Political Parties and Interest Groups Distinguished

In one line

A party wants to be the government; an interest group wants to influence whoever the government is, and every other difference follows from that one.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: a political party seeks to capture governmental power by contesting elections and accepts responsibility for the whole range of policy and for governing, whereas an interest group seeks only to influence public policy in favour of the interest it represents, does not contest elections, takes no position on matters outside its concern, and accepts no responsibility for the consequences of what it demands.

The master difference

A party seeks office. A group seeks influence.

Every difference in the table is a consequence of this, and an answer that establishes it first and then derives the rest reads far better than one that lists ten unrelated differences.

Derive the consequences. Because a party seeks office it must contest elections; because it contests elections it must appeal beyond any single interest; because it appeals to everyone it must have a position on everything; because it may win it must accept responsibility; and because it may lose it is disciplined by the electorate. A group does none of these, and is therefore free to be single-minded, uncompromising and permanent in a way no party can be.

The differences

1. Object. Office against influence.

2. Elections. A party contests; a group does not, though it may support candidates, campaign on issues and mobilise voters.

3. Breadth of programme. A party must cover the whole of policy; a group covers its own concern and is silent elsewhere.

4. Membership. A party's membership is open and is meant to be as large as possible; a group's is defined by the interest, and in the case of a professional or sectional body may be closed.

5. Accountability. A party answers to the whole electorate at intervals; a group answers to its members alone, and to nobody else at all.

6. Responsibility. A party that wins must implement and must live with the consequences; a group may demand what it likes and is never asked to pay for it.

7. Continuity of position. A group can hold the same demand for fifty years; a party must adjust to remain electable, which is why groups regard parties as unprincipled and parties regard groups as unrealistic.

8. Legal status in India. A party registers under section 29A of the Representation of the People Act 1951, may be recognised under the Symbols Order, and binds its elected members through the Tenth Schedule. An interest group has no such status and no such power.

9. Compromise. A party is a machine for compromise, since it must hold together people who disagree; a group exists precisely in order not to compromise.