Organizing for Collective Action: The Political Economies of Associations (Social Institutions and Social Change Series)

Organizing for Collective Action investigates the political and economic behaviors of national associations, including trade associations, professional societies, labor unions, and public interest groups. It focuses upon the ways that these organizations acquire resources and allocate them to various collective actions, particularly for member services, public relations, and political action. This analysis is structured around three broad theoretical paradigms for collective action: (1) the problem of societal integration which concerns the ways that people are tied to organizations and the ways that organizations connect their members with the larger society; (2) the problem of organizational governance which considers how individuals become unified collectivities capable of acting in a coordinated manner, and (3) the problem of public policy influence which involves interactions among public and private interest groups to formulate the binding decisions under which we all must live. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Title Page 4 About the Author 5 Copyright Page 5 Dedication 6 Table of Contents 8 Preface 12 Acknowledgments 14 Part I. Introduction 16 1. Unlimited Freedom of Associations 18 What are Collective Action Organizations? 20 Centrality of Associations in Society 22 The Social Integration Problem 23 The Organizational Governance Problem 27 The Public Policy-Making Problem 31 Conclusion 36 Plan of the Book 37 Part II. Theory and Data 40 2. Choosing Collective Action 42 Rational Choice Models 43 The Public Goods Dilemma 46 Research Evidence on Collective Action 50 The Normative Conformity Model 53 The Affective Bonding Model 56 A Synthesized Motivational Model 58 Conclusion 59 3. A Theory of Association Political Economy 62 Theoretical Requirements 63 Scope and Overview 65 Environments and Organizations 66 The Internal Economy 69 The Internal Polity 73 The External Polity 76 Testing the Theory 79 Conclusion 80 4. A Profile of American Associations 82 The National Association Study 83 Telephone Survey of National Organizations 83 Survey of Association Members 85 A Descriptive Overview 87 Organization Size 88 Administrative Structure 91 Organization Goals 94 Environments of Associations 96 Member Attributes 99 Conclusions 100 Part III. Organizational Economy 102 5. Fund-raising and Resource Allocation 104 Budgetary Compositions 105 Predictors of the Budget Process 110 Statistical Procedures 112 Revenue and Expenditure Effects 114 Interaction Effects 117 Member Contributions 118 Conclusion 120 6. Organizational Incentive Systems 122 The Predisposition/Opportunity Framework 123 Incentive Systems and Organization Goals 127 The Structure of Incentives 129 An Empirical Incentive Typology 133 Conclusion 135 7 Member Interest in Incentives 138 Motives for Joining and Contributing 139 Measuring Member Interest in Incentives 142 Interests in Multiple Incentives 147 The Lobbying-Services Trade-off 148 Incentives and Contributions 150 Conclusion 154 Part IV. Organizational Polity 156 8. Association Governance 158 Power: Authority and Influence 160 Constitutional Authority 161 Influence Distribution 162 Authority Structures 165 Influence Distributions 169 Determinants of Governance Structures 172 Conclusion 175 9. Member Involvement 178 Theoretical Expectations 179 Measurements 183 Contextual Analysis Methods 189 Results 191 Total Communication 195 Interpretation 199 Conclusion 200 10. Mobilization for Influence 202 Associations in the Organizational State 204 An Advocacy Explosion 205 Mobilizing Members 208 Association Political Capacity 210 Organizational Mobilization Efforts 213 Member External Participation 216 Organization Influence Tactics 222 Conclusion 227 Part V. Conclusion 230 11. All the Advantages of Civilization 232 Summary of the Results 233 Implications 237 Directions for Future Research 239 To Civilize Our Public Life 243 Bibliography 248 Index 266