The Routledge Dictionary of Politics, Third Edition
Group theory, in political science, is largely associated with Bentley and, in various reformulations, with writers on pluralism. The central argument is that societies consist of a large number of social, ethnic or economic groups, more or less well-organized, in political competition with each other to put pressure on the government into producing the policies favourable to the relevant group.
Versions of this theory can either claim that it is entirely compatible with the aims of democracy, and that group representation satisfies democratic norms, as well as being empirically realistic, or can alternatively be used to argue that all societies have the same true structure, whatever their surface ideology and characteristics. Other branches of political science have taken the nature and multiplicity of groups as vital elements in determining political stability or indeed the liberalness or otherwise of the society.
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