Advocacy Organizations and Collective Action

A new agenda for studying advocacy organizations which treats them as 'firms' operating in policy markets.

Aseem Prakash (Edited by), Mary Kay Gugerty (Edited by)

9780521139670, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 25 November 2010

336 pages, 5 b/w illus. 7 tables
22.6 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.53 kg

'Rather than characterizing advocacy organizations by their distinctive ideals and the intentions of their members, the contributors to this important new volume ask what can be learned by exploring the similarities with profit-oriented firms and collective action projects. The result is a collection of rich, theoretically-engaged case studies that significantly advance our understanding of the structure and strategies of advocacy organizations while generating compelling new questions about norms and shared values.' Elisabeth Clemens, University of Chicago, and author of The People's Lobby

Advocacy organizations are viewed as actors motivated primarily by principled beliefs. This volume outlines a new agenda for the study of advocacy organizations, proposing a model of NGOs as collective actors that seek to fulfil normative concerns and instrumental incentives, face collective action problems, and compete as well as collaborate with other advocacy actors. The analogy of the firm is a useful way of studying advocacy actors because individuals, via advocacy NGOs, make choices which are analytically similar to those that shareholders make in the context of firms. The authors view advocacy NGOs as special types of firms that make strategic choices in policy markets which, along with creating public goods, support organizational survival, visibility, and growth. Advocacy NGOs' strategy can therefore be understood as a response to opportunities to supply distinct advocacy products to well-defined constituencies, as well as a response to normative or principled concerns.

Introduction: 1. Advocacy organization and collective action: an introduction Aseem Prakash and Mary Kay Gugerty
Part I. The Institutional Environment and Advocacy Organizations: 2. The price of advocacy: mobilization and maintenance in advocacy organizations McGee Young
3. Acting in good faith: an economic approach to religious organizations as advocacy groups Anthony J. Gill and Steven J. Pfaff
4. Institutional environment and the organization of advocacy NGOs in the OECD Elizabeth A. Bloodgood
Part II. Advocacy Tactics and Strategies: 5. The market for human rights Clifford Bob
6. Brand identity and the tactical repertoires of advocacy organizations Maryann Barakso
7. Shopping around: environmental organizations and the search for policy venues Sarah B. Pralle
Part III. International Advocacy and Market Structures: 8. The political economy of transnational action among international NGOs Alexander Cooley and James Ron
9. Advocacy organizations, networks, and the firm analogy Jesse D. Lecy, George E. Mitchell and Hans Peter Schmitz
10. Shaping civic advocacy: international and domestic policies towards Russia's NGO Sarah L. Henderson
Part IV. Towards a New Research Program: 11. Rethinking advocacy organizations? A critical comment Thomas Risse
12. Conclusions and future research: rethinking advocacy organizations Mary Kay Gugerty and Aseem Prakash.

Subject Areas: Business & management [KJ], Economics of industrial organisation [KCD], Comparative politics [JPB], Sociology [JHB]