Pressure groups are an important influence on modern politics, with people feeling strongly about single issues, willing to protest, lobby and petition for their cause.

This new book explores the changing world of pressure group politics in Britain.

Pressure groups have become an integral part of the Western democratic political tradition since 1945. The 1960s saw a proliferation of social movements and single issue groups and recent environmental protests, from professional Greenpeace activists to middle-class women picketing veal exporters, have demonstrated that it is increasingly single issues that people feel strongly about as opposed to political parties. Bill Coxall examines these changes in terms of the historical development of pressure groups, their expansion into European Union lobbying and their changing strategies and responses to ideological thrusts from government.