Political views are usually the prompt for people to participate in politics.  Holding a strong view on a particular issue and seeking a change or to defend the status quo is the motivation for most political action.  This action can range from discussing the issue, to expressing views more publicly, to joining organised campaigning.  Such campaigning is organised by either advocacy groups or political parties. Both want to achieve particular aims in relation to specific issues.  The defining attribute of political parties is that they seek election so that they can bring about their policy preferences through being part of the elected body.

Advocacy groups

Groups of people who share views on a particular issue and organise with a particular outcome in mind are described as interest, pressure, lobby, community or advocacy groups.  For some people, each of these names has particular connotations, often negative, but the terms are mostly interchangeable.  The common features are having an organisation with members and a way of making decisions.  The group may also have supporters who are less involved in the activities.  Advocacy groups often concentrate upon a particular area of policy (eg, Sensible Sentencing Trust, Royal Forest and Bird Society of NZ, Amnesty International) and may advocate for a particular group or situation (eg, NZ Aids Foundation, Age Concern, Federated Farmers, trade unions). 

Some groups that started as advocacy groups seeking to improve service provision for a particular group are now contracted by government to provide such services.  In some cases, then, there is a tension between the role of maintaining the contract and of advocacy, especially if that advocacy is critical of those funding the contract.

Key attributes

Advocacy groups seek to make changes, which means that they have to influence decision makers.  Looking at advocacy groups over time and in different countries, it is clear that some are successful and others are not.  Broadly, groups are successful when they can demonstrate that they have worthiness, unity, numbers and commitment.  Groups that have all four of these attributes are more likely to be listened to and may even be approached for their views.

Worthiness is when the group can convince both its own members, and politicians and the public, that it represents a worthwhile cause.  A group that speaks with one voice and does not display internal disagreement will be taken more seriously than one in which spokespeople cannot agree on their stance.  Often groups with one message or focus are more successful because it is easier to maintain unity.  Demonstrating that many people agree with the aims of the group gives credibility when campaigning, in part because politicians always have an eye to the next election.  Commitment to the long campaign, to winning arguments, to creating networks and establishing credibility tends to aid success.

Advocacy strategies

Advocacy groups use a wide range of approaches in their campaigns. Some strategies are invisible to those outside, such as talking to the decision makers or providing research reports.  Other activities are designed to be visible and attract attention, such as marches or presentation of a petition.  Some campaigns aim to change the mind of the public who will put pressure on politicians; others concentrate on politicians or bureaucrats because they make and implement the decisions.

The most successful campaigning is that which influences decision makers at the time that they are deciding what the issue is and how to approach it.  The people who set the agenda determine what language is used, how the problem is described and which possible solutions might be considered.  This discussion tends to take place within a ministry or political party and often most people do not know that it is happening.  So effective campaigners have good contacts and can have a say at this early stage of the debate.

An issue usually becomes public when a bill is introduced to Parliament for consideration.  By this time the government will have debated the issues and be clear on what it thinks is the best option.  It may well already know that it has the votes in Parliament to pass the legislation.  At this point campaigning is about support or opposition of the proposal: adopt, expand or oppose.  Sometimes some details can be changed, but only within the existing framework.  In New Zealand advocacy groups, like all individuals, can make a submission to the select committee that considers the legislation.  At this stage in the process some changes to detail may be incorporated.

Once the bill returns to Parliament for the final vote, campaigning is all about support or opposition.  Usually each party will have decided how to vote on the issue so the object of campaigning is to change their mind, or support them in sticking with their view.  It is at this stage in the process that very visible campaign activity is most common, as the intention is to show MPs what the public thinks, or often what a specific section of the public thinks.  Church-organised marches in opposition to civil unions is a good example.  The other time when campaigning can be very visible is when a government decision has been made that the group does not like.  At this point protest action may be used to emphasise the views or to stop the implementation.  The 1981 protests aimed at stopping the Springbok rugby tour are a good example.

Over the past decades, advocacy groups have changed in their approach, in large part to meet evolving policy processes. Prior to the mid 1980s, advocacy groups lobbied decision makers and this was widely accepted as part of the policy process.  Part of the change in thinking during the fourth Labour Government in the 1980s was that advocacy groups should be treated with greater suspicion as they were implicitly talking from the view of a vested interest rather than what was good for all of New Zealand.  More recently, as evidence-based policy has come to the fore, advocacy groups use experts and research to press their views during the policy creation process.

Social movements

Social movements are more amorphous than advocacy groups in that they do not have members, but groups may be part of the social movement along with individuals acting in accordance with common beliefs.  Such movements relate to views that seek a change in society, generally for a particular group or broad interest.  Feminism is a good example in that it united people interested in gender equality but there was no single group to join.  A number of different advocacy groups campaigned on different aspects of gender equity and many individuals also acted to further the aims of gender equity.

Political parties

The defining characteristic of political parties is that they contest elections.  Other characteristics that distinguish them from advocacy groups and social movements are that they have financial members and that they have views or policy on a broad range of issues.  Those that are successful in elections tend to have rules that bind the MPs to the decisions of the party, especially those issues that were prominent in the election campaign.

Membership is important for political parties as many decisions are made with member input.  Parties differ on the ways in which members are involved and which ones.  Some parties tend to encourage all members to take part in decisions while others prefer decisions to be taken by the leaders.  Parties also differ in the extent to which they seek new members.  Mass membership parties seek to have lots of members, particularly from the groups whose interests they seek to represent.  These parties derive some of their legitimacy from having many members who can articulate the views of those being represented. Labour parties have tended to adopt this model.  At the other extreme are parties that do not want a large membership because they concentrate upon a small group or elite with particular views or skills who can make decisions on behalf of others.

Parties are created because a group of people share political views and want to further those views by being elected.  In democratic systems parties fulfil a number of important roles, including:

• policy creation and agenda setting
• interest articulation and aggregation
• political mobilisation
• recruitment of politicians and leaders
• structuring parliament and government
• representation of views.

Policy creation and agenda setting

Each party will have a view on the range of issues concerning a country.  These views are created in line with the ideology or core values of the party.  The debate that occurs within the party in the process of establishing policy is important for testing ideas and considering alternatives.  Established parliamentary parties will have a view on all issues.  Newer and smaller parties may have views on only those issues of central concern to their interests.  Larger parties will have internal structures to deal with policy details such as a series of committees.  Parliamentary parties have funds to staff research units to assist with policy work.  In many parties the party view on an issue is decided at an annual conference where party members can vote to adopt new policy details or positions.  Many major parties give less control to their conferences now than was the case in the 1980s and earlier.

Interest articulation and aggregation

Each individual will have some views that place them on the political spectrum but most do not think about abstract political issues in that way.  For many people, political views are framed by the existing political parties and the policy combinations that they offer.  After internal debate about policy positions, parties express their views in order to attract voters.  Debate is framed around the policy decisions of parties and the language that they choose.  So the parties largely determine which issue positions are seen as related and the language that is used in political debate.  Parties provide coherent combinations of policy preferences and explain why these positions fit together.

On some issues, party thinking will be ahead of public thinking so the party has a role in explaining the issue and why the suggested alternative is desirable, or at least acceptable.  In this interpretation, parties play a role in leading public opinion on core issues.  The alternative view, from rational choice theories, is that parties are political entrepreneurs seeking votes and so they will take a position that is close to the bulk of popular opinion because that is where most votes are to be won.

Political mobilisation

Active party members learn a great deal about political issues and how the political system works.  They learn about the organisation of a party, how meetings are run, how funds are raised and members recruited. These skills are often transferred into other areas such as advocacy groups, above.  Party membership provides an avenue for people who want to be politically involved on particular issues.  Finding the appropriate party is an easy way to find other people with similar views who want to do things in furtherance of those views.  Party members are socialised into the process of politics and meets others who share their views.

Recruitment of politicians and leaders

In most parties those who want to be a candidate have to work their way through the party proving that they have the necessary skills and political views.  The party will want to be sure that any candidate it selects agrees with the values of the party and will work with others in determining policy.  Candidate selection also takes account of skills and experience that will assist in the role of MP and Minister.  Political parties choose leaders who they are confident will lead the party well, win it votes and work well in Parliament.  All of these choices are made by party members, following party rules.

Structuring parliament and government

The ways in which parliament works is centred on political parties as the organising unit.  Votes are cast along party lines policed by the party whips, places on select committees are allocated by the party, speaking time is allocated on a party basis.  The New Zealand Parliament’s standing orders are organised around the political party.

Government formation is also dependent upon parties.  To govern, a party needs to be confident that it can win key votes.  In order to have that confidence it needs to know how each MP will vote on key issues, and this is made much easier when MPs are in parties and each party will vote as a group.  So if the government party has an agreement with another party that it will vote with the government or abstain on confidence votes, it can be sure of how the vote will go.

Political parties are now the key players in parliamentary elections but they are a twentieth-century invention.  Parties and party discipline is stronger in the more established democracies.  In countries without strong parties, the business of parliament and government is much less stable as MPs switch parties or sides regularly, sometimes in exchange for a particular job or policy.  In these systems there is much less predictability and in some cases very little work is achieved because of this uncertainty and instability.

Representation of views

When voters choose how to vote based upon the political views of the candidates and parties, they want those views to be represented in parliament and to be reflected in new policy and laws.  Parties and their policy platforms provide a means for voters to predict what an MP or party will do on a range of issues and most expect parties to keep their election promises once elected.