Introduction
In the contemporary world, people in different parts of the globe have developed various ways through which hey can air their grievances or opinions so that the government of the day can act on them. Some of the groups have been referred to as the pressure groups while others have been referred to as the insider or the outsider group.
All these groups have one thing in common; that is to influence the government to initiate some policies or abandon an envisaged policy. In this paper I will be looking at the issue of abortion in the African continent. Dobner (2010) points out that in spite of the rapid growth in technology most of the African communities have continued to hold to their tradition ways of doing things.
As a result, the issue of abortion has not been left out either. He observes that many pressure groups have continued to keep their government on toes regarding this issue. This has been resulted by the fact that many people have very strong values towards life.
He argues that policy network have been created with a sole purpose of explaining the differences in policy-making and power in different policy sectors. This is informed by the fact that pressure groups are perceived to perform activities which at times are seen to be more valuable than the ones enshrined in the constitution.
The actors and organizations in this campaign
According to Henrik (2003), religious organization and some civil right groups have been at the fore front in campaigning against the legislation of the act allowing for people to procure abortion. In addition he points out that religious organization have played the greatest role in mobilizing their followers to rise against the government if such a bill is discussed in the parliament and passed.
According to the church leaders in particular, it is the sole responsibility of God who is the giver of life to take it away because religious people consider the embryo in the womb as a potential human being and therefore should enjoy all the rights accorded to a normal human being.
Influences of democratic government on the operation of policy network
Dobner (2010) argues that democratic governments give a lot of space for her citizens to express their grievances. As a result most of these groups have been able to keep the government operations in check.
However, depending on the magnitude of the issue at hand for example abortion, the government does not one day wake up and pass the bill regarding to it, but rather allows various people and groups to ventilate on the matter so that when the final bill is deliberated and passed in the house all the parties concerned will not feel short changed in any way.
Conclusion on the relationships between government and policy networks
From the above discussion it is crystal clear that the government must not be left alone to pass all the legislations without considering the opinion of the majority who are the citizens. As a result, people should form groups that will keep an eye on any of the government policies that may not go down well with the rest of the members of the public.
Democratic governments will always have an easy time when passing certain legislation because people will have been given a chance to air their opinions on the matter at hand and therefore prevent this prevents street protests that are usually witnessed when government ignores the opinions of the other people who are the majority.
Reference List
Dobner, P. (2010). The twilight of constitutionalism? Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Henrik, P. B. (2003). Governance as social and political communication. Manchester: Manchester University Press.