bring "pressure" upon them.
Pressure groups do not participate directly in the acquisition of power or in its exercise. They act to influence power while remaining apart from it; they exert "pressure" on it. They seek to influence the people who wield power, not to place their own people in power, at least not officially (Duverger 101).
An interest group is an intermediary between citizens and government and it is the task of the organization to convert what it perceives to be the desires of its constituents into specific policies and goals. A public interest group is one that seeks a collective good, the achievement of which will not selectively and materially benefit the membership or activists of the organization. "Collective good" refers to any public policy whose benefits may be shared equally by all independent of their membership or support of a given group (Berry 5-8).
Groups can and do promote the economic or self-interest of their members; the primary distinction made between public interest groups and private interest groups is usually along economic self-interest lines.
The idea of pressure groups was first developed in the United States where it served as a basis for studying the actions and influence of private groups and organizations on public power. At first the idea of pressure groups referred only to private groups, but there is a growing tendency to expand the concept to include public agencies and governmental bodies (Duverger 105).
It is important to note the three kinds of incentives that may be secured from organizations: (1) material - those related to tangible goods such as jobs, taxes and market opportunities; (2) solidary - rewards obtained from the socializing and friendships involved in actual group interaction; and (3) purposive (those benefits one receives from the pursuit of nondivisible goods, ideological satisfaction associated with the organization's efforts to achieve any c...