It is a common mistake to assume that pressure groups fail simply because they lack the factors needed for success, such as money, insider status or membership size. However, the absence of these factors just makes it more difficult for a group to succeed, which is not the same as failing. When a pressure group fails it is because it has tried to achieve something specific, like preventing an increase in student tuition fees, but has failed to achieve this objective for one of a number of reasons. To understand why pressure groups fail, it is essential to understand pressure groups themselves.
Most pressure groups are trying to influence the government into a particular action or position. Therefore one key reason for pressure group failure is that what they campaign for contradicts government policy. The NUS failed in its campaign to stop tuition fee increases in 2011, while disability rights group Inclusion Scotland failed to end the ‘bedroom tax’. These were well-supported campaigns with public demonstrations, some degree of popular support and even celebrity endorsement. Yet they failed because the coalition government was committed to its policy of austerity and raising fees.
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