Activism and the Policy Process

Activism and the Policy Process PDF Author: Anna Yeatman
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000248429
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 194

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Book Description
Activists - protecting rainforests, demanding increased childcare, developing local community housing, campaigning for AIDS funding or protecting consumers - are as much part of the political landscape as the media, parliament, peak industry groups, political parties or trade unions. This collection explores the idea of policy activism and its relationship to the processes that not only set but implement and deliver the policy agenda. Policy activists operate both inside and outside government. They include community-based organisers, activist bureaucrats, service providers and professionals. Policy activism has been barely explored in existing literature. This collection puts the idea on the map. It is an innovative contribution to the literature, using case studies across a broad range of policy areas. 'This volume opens the window on an aspect of the policy process that rarely receives attention from students of politics or policy anywhere across the globe. The framework presented and the cases included in these pages provide a glimpse of the workings of a complex democracy, describing a range of actors responding creatively to the dynamics of social, political and economic change. It is fascinating to see how policy functions and social values appear to be more important to these processes than the formal structures of the government in which they are placed.' - Beryl A. Radin, Professor of Public Administration and Policy, State University of New York at Albany

Activism and the Policy Process

Activism and the Policy Process PDF Author: Anna Yeatman
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000248429
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 194

Get Book Here

Book Description
Activists - protecting rainforests, demanding increased childcare, developing local community housing, campaigning for AIDS funding or protecting consumers - are as much part of the political landscape as the media, parliament, peak industry groups, political parties or trade unions. This collection explores the idea of policy activism and its relationship to the processes that not only set but implement and deliver the policy agenda. Policy activists operate both inside and outside government. They include community-based organisers, activist bureaucrats, service providers and professionals. Policy activism has been barely explored in existing literature. This collection puts the idea on the map. It is an innovative contribution to the literature, using case studies across a broad range of policy areas. 'This volume opens the window on an aspect of the policy process that rarely receives attention from students of politics or policy anywhere across the globe. The framework presented and the cases included in these pages provide a glimpse of the workings of a complex democracy, describing a range of actors responding creatively to the dynamics of social, political and economic change. It is fascinating to see how policy functions and social values appear to be more important to these processes than the formal structures of the government in which they are placed.' - Beryl A. Radin, Professor of Public Administration and Policy, State University of New York at Albany

How Policies Make Citizens

How Policies Make Citizens PDF Author: Andrea Louise Campbell
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691122504
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
Some groups participate in politics more than others. Why? And does it matter for policy outcomes? In this richly detailed and fluidly written book, Andrea Campbell argues that democratic participation and public policy powerfully reinforce each other. Through a case study of senior citizens in the United States and their political activity around Social Security, she shows how highly participatory groups get their policy preferences fulfilled, and how public policy itself helps create political inequality. Using a wealth of unique survey and historical data, Campbell shows how the development of Social Security helped transform seniors from the most beleaguered to the most politically active age group. Thus empowered, seniors actively defend their programs from proposed threats, shaping policy outcomes. The participatory effects are strongest for low-income seniors, who are most dependent on Social Security. The program thus reduces political inequality within the senior population--a laudable effect--while increasing inequality between seniors and younger citizens. A brief look across policies shows that program effects are not always positive. Welfare recipients are even less participatory than their modest socioeconomic backgrounds would imply, because of the demeaning and disenfranchising process of proving eligibility. Campbell concludes that program design profoundly shapes the nature of democratic citizenship. And proposed policies--such as Social Security privatization--must be evaluated for both their economic and political effects, because the very quality of democratic government is influenced by the kinds of policies it chooses.

Activism, Inclusion, and the Challenges of Deliberative Democracy

Activism, Inclusion, and the Challenges of Deliberative Democracy PDF Author: Anna Drake
Publisher: UBC Press
ISBN: 0774865199
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
Deliberative democracy – whereby people debate competing ideas before agreeing upon political action – must rest on its capacity to include all points of view. But how does this inclusive framework engage with activism that occurs in opposition to deliberative systems themselves? Through the examples of ACT UP, Black Lives Matter, and other contemporary activist movements, Activism, Inclusion, and the Challenges of Deliberative Democracy explores the systemic oppression that prevents activists from participating in deliberative systems as equals. Anna Drake concludes that only by addressing activism separately and on its own terms can we acknowledge its distinct democratic contribution.

The Paradox of Gender Equality

The Paradox of Gender Equality PDF Author: Kristin A. Goss
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 0472127004
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
Kristin A. Goss examines how women’s civic place has changed over the span of more than 120 years, how public policy has driven these changes, and why these changes matter for women and American democracy. As measured by women’s groups’ appearances before the U.S. Congress, women’s collective political engagement continued to grow between 1920 and 1960—when many conventional accounts claim it declined—and declined after 1980, when it might have been expected to grow. Goss asks what women have gained, and perhaps lost, through expanded incorporation, as well as whether single-sex organizations continue to matter in 21st-century America.

Power and Method

Power and Method PDF Author: Andrew Gitlin
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 113664573X
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
Power and Method demonstrates that political activism can and should be infused into the research process. Contesting the traditional assumptions that have dominated thinking about the nature and meaning of research--validity, objectivity and the researcher/"subject" relationship--the volume showcases alternative methods, enabling scholars to make a difference in the lives of classed, gendered and raced "subjects" and grapple honestly and openly with the way power is woven into the research process. Committed to the notion that the challenge to redefine the research process faces not only educational researchers, Power and Method includes contributions from scholars in the allied social sciences and the humanities. Responses from researchers working women's studies, anthropology, sociology and literature conclude each section and highlight common and alternative perspectives on the central themes that run throughout the volume.

How Party Activism Survives

How Party Activism Survives PDF Author: Pérez Bentancur Pérez
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 110848526X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 215

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Book Description
Explores the value of an organization-centered approach to understanding parties and their role in democratic representation.

The Political Power of Protest

The Political Power of Protest PDF Author: Daniel Q. Gillion
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107031141
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
This book is the first to provide quantifiable evidence that protest shifts the policy positions of national political leaders for each branch of government. Drawing on daily presidential rhetoric, roll call votes of congressional leaders, and Supreme Court decisions, the book demonstrates that national politicians take cues from minority protest activity that later lead to major shifts in public policy, rivaling the influence that minorities have through elections and public opinion.

Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency

Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency PDF Author: Doug McAdam
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226555550
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 349

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Book Description
In this classic work of sociology, Doug McAdam presents a political-process model that explains the rise and decline of the black protest movement in the United States. Moving from theoretical concerns to empirical analysis, he focuses on the crucial role of three institutions that foster protest: black churches, black colleges, and Southern chapters of the NAACP. He concludes that political opportunities, a heightened sense of political efficacy, and the development of these three institutions played a central role in shaping the civil rights movement. In his new introduction, McAdam revisits the civil rights struggle in light of recent scholarship on social movement origins and collective action. "[A] first-rate analytical demonstration that the civil rights movement was the culmination of a long process of building institutions in the black community."—Raymond Wolters, Journal of American History "A fresh, rich, and dynamic model to explain the rise and decline of the black insurgency movement in the United States."—James W. Lamare, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science

When Protest Makes Policy

When Protest Makes Policy PDF Author: Laurel Weldon
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 0472903810
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
"A must-read for scholars across a broad sweep of disciplines. Laurel Weldon weaves together skillfully the theoretical strands of gender equality policy, intersectionality, social movements, and representation in a multimethod/level comparative study that unequivocally places women's movements at the center of our understanding of democracy and social change." ---Amy G. Mazur, Washington State University "Laurel Weldon's When Protest Makes Policy expands and enriches our understanding of representation by stressing social movements as a primary avenue for the representation of marginalized groups. With powerful theory backed by persuasive analysis, it is a must-read for anyone interested in democracy and the representation of marginalized groups." ---Pamela Paxton, University of Texas at Austin "This is a bold and exciting book. There are many fine scholars who look at women's movements, political theorists who make claims about democracy, and policy analysts who do longitudinal treatments or cross-sectional evaluations of various policies. I know of no one, aside from Weldon, who is comfortable with all three of these roles." ---David Meyer, University of California, Irvine What role do social movements play in a democracy? Political theorist S. Laurel Weldon demonstrates that social movements provide a hitherto unrecognized form of democratic representation, and thus offer a significant potential for deepening democracy and overcoming social conflict. Through a series of case studies of movements conducted by women, women of color, and workers in the United States and other member nations of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Weldon examines processes of representation at the local, state, and national levels. She concludes that, for systematically disadvantaged groups, social movements can be as important---sometimes more important---for the effective articulation of a group perspective as political parties, interest groups, or the physical presence of group members in legislatures. When Protest Makes Policy contributes to the emerging scholarship on civil society as well as the traditional scholarship on representation. It will be of interest to anyone concerned with advancing social cohesion and deepening democracy and inclusion as well as those concerned with advancing equality for women, ethnic and racial minorities, the working class, and poor people. S. Laurel Weldon is Professor of Political Science at Purdue University.

The New Transnational Activism

The New Transnational Activism PDF Author: Sidney Tarrow
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521851305
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
This 2005 book argues that individuals move into transnational activism which links domestic to international politics.