Difference Between Pressure Group and Civil Society (With Table)

Pressure Group vs Civil Society

Society is a group of people who work for the mutual benefit of the people.  Such as religious, cultural, scientific, political, patriotic, or other purposes.

There are some group of people who works for the betterment of society, development, bring change in among people and fighting against many causes and freedom. It can be a political party, NGOs and other organizations.

It is a general norm, that businesses offer goods and services in the exchange of money and law and order is taken care of by the government. Civil society includes labour unions, non-profit organizations, churches, and other service agencies that provide an important service to society.

Pressure group and Civil society are also part of the community. Pressure Group is a set of people, considered to be organized to some extent, help reformation by influencing the government. Their activities are confined to influencing the policies and programs of the government to fulfil their specific interests.

 Civil society is a group of people working in the interest of the citizens at the same time they operate outside the government sectors.       

The difference between a Pressure group and civil society is Pressure group is a group of people, who tries to influence or pressurize the government to fulfil the interest of its members. Whereas Civil society is a group or organization who works for citizens interest without involving the government.

The term Pressure Group originated from the USA. A pressure group can be defined as a group of people that does not put up candidates for election, but seek to influence government policy or legislation.

These groups promote and protect a particular interest or a set of interest or some ideals cause (protection of environmental defending human rights for example) by pressuring the government. They also called as Interest group or Protest group.

A pressure group is to influence the people in power to make decisions by the government through legal and legitimate methods. They operate as a bridge between the people and the government.

Pressure Groups always establish the positives and negatives in front of the members as well as the general public to seek attention from the government.

They organize meetings, campaigns and also file petitions for gaining public support and sympathy. At times, even the media inclines to feature their campaigns for mass attraction.

They are different from the political parties as they neither contest in elections nor not try to capture political power, but their activism influences the Government decision.

Pressure groups provide a means of popular participation in national politics during elections. They have the power to gather support to create or cancel any legislation.

The Pressure groups use methods like strike, bandh, demonstration, funding political parties, parties to get their interests fulfilled.

Civil Society is a group that operates outside the government who share mutual interests and purposes. The Civil Society plays an important role in the development of the human community.

Public and Private sectors are different from the Civil Society. Civil society has no requirements from the outside like from public or private sector.

Civil society is also called the “third sector” along with government and Business. Civil Society, on the whole, can be a labour union, non-governmental organization and charitable institutions.

Filling gaps in services, providing services not provided adequately by government or business, especially to marginalized and underserved groups. Advocating on behalf of citizens and minority, marginalized and underserved groups

Fighting against corruption and human rights violation. Civil society differs from civil society organizations. It also focuses on social justice and economic justice decision

Its main function is keeping an eye on government and business, ever alert for corruption, waste, violations of rights, and inequalities.

UN Women to promote gender equality, women’s rights, and empowerment, World Health Organization (WHO) for health-related efforts and UNICEF on child-related issues are some of the Civil Society organizations.

Civil society fulfils a valuable role in modern society, helping to fill gaps in services provided by the government and business sector, as well as advocating for change. Sometimes, government and business are taking on roles that carried by civil society, and sometimes civil society is taking on roles as government and business are failed to deliver on past promises. There is no clear specific role for civil society. Its characteristic is that it adapts to fit the totality of social needs as they exist. The objective of civil society is always the same, the betterment of society.

The society has become overly complex and individuals cannot pursue their interests on their own. They need the support of other fellow beings to gain greater power; this gives rise to the pressure groups.

The following is a collection of the most used terms in this article on Pressure Group and Civil Society. This should help in recalling related terms as used in this article at a later stage for you.