scholarly journals Why Groups Are Politically Active: An Incentive-Theoretical Approach

2018 ◽  
Vol 51 (12) ◽  
pp. 1628-1660 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Bolleyer ◽  
Florian Weiler
Keyword(s):  
Interest Groups ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Communication Channels ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Logit Models ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
Conflicting Demands ◽  
Voluntary Membership ◽  
Politically Active

Political activity is conventionally considered a constitutive feature of interest groups, underpinning an impressive literature on the strategies groups employ to exercise political influence. Whether and how intensely voluntary membership groups engage in political activities to start with, however, are rarely examined. We present a new incentive-theoretical perspective on group political activity, considering both member demands and leadership constraints. We argue that investments in political activities (one way of generating collective incentives) as a means to prevent member exit are more or less important depending on a group’s composition. Simultaneously, the extent to which leaders are incentivized to cater to members’ demands, when trying to balance these against conflicting demands, depends on communication channels between leaders and members and the importance of membership fees. Applying Bayesian ordered logit models to data from two group surveys supports our perspective and stresses the importance of considering how intraorganizational dynamics steer groups’ external activities.

scholarly journals Industry vs. Government: Leveraging Media Coverage in Corporate Political Activity

2020 ◽  
pp. 017084062096416
Author(s):  
John Murray ◽  
Daniel Nyberg
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Mining Industry ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Corporate Political Activity ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
Media Frames ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Public Sphere

This article investigates how an industry leveraged media coverage to publicly oppose governmental policy. Based on a frame analysis of the political contest between the mining industry and the Australian government over a proposed tax on resource corporations, we show how the industry aligned its position with mass media to (a) make the policy contest salient, (b) frame their position in the contest as legitimate and (c) construct negative representations of the policy as dominant. The analysis reveals how the industry’s corporate political activities leveraged media coverage to align disparate frames into a consistent message against the policy in the public sphere. This contributes to the literature on corporate political activity by explaining the process of alignment with mass media frames to legitimize corporate positions on salient issues. Second, we contribute to the framing literature by demonstrating the process of frame alignment between non-collaborative actors. Finally, we contribute to the broader discussion on corporations’ role in society by showing how corporate campaigns can leverage the media to facilitate the favourable settlement of contentious issues. These contributions highlight the pitfalls of corporate political influence without necessary democratic standards.

Public servants, anonymity, and political activity online: bureaucratic neutrality in peril?

2018 ◽  
Vol 86 (3) ◽  
pp. 496-512 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher A. Cooper
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Public Servants ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
Public Sector Employment ◽  
Public Sector Unions ◽  
Politically Active

Various actors have recently expressed concern that by threatening anonymity, social media places the bureaucracy’s neutrality in jeopardy. Yet, empirically, little is known about the online political activities of public servants. Drawing upon the public service motivation literature, this article develops contrasting hypotheses between public sector employment and online political activity. Testing hypotheses with survey data from Canada, the results show that unionized public sector employment reduces the probability of being politically active online. As social media continues to change the nature of governance, the results suggest that anonymity and neutrality remain important professional norms within the Westminster administrative tradition, and are reflected in the online political activities of public sector employees in Canada. Points for practitioners • Due to its visibility and permanency, public servants’ political activity on social media potentially threatens their reputation as politically impartial officials. • Some governments and public sector unions have thus voiced messages of caution to administrative personnel about the dangers of being politically active online. • Survey data from Canada suggest that these messages have worked. • Unionized public sector employment reduces the probability of being politically active online but does not reduce the probability of being active in traditional “offline” political activities.

scholarly journals The political activities of American corporate leaders

2013 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 493-527 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony J. Nownes ◽  
Nurgul R. Aitalieva
Keyword(s):  
Mail Survey ◽  
Strong Relationship ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
The Political ◽  
National Politics ◽  
Corporate Political Activity ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
Corporate Leaders ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Politically Active

What is the nature and extent of corporate leader involvement in American national politics? The results of a mail survey of nearly 100 such individuals show that leaders are quite active, devoting an average of nearly 1 hour per day to national political activity. We also show that corporate leaders engage in a wide range of advocacy activities. Monetary activities loom particularly large in the political lives of American corporate leaders, as large numbers are approached by members of Congress for contributions, and many who are approached answer the call. In addition, we find that corporate leaders, unlike advocacy professionals, do a great deal of their advocacy work in private; for the most part they eschew public activities such as testifying before congressional committees. Speaking to the question of which leaders are most politically active, our data evince a strong relationship between firm political activity and firm leader political activity. In sum, politically active firms have politically active leaders. We thus contribute to the ongoing academic discussion of corporate political activity by showing that the CEO's office is an additional locus of political power within business firms, and that CEO political activity is instrumental rather than consumptive in nature.

Don’t hatch the messenger? On the desirability of restricting the political activity of bureaucrats

2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-139
Author(s):  
Jean Guillaume Forand ◽  
Gergely Ujhelyi
Keyword(s):  
Welfare Analysis ◽  
Political Campaigns ◽  
Active Part ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
Voter Perceptions ◽  
The Government ◽  
Government Workers

Many countries place restrictions on the political rights of government workers. This includes limitations on political activities such as taking an active part in political campaigns. Are such restrictions desirable? We present a formal welfare analysis of this question. Bureaucrats’ political activities affect voter perceptions of the government and this can have informational benefits. However, they can also induce policy mistakes and are susceptible to ‘noise’ from some bureaucrats’ innate desire for political expression. When politicians have limited control over bureaucrats and successfully coordinate with voters, bureaucrats’ political activities can be desirable. In most cases, however, banning political activities is optimal.

The Regulation of Interest Groups and Public Benefit Organizations

2018 ◽  
pp. 123-164
Author(s):  
Nicole Bolleyer
Keyword(s):  
Interest Groups ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
Public Benefit ◽  
Empirical Assessment ◽  
Legal Restrictions ◽  
Cross Country ◽  
Tax Benefits ◽  
Lobby Regulation

This chapter presents a detailed empirical assessment of cross-country variation in the regulation of interest groups and public benefit organizations in the operation stage—covering the regulation of these organizations’ constitutive functions as well as of resource access—across nineteen long-lived democracies. Regarding regulation of organizations’ constitutive functions, it covers areas such as lobby regulation, third-party regulation, and other legal restrictions on groups’ political activities. In terms of resource regulation, it covers aspects such as tax benefits for donors and organizations themselves as well as the regulation of fundraising. The chapter concludes with an assessment of the monitoring and supervision structures in charge of implementing group regulation. The analysis shows how interest groups and public benefit organizations have to operate within a complex web of legal regulation, which fundamentally affects their ability to engage in political activities and access state resources.

18. Political Participation

2020 ◽  
pp. 318-335
Author(s):  
Herbert Kitschelt ◽  
Philipp Rehm
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Movements ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Macro Level ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Politically Active

This chapter examines four fundamental questions relating to political participation. First, it considers different modes of political participation such as social movements, interest groups, and political parties. Second, it analyses the determinants of political participation, focusing in particular on the paradox of collective action. Third, it explains political participation at the macro-level in order to identify which contextual conditions are conducive to participation and the role of economic affluence in political participation. Finally, the chapter discusses political participation at the micro-level. It shows that both formal associations and informal social networks, configured around family and friendship ties, supplement individual capacities to engage in political participation or compensate for weak capacities, so as to boost an individual’s probability to become politically active.

Obamacares: Candidate Traits, Descriptive Representation, and Black Political Participation

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 356-380 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher T. Stout
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Descriptive Representation ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
Mediating Role ◽  
Black Candidates ◽  
National Election Study ◽  
American National Election Study ◽  
Statistical Mediation Analysis ◽  
Using Data

AbstractWhile a number of studies demonstrate that black candidates have the ability to increase black political participation, a growing literature is investigatingwhydescriptive representation matters. This paper contributes to this discussion by exploring whether perceptions of candidate traits play a mediating role between the presence of an African American candidate on the ballot and increases in black political activity. I test this trait hypothesis using data from the 1992–2012 American National Election Study, a survey experiment, and statistical mediation analysis. The results indicate that perceptions of black candidates as being better leaders, more empathetic, knowledgeable, intelligent, honest, and moral explain a substantial amount of why descriptive representation increases black political participation across a range of different political activities. In the conclusion, I discuss the importance of the psychological link between blacks and their co-racial representatives in inspiring higher levels of political participation.

18. Political participation

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Herbert Kitschelt ◽  
Philipp Rehm
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Movements ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Macro Level ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Politically Active

This chapter examines four fundamental questions relating to political participation. First, it considers different modes of political participation such as social movements, interest groups, and political parties. Second, it analyses the determinants of political participation, focusing in particular on the paradox of collective action. Third, it explains political participation at the macro-level in order to identify which contextual conditions are conducive to participation and the role of economic affluence in political participation. Finally, the chapter discusses political participation at the micro-level. It shows that both formal associations and informal social networks, configured around family and friendship ties, supplement individual capacities to engage in political participation or compensate for weak capacities, so as to boost an individual's probability to become politically active.

Conflict transition, emplaced identity and the gendered politics of scale in Solomon Islands

2020 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 518-534
Author(s):  
Nicole George
Keyword(s):  
Pacific Islands ◽  
Solomon Islands ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Small Worlds ◽  
National Politics ◽  
Politics Of Scale ◽  
Gendered Politics ◽  
Women's Participation ◽  
Transition Governance ◽  
Politically Active

Although there is growing recognition that women’s participation is critical for the durability of peaceful conflict transition, grounded research examining the political scale of women’s participation has not been common. Where feminist researchers have tackled this topic, they have generally reproduced binary representations of political space, sometimes strongly critical of local spaces as restrictive of women, sometimes strongly critical of a hegemonic liberal international. In this article, I address the issue of women’s participation in conflict transition governance from another more ethnographic angle, drawing from fieldwork conducted in the Solomon Islands, a Pacific Islands country destabilised by conflict in the late 1990s and early 2000s. I apply theories of political scale to consider where and how women are politically active in the conflict transition environment, how that political activity is constituted relative to other political scales and where and how women seek to make their political ambitions understood. The ‘emplacement’ lens I develop offers a critical vantage point for analysis of the ways women constitute political identities and the agendas they might meaningfully progress, at scales ranging from the small worlds of the household and the community to the broader scale of national politics.

scholarly journals Self-maintenance vs. goal attainment: drivers of mortality anxiety in organized civil society

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 271-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Bolleyer ◽  
Patricia Correa
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Goal Attainment ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Organizational Infrastructure ◽  
Voluntary Membership ◽  
Active Interest ◽  
Service Oriented ◽  
The Uk

AbstractWhen do membership-based civil society organizations such as interest groups, political parties or service-oriented organizations consider their existence under threat? Distinguishing pressures of organizational self-maintenance from functional pressures of goal attainment, which all voluntary membership organizations – irrespective of their political or societal functions - need to reconcile, we propose a framework theorizing distinct categories of drivers of mortality anxiety in organized civil society. To test our hypotheses, we apply ordered logistic regression analysis to new data covering regionally and nationally active interest groups, service-oriented organizations and parties in Germany, Norway, Switzerland and the UK. We find that factors enhancing intraorganizational resilience thereby facilitating self-maintenance as well as exposure to different representation challenges complicating goal attainment have significant effects on mortality anxiety experienced by interest groups, political parties and service-oriented organizations alike – the former reducing, the latter enhancing it. Stressing the importance of a stable, durable organizational infrastructure with loyal and involved members to operate in increasingly volatile and diverse environments, our findings highlight the on-going importance of ‘traditional’ (sometimes considered ‘outdated’) organization-building.

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