ABSTRACT
It is by no means uncommon to encounter the argument hat 'political parties and pressure groups are competitors' (Grant, 2000: 214). This is chiefly because of the notion that parties have been challenged in respect of their role as conduits of representative linkage, given the evidence that political participation through parties has declined at broadly the same time it has increased through pressure groups and social movements. Jeremy Richardson, for instance, argues that west European societies such as Britain's constitute a changing 'market for activism', and 'parties as traditional opportunity structures for activism are now subject to strong challenges' (Richardson, 1995: 117).
