Chapter One: Introduction

1.1 Purpose of Study

Pressure group politics, as it is known today, is not a new phenomenon. Interests have forever been served by the efforts of people within political systems. It is, like other forms of politics, concerned with interest, power, and advantage. Pressure groups are formed specifically because their members want to act together to influence public policy. They are generally defined as autonomous organizations which seek, as one of their functions, to influence the formulation and implementation of public policy in order to promote their common interest. Political scientists refer to this phenomenon as pluralism. Pluralism being the establishment of groups all seeking to have their members’ preferences reflected in public policy. The role of pressure groups in Canadian society is to represent a multitude of interests; interests that are represented through formal and informal political channels. In spite of the fact that the power and influence of some pressure groups has been seen by some as a threat to opposing interests, most groups play an important role in Canadian democracy.

The purpose of the present research was to identify the resources necessary for an individual or group to influence public policy, to examine how individuals are able to apply these resources in order to influence public policy via pressure groups, and to realize if each of the interests had access to these necessary resources. The research traces a policy decision detailing the events leading up to the policy announcement. The focus, and the interest in pursuing this study, of the research is to address the issue of participation equality in the public policy process by looking specifically at the Clayoquot Land Use Decision. The Clayoquot Land Use Decision was announced in April of 1993. This policy was the cumulative effort of numerous individuals, agencies, and organizations. In spite of the time and effort invested in this land use decision, it was largely seen as an unsuccessful attempt at consensus-based decision making. It was also seen by many varied interests as a biased policy decision that best reflected the desires of industry interests instead of as a balanced policy representing all relevant interests.

To accomplish the research objectives, findings from the literature were compared with: 1) the results from the case study of the Clayoquot Land Use Decision, 2) the results from interviews with participants in the Clayoquot Land Use Decision, and 3) the results from a survey of activists from across Canada.

The Clayoquot Land Use Decision case study identified the following: 1) who the key players were in the decision-making process; 2) whose interests were served in the outcome of the policy decision; and 3) what resources were required by the participants in influencing the policy decision? The first two questions served to detail the policy process, and the third question’s results were compared with the results from the literature review, survey and interviews. These three areas of research serve to address the central focus of the thesis - the issue of participation equality in the public policy process in Canada.

The strength of the research was in the application of pressure group theory to activism, followed by the application of these findings to a case study. The results from the literature review and case study were followed by a survey and interviews. The research results identified who had the greater influence in the Clayoquot Land Use Decision policy process, and the necessary resources required to obtain such a position. The research results also identified what the necessary resources are in order for individuals (activists) to participate more effectively in pressure group activities.