Testing the Effects of Professional Grassroots Lobbying Campaigns on Civic and Political Engagement

测试专业草根游说活动对公民和政治参与的影响

• 批准号: 0851153
• 负责人: Edward Walker
• 金额: $ 7.45万
• 依托单位: University of Vermont & State Agricultural College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-07-15 至 2010-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0851153&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Testing; Effects; Professional; Grassroots; Lobbying

SES-0851153Edward T. WalkerUniversity of VermontThis award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009(Public Law 111-5).How has the civic and political participation of American citizens been changed by the growth of paid efforts to lobby the public? No study to date has examined systematically how professional lobbying of the public is changing participation. This project will help to overcome this limitation by studying the activities of Professional Grassroots Lobbying Firms (PGLFs), which are organizations that, for a fee, use communications technologies to subsidize public participation on issues of interest to businesses, trade associations, interest groups, political parties, and government agencies. These organizations help to lower the perceived costs of participation by, for example, providing targeted activists with a ready-made message that could be easily sent to one?s local, state, and/or federal-level representatives. Through a systematic survey of N=233 PGLFs (each asked about ten recent campaigns over eight years, allowing for analyses of 2,330 firm-campaigns), follow-up interviews, and analyses that tie the survey results to state-level civic and political data, the intellectual merit of the proposed study is to greatly expand our understanding of the effects of paid, professional mobilization of the public. The study asks three major research questions: (1) Do the campaigns of PGLFs exacerbate participatory inequalities by subsidizing the participation of those that are already overrepresented in the political system? (2) Do these campaigns further political polarization and reduce citizens? social capital? (3) How effective are these campaigns in shaping public participation and, ultimately, legislative decision-making? There are three broader impacts of the study. First, this research will help to bring rigorous social scientific data to bear on the theory that public life is becoming increasingly privatized. Second, it will analyze the unique survey responses from sampled PGLFs, in conjunction with external data sources, using innovative panel models. Finally, the results of the research will hold great potential for informing policy through understanding how professional mobilization either augments or mitigates participatory inequalities as well as the political power of the firms? institutional clients.

SES-0851153Edward T.沃克佛蒙特大学该奖项由2009年《美国复苏和再投资法案》（公共法111-5）资助。有偿游说公众的努力的增加如何改变了美国公民的公民和政治参与？到目前为止，还没有研究系统地研究公众的专业游说如何改变参与。本项目将通过研究专业基层游说公司的活动来帮助克服这一局限性，专业基层游说公司是一种收取费用的组织，利用通信技术补贴公众参与企业、行业协会、利益集团、政党和政府机构感兴趣的问题。这些组织有助于降低参与的成本，例如，为目标活动家提供现成的信息，可以很容易地发送给一个？地方、州和/或联邦一级的代表。通过对N=233个PGLF的系统调查（每个PGLF询问了8年来最近的10次运动，允许对2，330个公司运动进行分析），后续访谈，以及将调查结果与州一级公民和政治数据联系起来的分析，拟议研究的智力价值是大大扩展我们对有偿的，专业的公众动员的影响的理解。该研究提出了三个主要的研究问题：（1）PGLF的运动是否通过补贴那些已经在政治体系中代表性过高的人的参与而加剧了参与不平等？ (2)这些运动是否会加剧政治两极分化并减少公民数量？社会资本？(3)这些运动在塑造公众参与和最终立法决策方面的效力如何？该研究有三个更广泛的影响。首先，这项研究将有助于使严格的社会科学数据对公共生活日益私有化的理论产生影响。其次，它将分析独特的调查答复，从抽样PGLF，结合外部数据来源，使用创新的面板模型。最后，研究结果将通过了解专业动员如何增强或减轻参与不平等以及企业的政治权力，为政策提供信息。机构客户。