Contesting Interests: Rethinking Pressure, Parliament, Nation, and Empire

This introduction argues for the need to study pressure' and the Westminster parliament across three centuries, from roughly 1660 to 1914. While no definition will satisfy all researchers, this essay suggests that the category of representative pressure' is useful in highlighting those claims for special consideration by parliament which fell outside either the electoral system of representation or outright defiance of parliamentary sovereignty. By considering the historiography of pressure' and the influence of social science models of interest groups', the essay argues for a more fluid understanding of pressure as a dynamic rather than a force on parliament from without. A further section examines ways in which those pressuring parliament often championed their interests as national, not selfish or sectional, through examples of imperial pressures and particularly the West India lobby and its enemies. Assaying the contributions of other essays in this volume, the introduction concludes by pointing to the multiplication and institutionalisation of avenues of pressure across this period, rather than a teleological rise of popular sovereignty over parliamentary deliberation.