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Public organization is a voluntary association of people, which has an internal structure from the bottom up, fixed membership.
A social movement is also a voluntary formation of citizens, which arises as a result of their free will on the basis of common interests and has no fixed membership.
In a democratic society, the state does not interfere in their activities, although it regulates them in accordance with the current legislation. The main principles of public associations are a combination of personal and common interests, self-government, equality of all members, legality and transparency.
The constitutions of democratic states guarantee the freedom to create public associations, whose activities must be based on democratic principles, meet the requirements of openness and transparency. In most countries of the world, public associations enjoy the following rights to carry out their goals and objectives envisaged by their charters
- to participate in the formation of state power and governance;
- to implement legislative initiative
- to participate in the development of decisions of public authorities and administration;
- represent and protect the interests of their members (participants) in state and public bodies.
The state creates equal opportunities for the activities of all public associations. Only those that aim to change the constitutional order through violence, propaganda of war, violence or cruelty, fascism and neo-fascism, creation of illegal paramilitary formations are not subject to legalization.
Public associations perform a number of functions.
Opposition function. Its role is to prevent excessive centralization of power, to promote the progressive development of civil society. To achieve this, NGOs resort to various measures: putting forward alternative programs, appealing to public opinion, control, etc.
Protective function. It is aimed at protecting the interests and needs of members of the organization through demands, statements to state bodies, the government, as well as legislative initiative. Radical methods of pressure on administrative bodies and protection of people’s interests are strikes, demonstrations, rallies, ultimatums, picketing.
Educational function. It is aimed at forming moral, political, managerial, legal culture, creativity, professionalism in citizens.
Personnel function. It consists in training qualified personnel for state and public bodies, institutions, organizations.
The political function of public organizations and movements is not to fight for power, but to exert pressure on it in order to realize the interests of their members.
Accordingly, socio-political organizations can be considered only those of the numerous associations and interest groups that exert pressure on the centers of power. In Western political science they are called pressure groups or interest groups.
Typical means of pressure of public associations on the authorities are
direct nomination of their members to the representative and legislative bodies of power, as well as as functionaries of the administrative apparatus
participation of members of the organization in the work of parliamentary commissions;
maintaining personal contacts with members of parliament, government, officials of the state apparatus.
In many countries, such a form of pressure on legislators as lobbying is widely practiced. Lobbyism emerged as a specific institution of the US political system for the influence of specific private and public organizations on the decision-making process of the authorities on domestic and foreign policy. The political practice of American lobbying is actively spreading in other countries.
