Political Voice through Organized Interest Activity

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kay Lehman Schlozman ◽  
Sidney Verba ◽  
Henry E. Brady
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Data ◽  
Resource Constraints ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
The Political ◽  
National Politics ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Institutional Settings ◽  
Organizational Activity ◽  
Political Voice ◽  
Organized Interest

This chapter maps the terrain of political activity by organizations using systematic empirical data to reveal something about the political voice emerging from organized involvement in various domains of national politics. For various domains of organizational activity, the chapter characterizes categories of organizations with respect to the likelihood that organizations are active and, if active, how much they do. In the process this chapter clarifies the strategic considerations and resource constraints that shape the involvement of different kinds of organizations in different arenas. Here, it becomes apparent that the policy makers in different institutional settings hear quite different mixes of messages.

Breaking the Pattern through Political Recruitment

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kay Lehman Schlozman ◽  
Sidney Verba ◽  
Henry E. Brady
Keyword(s):  
Circuit Breaker ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
The Political ◽  
Class Bias ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Political Recruitment ◽  
Political Voice

This chapter considers to what extent political recruitment can bring in a more representative set of activists and thus moderate the accent of the political chorus. It investigates ways to break a cycle deeply embedded in ongoing social and political processes, zeroing in on the possibility that the processes by which people are recruited to political activity might act as the circuit breaker. Moreover, this chapter finds that there is a process called “rational prospecting” in which those who wish to get others involved in politics follow a strategy of seeking out those prospects who are likely to assent to a request for political activity and to participate effectively when they do, with the result that ordinary processes of recruitment are actually amplifying the class bias in political voice rather than reducing it.

The Unheavenly Chorus

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kay Lehman Schlozman ◽  
Sidney Verba ◽  
Henry E. Brady
Keyword(s):  
Professional Associations ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
The Political ◽  
Trade Associations ◽  
The Public ◽  
Organized Interests ◽  
Political Voice ◽  
Membership Associations ◽  
Politically Active ◽  
Equal Consideration

Politically active individuals and organizations make huge investments of time, energy, and money to influence everything from election outcomes to congressional subcommittee hearings to local school politics, while other groups and individual citizens seem woefully underrepresented in our political system. This book is a comprehensive and systematic examination of political voice in America, and its findings are sobering. The book looks at the political participation of individual citizens alongside the political advocacy of thousands of organized interests—membership associations such as unions, professional associations, trade associations, and citizens groups, as well as organizations like corporations, hospitals, and universities. Drawing on numerous in-depth surveys of members of the public as well as the largest database of interest organizations ever created—representing more than 35,000 organizations over a 25-year period—this book conclusively demonstrates that American democracy is marred by deeply ingrained and persistent class-based political inequality. The well-educated and affluent are active in many ways to make their voices heard, while the less advantaged are not. This book reveals how the political voices of organized interests are even less representative than those of individuals, how political advantage is handed down across generations, how recruitment to political activity perpetuates and exaggerates existing biases, how political voice on the Internet replicates these inequalities—and more. In a true democracy, the preferences and needs of all citizens deserve equal consideration. Yet equal consideration is only possible with equal citizen voice. This book reveals how far we really are from the democratic ideal and how hard it would be to attain it.

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.

Robert R. Church Jr. and the African American Political Struggle

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Darius J. Young
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Black People ◽  
National Level ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Struggle ◽  
Pragmatic Approach ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Black Voters

This book examines the life and career of Robert R. Church Jr., who grew up the son of the first black millionaire in Memphis, Tennessee, and would eventually surpass his father’s notoriety as the most influential black Republican of his era. In particular this book uses Church’s life as a lens into the political activity of African Americans during the first half of the twentieth century. It focuses on the strategies that Church, as a member of the black elite, used to organize and empower black people through the vote. Church believed that voting served as the most pragmatic approach for African Americans to obtain full citizenship in this country. Through the organization he founded, the Lincoln League of America, Church demonstrated the political agency of African Americans on a national level. Church used the arena of politics to interject the plight of the black community into the national political discourse. By enfranchising thousands of black southerners and developing a substantial voting constituency, black voters could have their voices heard among the nation's most prominent policy makers. 

Educating Monks

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas A. Borchert
Keyword(s):  
High Schools ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Minority Group ◽  
Junior High Schools ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
The Political ◽  
Theravada Buddhism ◽  
National Politics ◽  
Reform Era ◽  
And Training

Educating Monks examines the education and training of novices and young Buddhist monks of a Tai minority group on China’s Southwest border. The Buddhists of this region, the Dai-lue, are Chinese citizens but practice Theravada Buddhism and have long-standing ties to the Theravāda communities of Southeast Asia. The book shows how Dai-lue Buddhists train their young men in village temples, monastic junior high schools and in transnational monastic educational institutions, as well as the political context of redeveloping Buddhism during the Reform era in China. While the book focuses on the educational settings in which these young boys are trained, it also argues that in order to understand how a monk is made, it is necessary to examine local agenda, national politics and transnational Buddhist networks.

The Military Post-Mugabe

2021 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 176-188
Author(s):  
Godfrey Maringira
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Difference ◽  
Current Situation ◽  
Political Transition ◽  
The Political ◽  
National Politics ◽  
Political Landscape ◽  
The Military

This article argues that, through the coup, the military has become more visible in national politics in post-Mugabe Zimbabwe. The current situation under President Mnangagwa marks a qualitative difference with the military under Mugabe’s rule. Currently, in now being more prominent, the military is politics and is the determinant of any political transition that may be forthcoming in Zimbabwe. However, if it deems it necessary, the military accommodates civilian politicians into politics in order to ‘sanitize’ the political landscape in its own interests. Simultaneously, despite their involvement in the coup, ordinary soldiers feel increasingly marginalized under Mnangagwa’s government.

scholarly journals Opportunity management of the COVID-19 pandemic: testing the crisis from a global perspective

2021 ◽  
pp. 002085232199210
Author(s):  
Sabine Kuhlmann ◽  
Geert Bouckaert ◽  
Davide Galli ◽  
Renate Reiter ◽  
Steven Van Hecke
Keyword(s):  
Crisis Management ◽  
Global Perspective ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
National Politics ◽  
Institutional Reforms ◽  
Institutional Conditions ◽  
Institutional Settings ◽  
Windows Of Opportunity ◽  
Cross Country ◽  
Crisis Responses

This article provides a conceptual framework for the analysis of COVID-19 crisis governance in the first half of 2020 from a cross-country comparative perspective. It focuses on the issue of opportunity management, that is, how the crisis was used by relevant actors of distinctly different administrative cultures as a window of opportunity. We started from an overall interest in the factors that have influenced the national politics of crisis management to answer the question of whether and how political and administrative actors in various countries have used the crisis as an opportunity to facilitate, accelerate or prevent changes in institutional settings. The objective is to study the institutional settings and governance structures, (alleged) solutions and remedies, and constellations of actors and preferences that have influenced the mode of crisis and opportunity management. Finally, the article summarizes some major comparative findings drawn from the country studies of this Special Issue, focusing on similarities and differences in crisis responses and patterns of opportunity management. Points for practitioners With crises emerging in ever shorter sequences of time, governing turbulence and using crises for strategic institutional decisions has become an increasingly important issue for policymakers. Aiming at effective and proportionate responses, policymakers must take the institutional conditions, administrative traditions and relevant actor constellations of crisis management into account, which are key to learn from other countries’ experiences. Comparing these experiences and analyzing the politics of crisis governance from a cross-country perspective may help policymakers to identify strengths and weaknesses of their own national/regional approaches and to seize crisis-related windows of opportunity for institutional reforms at the national and international levels.

The Study of American Local Governance: A Need for More and Better ‘Backyard‘ Scholarship

1988 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 11-14
Author(s):  
Ronald J. Oakerson
Keyword(s):  
Urban Politics ◽  
Local Politics ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
Political Process ◽  
The United States ◽  
Basic Element ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
American Democracy ◽  
National Politics ◽  
State And Local

Occasional references to the old radical teaching that “all politics is local” notwithstanding, American political scientists have by and large treated the study of local politics as a subject of much lesser importance than national politics. The standard introductory course in “American democracy” has a national focus—often it is exclusively national. Briefly, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the study of “urban politics” occupied a more prominent place in the discipline, but interest has waned. The priority concern in both teaching and research continues to be American national government and politics.This narrow focus leads to a distorted and truncated view of American democracy. Despite increased nationalization, state and local government has been and remains a basic element in the practice of American politics. The productivity and creativity of democracy in America are outcomes, not simply of a national political process, but of a complex system of governance in which local collective action provides much of the energy and initiative for addressing public problems. A vast amount of political activity in the United States is channeled through state and local institutions, where much of the work of public problem solving is done.

scholarly journals SPIRITS, POWER AND THE POLITICAL IMAGINATION IN LATE-COLONIAL GABON

Africa ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 82 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
John M. Cinnamon
Keyword(s):  
Second World War ◽  
The Political ◽  
Colonial Administration ◽  
Political Imagination ◽  
World War ◽  
National Politics ◽  
Political Events ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
Second World

ABSTRACTThrough narratives of an anti-‘fetish’ movement that swept through north-eastern Gabon in the mid-1950s, the present article traces the contours of converging political and religious imaginations in that country in the years preceding independence. Fang speakers in the region make explicit connections between the arrival of post-Second World War electoral politics, the anti-fetish movements, and perceptions of political weakening and marginalization of their region on the eve of independence. Rival politicians and the colonial administration played key roles in the movement, which brought in a Congolese ritual expert, Emane Boncoeur, and his two powerful spirits, Mademoiselle and Mimbare. These spirits, later recuperated in a wide range of healing practices, continue to operate today throughout northern Gabon and Rio Muni. In local imaginaries, these spirits played central roles in the birth of both regional and national politics, paradoxically strengthening the colonial administration and Gabonese auxiliaries in an era of pre-independence liberalization. Thus, regional political events in the 1950s rehearsed later configurations of power, including presidential politics, on the national stage.

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.

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