs that didn’t consider the amount of jobs that would be lost and the people that this would harm.
Petitions are a very peaceful way of making change and don’t have consequences that you might see after someone uses civil disobedience to make change. Although when it comes to petitions some people who believe in the cause might be reluctant to signing the petition for certain reasons like maybe they are afraid of disobeying.
Civil disobedience is a very strong way for someone to get a point across while still not using any violence. I think in Viola’s case she showed that civil disobedience can be lead to change overtime and not necessarily as quick as a petition or pressure group but I believe that the act of civil disobedience shows what real people need rather than what people in the government want. A disadvantage to civil disobedience is the consequences someone might face after, again for example Viola was arrested and injured by the police after she disobeyed the rules of the theatre.