Pressure Groups (Politics A Level): Trade Unions

The resources on this page have been carefully selected to help you with your investigation, while you may choose to look at other resources there is no need to, and you should certainly start with these. The resources are divided into:

• Specific resources for named groups (BMA, UNISON, UNITE). You may want to start here to gather some basic information on your individual group. Note that external resources provided will often be largely critical of the organisation. This is because the organisation's own website is usually a very good source of positive stories so, for balance, it is important to source negative stories externally.
• Resources for Trade Unions in general. These resources are specifically about Trade Unions and will be useful for developing your argument about the extent to which Trade Unions have a positive or negative influence and how you might like this to change.
• General resources. These resources apply to all four categories of group, and will help you to think about how the different categories of pressure group fit together and what the role of Trade Unions is within this. There are two very good Politics Review articles in this section that are worth reading.

The Planning your article box to the right is identical to the one on The Orwell Youth Prize (OYP) page, and contains the Investigative Journal and Research Organiser that you will need to fill in as you do your investigation and plan your article. Make sure you refer back to the advice on the Orwell Youth Prize (OYP) page before you start to write your article.

Do British Trade Unions have any real power (Politics Review, 2014)

Politics Review is a magazine aimed at A-Level students, usually accessed through our Subscription Databases page. It should be regarded as a reliable source. Note that this article is more than 5 years old.

Reference: Hobson, J. (2014, November). Do British trade unions have any real power? Politics Review (supplement), 24(2), pp. 1-3.

For a shining example of Trade Unionism, look no further than football (Guardian, 2014)

Although this article is exclusively about the PFA, it is a really good case study of the positive impact a Trade Union can have. The Guardian is a left-centre source rated high for factual reporting by mediabiasfactcheck.com. Note this article is more than 5 years old.

Reference: O'Hagan, E. M. (2014, August 21). For a shining example of trade unionism, look no further than football . Retrieved from The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/21/trade-unionism-professional-footballer-association

The Candidate: Jeremy Corbyn's Improbable Path to Power (Chapter 8) (Nunns, 2018)

This book was made available as an e-book by JSTOR during the 2020 lockdown, but is not part of our current subscription so is no longer available online. However, a physical copy is available to borrow from the Library should you wish to read it.

This book chapter is a very easy and informative read, but is extension material about how Trade Unions have influenced the Labour Party. Although OR books is a relatively new (2009) print-on-demand publisher, the presence of the book on JSTOR gives it some credibility, and it received favourable reviews in major national newspapers (e.g. "very well-researched narrative, widely sourced but written from a supportive perspective" from The Times Literary Supplement). It should be regarded as a largely reliable source with some bias in favour of Jeremy Corbyn.

Reference: Nunns, A. (2018). Power in a union. In The Candidate: Jeremy Corbyn's Improbable Path to Power (pp. 141-162). New York; London: OR Books. Retrieved April 12, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv62hfs6.11

Pressure Groups: Do they strengthen pluralist democracy? (Politics Review, 2015)

This article has case studies of the CBI and 38 degrees specifically, but is also a good general discussion of pressure groups and democracy.

Politics Review is a magazine aimed at A-Level students, usually accessed through our Subscription Databases page. It should be regarded as a reliable source. Note that this article is more than 5 years old.

Reference: Rathbone, M. (2015, November). Pressure groups: Do they strengthen pluralist democracy? Politics Review, 25(2), pp. 2-5.

UK pressure groups and democracy (Politics Review, 2019)

Politics Review is a magazine aimed at A-Level students, usually accessed through our Subscription Databases page. It should be regarded as a reliable source.

Reference: Tomes, A. (2019, April). UK pressure groups and democracy. Politics Review, 28(4), pp. 6-9.

The UK's changing democracy (Democratic Audit, 2018)

This is a long report, but you only need to look at the chapter on The Interest Group Process (pages 112-121). You could also search within the publication (using the shortcut "ctrl+F" as usual) for particular phrases such as Think Tank, Trade Union or Lobbyists. This document is least relevant for Cyberactivist groups.

Democratic Audit describes itself as "an independent research organisation based at the London School of Economics.", having moved there from the University of Essex. It is funded by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust. Its attachment to a well-respected University gives it credibility and it has a generally good reputation online with other credible organisations.

Reference: Dunleavy, P., Park, A. and Taylor, R. (eds) (2018) The UK's Changing Democracy: The 2018 Democratic Audit. London: LSE Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31389/book1