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GROUP MODEL OF POLICY
MAKING
INTRODUCTION
According to the group theory of politics, public policy is the
product of the group struggle. What may be called public policy is
the equilibrium reached in this group struggle at any given
moment, and it represents a balance which the contending factions
or groups constantly strive to win in their favour.
This theory attempts to analyse how each of the various groups in
a society tries to influence public policy to its advantage at the
policy formulation level.
The central practice of this model is that interaction among groups is a critical ingredient in politics.
Public policy is thus a temporary point of compromise reached in the course of competition between mosaics of numerous interest groups with cross-cutting membership.
The ability of the group that is favoured at one point to sustain its gain depends on its power to counteract the powers of other groups that would make efforts to tilt decisions to their favour.
► Since the power to dominate policy decision is dependent on group solidarity and power, the dynamics of the policy process is expected to be more vibrant and fierce in plural societies than in homogenous ones. Therefore in such societies the ability of a group to tilt the policy to its favour depends on a number of factors which are:
► Wealth
► Organisational skill
► Leadership quality
► Bargaining skill
► Access to decision-makers
► Criticism of the theory:
► First, the group theorists did not really define in clear terms what they mean by the two key concepts in the analysis; group and interests. Thus, while Bentley sees groups as a relation between men, a process of adding man to man, Truman defines it as any collection of individuals who have some characteristic in common. None of these definitions clearly tells us what a group that is really relevant to politics and decision making is.
Finally:
► When it coms to Information policy development, group theory can be applied to issues such as access of information, hence information professionals can act ad pressure group interacting with the government to change the existing laws in the country.
► More sore being aware of various groups with the clientele base of the library helps to develop proper information policies which will cater for everyone. ( diverse clientele of library)
