Example Essay UK Politics - do pressure groups always undermine democracy?

Whilst pressure groups may undermine the normal method of political participation in the UK’s representative democracy, their existence may strengthen pluralist democracy. This is achieved by pressure groups encouraging the general public to participate in politics and improving the government’s policy-making through better information and scrutiny. However whilst some pressure groups certainly do lead to a more democratic outcome in the UK, others may do little to improve democracy because of elitism and an overly-narrow focus resulting in “tyranny by the minority”. It will be argued in this essay that, overall, pressure groups do not generally undermine democracy.