The media also serves as a mouth piece of
interest groups who also have their role vis-à-
vis public opinion. The interest groups perform
the four fold function of interest identification
followed by interest consolidation proceeded by
interest articulation i.e., exerting pressure for
their demands and finally the culminating act
of interest maximization which matures into the
hard bargaining which is done to extract their
interests out of the establishment. For instance
the graduated sugar policy in India is an excellent
illustration of how the interest group politics
work. The sugar policy incorporates into itself
two prices one the price of sugar for the PDS
and two the price of sugar in the open market.
The procurement of sugarcane from the farmers
is done at one price keeping the interests of the
farmers into account, further this cane is sold to
the sugar mills at a different price keeping the
interests of the mill owners into consideration,
lastly the procurement of processed sugar is done
by the government from the mill owners at
another price and sold to the customers of the
PDS at a third price which again incorporates
subsidy keeping the interests of the PDS
customers into account. Thus the government
has to pamper the interests of the three interest
groups viz. producers, mill owners and the PDS
customers involved in the production-processingconsumption
chain at the expense of its
exchequer.
The pluralists argue that, interest groups
represent the diverse interests present in the
society and provide expert information and
perspectives that help in policy making and
maintaining the vibrancy of the democracy.
Further, the interest groups crystallize into
political parties and help in extracting
accountability from the executive. However,
critics of pluralism argue that the interest groups
over represent the wealthy in the society and
provide self serving and biased information that
warp policy making. Further, they restrain the
powers of the state rather than extracting
accountability from it and ensuring that the
benefits of prosperity are evenly distributed by
the State among its citizens. Moreover interest
groups tend to become autonomous and over the
period of time tend to implement their own
political agenda. For example some of the
religious organizations of the minorities take
themselves to be the custodians of the religion
and even question the authority of the state by
posing questions such as to why should the state
interfere in the personal laws of a religion.
Thus interest groups though an essential
component of the democratic system must be
allowed to operate in a regulated environment
themselves and should take up some form of
accountability which is a necessary constituent
for operating in the public domain.
The nurseries of interest groups are in fact
the voluntary organizations, which crystallize
or mature into interest groups over the period of
time, therefore they need a special reference here.
Voluntary organizations are non state
institutions which operate in the society for
achieving diverse goals viz. socio-economic
protection of civil rights, environmental
protection, promoting certain economic
activities, overall sustainable development etc.
They are a common feature in a democracy
as democratic setup guarantees freedom of
association to its citizens. They operate either
independently or in partnership with the State
or other non State actors. There are reasons for
the efficiency of voluntary organizations over the
bureaucracy viz. they operate in a relatively free
environment not mired by excessive rules and
regulations. The people running the organization
may not be public servants and they operate on
nongovernmental funds. Further, they are close
to the issues and problems of the people as they
do not carry a top down governmental agenda
to follow, this puts them in a better position to
both suggest solutions as well as carry out the
solutions. The Private Voluntary Organization
(PVO) movement has been quite a phenomenon
in our country and is responsible for ushering
the reforms movements in all the institutions of
the society be it political, economic, cultural or
religious.
However there is also a flipside to this
phenomenon and the foremost aspect is that
the voluntary organizations may not always look
into public interest, and because of this reason
the issue of their accountability to the
government arises. Many of the voluntary
organizations have been found to accumulate
huge disproportionate assets in the name of
community service. In the same reference the
monitoring of the flow of foreign funds has
assumed importance, many voluntary
organizations are used as conduits to bring black
money back to the country i.e., money
laundering. Sometimes several voluntary
organizations like SIMI have also been found to
receive money from the extremist and anti-India
organizations overseas. Moreover, many
voluntary organizations in our country are so
rich and influential that it becomes very
important for the State to keep monitoring the
orientation of their activities for their conformity
to the public interest, for example the Tirupati –
Tirumala Devasthanam Mandir Trust. Further,
there are other weaknesses also viz. those
organizations which depend on membership
funding tend to become unviable over a period
of time, the volunteers lose interest due to
nonprofit orientation and consequently the working of the organization suffers. This
phenomenon is clearly visible in the working of
the voluntary organizations operating in the
health sector in our country.
Thus in order to ensure that the voluntary
organizations perform their role in the best of
their spirits and in consonance with public
interest, there has to be a mechanism of
regulating them. For example there have been
suggestions regarding the auditing of the foreign
funds received by the voluntary organizations
by a CA recognized by the government; however
these are localized solutions which only address
a small part of the bigger issue of regulation of
the voluntary organizations. What is needed is
to create such a regulatory body that shall
provide a holistic operating environment to the
voluntary sector but at the same time also
restrain itself from questioning the very nature
of voluntarism as excessive governmental
interference has the potential to dilute the very
voluntary character of the organizations. Only
then we can expect the voluntary organizations
and interest groups to function alongside the
government for protecting, upholding and
proliferating public interest and alongside the
people in extracting accountability from the
government and administration.
interest groups who also have their role vis-à-
vis public opinion. The interest groups perform
the four fold function of interest identification
followed by interest consolidation proceeded by
interest articulation i.e., exerting pressure for
their demands and finally the culminating act
of interest maximization which matures into the
hard bargaining which is done to extract their
interests out of the establishment. For instance
the graduated sugar policy in India is an excellent
illustration of how the interest group politics
work. The sugar policy incorporates into itself
two prices one the price of sugar for the PDS
and two the price of sugar in the open market.
The procurement of sugarcane from the farmers
is done at one price keeping the interests of the
farmers into account, further this cane is sold to
the sugar mills at a different price keeping the
interests of the mill owners into consideration,
lastly the procurement of processed sugar is done
by the government from the mill owners at
another price and sold to the customers of the
PDS at a third price which again incorporates
subsidy keeping the interests of the PDS
customers into account. Thus the government
has to pamper the interests of the three interest
groups viz. producers, mill owners and the PDS
customers involved in the production-processingconsumption
chain at the expense of its
exchequer.
The pluralists argue that, interest groups
represent the diverse interests present in the
society and provide expert information and
perspectives that help in policy making and
maintaining the vibrancy of the democracy.
Further, the interest groups crystallize into
political parties and help in extracting
accountability from the executive. However,
critics of pluralism argue that the interest groups
over represent the wealthy in the society and
provide self serving and biased information that
warp policy making. Further, they restrain the
powers of the state rather than extracting
accountability from it and ensuring that the
benefits of prosperity are evenly distributed by
the State among its citizens. Moreover interest
groups tend to become autonomous and over the
period of time tend to implement their own
political agenda. For example some of the
religious organizations of the minorities take
themselves to be the custodians of the religion
and even question the authority of the state by
posing questions such as to why should the state
interfere in the personal laws of a religion.
Thus interest groups though an essential
component of the democratic system must be
allowed to operate in a regulated environment
themselves and should take up some form of
accountability which is a necessary constituent
for operating in the public domain.
The nurseries of interest groups are in fact
the voluntary organizations, which crystallize
or mature into interest groups over the period of
time, therefore they need a special reference here.
Voluntary organizations are non state
institutions which operate in the society for
achieving diverse goals viz. socio-economic
protection of civil rights, environmental
protection, promoting certain economic
activities, overall sustainable development etc.
They are a common feature in a democracy
as democratic setup guarantees freedom of
association to its citizens. They operate either
independently or in partnership with the State
or other non State actors. There are reasons for
the efficiency of voluntary organizations over the
bureaucracy viz. they operate in a relatively free
environment not mired by excessive rules and
regulations. The people running the organization
may not be public servants and they operate on
nongovernmental funds. Further, they are close
to the issues and problems of the people as they
do not carry a top down governmental agenda
to follow, this puts them in a better position to
both suggest solutions as well as carry out the
solutions. The Private Voluntary Organization
(PVO) movement has been quite a phenomenon
in our country and is responsible for ushering
the reforms movements in all the institutions of
the society be it political, economic, cultural or
religious.
However there is also a flipside to this
phenomenon and the foremost aspect is that
the voluntary organizations may not always look
into public interest, and because of this reason
the issue of their accountability to the
government arises. Many of the voluntary
organizations have been found to accumulate
huge disproportionate assets in the name of
community service. In the same reference the
monitoring of the flow of foreign funds has
assumed importance, many voluntary
organizations are used as conduits to bring black
money back to the country i.e., money
laundering. Sometimes several voluntary
organizations like SIMI have also been found to
receive money from the extremist and anti-India
organizations overseas. Moreover, many
voluntary organizations in our country are so
rich and influential that it becomes very
important for the State to keep monitoring the
orientation of their activities for their conformity
to the public interest, for example the Tirupati –
Tirumala Devasthanam Mandir Trust. Further,
there are other weaknesses also viz. those
organizations which depend on membership
funding tend to become unviable over a period
of time, the volunteers lose interest due to
nonprofit orientation and consequently the working of the organization suffers. This
phenomenon is clearly visible in the working of
the voluntary organizations operating in the
health sector in our country.
Thus in order to ensure that the voluntary
organizations perform their role in the best of
their spirits and in consonance with public
interest, there has to be a mechanism of
regulating them. For example there have been
suggestions regarding the auditing of the foreign
funds received by the voluntary organizations
by a CA recognized by the government; however
these are localized solutions which only address
a small part of the bigger issue of regulation of
the voluntary organizations. What is needed is
to create such a regulatory body that shall
provide a holistic operating environment to the
voluntary sector but at the same time also
restrain itself from questioning the very nature
of voluntarism as excessive governmental
interference has the potential to dilute the very
voluntary character of the organizations. Only
then we can expect the voluntary organizations
and interest groups to function alongside the
government for protecting, upholding and
proliferating public interest and alongside the
people in extracting accountability from the
government and administration.
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