Logic Of Influence Research Articles

"Všechno stejný, všechno zastavený": Karanténa v "domově" pro lidi označené za postižené

While many evaluations of the response from residential social services to the COVID-19 pandemic have pointed to high mortality rates and human rights violations, some have given a positive assessment of their performance. Whatever the verdict, it is a fact that the clients of residential social services were subject to stricter and longer lockdown measures than the rest of the population. Our ethnographic research describes the lockdown technologies used at Home F, a residential institution for people identified as disabled. Setting out from the assumption that freedom is not the antithesis of some united regulatory regime but is the result of the intersection of various repertoires and logics of influence, the research analyses the 'passages' that regulate relations between the clients and their surroundings before and during the pandemic. It shows that the regulatory mechanisms that were put in place to facilitate an effective pandemic response do not constitute a new apparatus but only an intensification of technologies already in place. With the aim of mitigating risk, they delegitimise the needs of clients, render relations dependent on obedience, and pass moralised judgements on behaviour. Such 'pedagogical arrangements' cause emotional suffering and do not leave much space for freedom. In the discussion in the article we link our findings to the current debates about the productivity of power and (post)critical pedagogy, concluding that while pedagogy necessarily accompanies the management of risks, a critical gesture that delegitimises the interests and opinions of the objects of pedagogy may not be the most appropriate pedagogical method available.

Defending institutional power? Unions’ positions towards the extension of collective agreements in Finland, Germany, and the Netherlands

AbstractStatutory bargaining extensions of collective agreements are an effective instrument to stabilise multi-employer bargaining. For unions, this means tensions between the logic of influence and membership. On the one hand, the extension constitutes a central institutional power resource. On the other hand, it might impede collective action if workers are covered without contributing. This article analyses unions’ preferences for extensions in Germany, the Netherlands and Finland, three countries that differ in union power and the trajectories of their bargaining institutions. The article has two findings. First, unions value extensions as a power resource because they prevent wage dumping. Second, union-supporting institutions counteract free-riding. Given new legislative efforts at the EU level, statutory extensions could become more important in the future.

The European Trade Union Federations within the European polity: ETUFs and international trade union activity

This article examines the European Trade Union Federations’ (ETUFs) role within the European polity in representing the interests of their affiliates vis-à-vis decision-makers at European level. In order to influence processes at European level, however, ETUFs need to aggregate and coordinate the often heterogeneous interests of their affiliates. This dual focus of the ETUFs’ activities is captured in the article by using the concept of the ‘logic of membership’ and ‘logic of influence’ to investigate how changes in their internal and external environment have affected the ETUFs’ capacity to act within the institutional structures and decision-making processes that constitute the European polity. A key finding of the article is that the European Commission’s renewed focus on strengthening the social dimension in principle opens up new opportunities for ETUFs to increase their influence at European level. The analysis, however, also shows that this is only possible if the ETUFs manage to mobilise the support of their affiliates for joint European strategies. This in turn requires national trade unions to overcome their tendency to retreat to the national level to cope with transnational challenges.

Hollow parties and their movement-ization: The populist conundrum

This article focuses on the relationship between social movements and political parties in the context of populist challenges to constitutional democracy. There are many reasons for the current plight of democracy but I focus here on one aspect: the decline of mainstream political parties, the emergence of new forms of populist movement parties and the general crisis of political representation in long consolidated Western democracies. This article analyses the specific political logic and dynamics of social movements – the logic of influence, and distinguishes it from that of political parties – the logic of power. It addresses transformations in movements, parties and their relationships. It looks at the shifts in movement and party types that constitute the political opportunity structure for the emergence of new populist movement party forms and relationships, focusing on the hollowing out and movement-ization of political parties. Contemporary populist movement parties are not the cause of the hollowing out or movement-ization of political parties. Rather they are a response to the crisis of political representation exemplified by hollow parties and cartel parties. But it is my thesis that thanks to its specific logic, populism fosters the worst version of movement party relationships, undermining the democratic functions of both.

The regional brand: collective image consciousness in Africa and Southeast Asia

States in the same region are bound together by the ways in which the world imagines them as a collective. One distinguishing feature of post-Cold War regionalism is its outward orientation – the importance of the external dimension of regional cooperation. By and large, though, existing analysis of regional institutional development in the Global South does not explicitly conceptualise and theorise collective image consciousness and management. This paper works to address this conceptual gap. Making use of two cases of regional image crisis – post-1980s Africa and post-1997 Southeast Asia – it draws out two primary logics of regional image consciousness: the logic of influence and the logic of resources. A region’s ‘brand’ with respect to (dys)function and international norm (non-)compliance matters to regional actors because it affects the region’s political influence in international arenas and the region’s ability to attract resources from donors and investors.

The Advocacy of Feelings: Emotions in EU-Based Civil Society Organizations’ Strategies

European Union (EU)-based Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) are usually pictured as well-established professionalized actors basing their advocacy strategies on the provision of expertise. Does the focus on expertise imply the removal of emotions and feelings from political communication? Following the emotion turn in social movement and collective action studies, this article investigates how and why EU-based CSOs use emotions in their advocacy strategies. The article shows first how CSOs use rhetorical appeals to emotions and rhetorical appeals to reason in their communication. Secondly, the focus is directed to emotion-inspired advocacy strategies, namely blaming and shaming, fear-mongering and boosting. The choice of rhetorical appeals and strategies is mainly explained by three different inter-related factors: the logics of influence, the logics of membership and media logics. Empirical data is drawn from a content analysis of press releases and policy documents of environmental (climate change) and human rights (refugee crisis) CSOs active at the EU level and from semi-structured interviews with key CSO representatives.

The Pivotal Role of Guanxi for Economic Intelligence in the People’s Republic of China1

Economic intelligence can be defined as a system of learning (logic of knowledge) and lobbying (logic of influence), largely based on access to information and interpersonal relationships. In the West, learning and lobbying are managed simultaneously, sequentially or separately. Can these systems, however, be developed in the same ways in Far Eastern countries, where messages are generally implicit and relations are usually gregarious? In particular, does knowledge depend on influence in these countries? Using the People’s Republic of China as an example, and based upon a survey of 353 people, the work in this article illustrates the need for adapting economic intelligence to international operations, and underlines the relevance of guanxi in building such a system in this country.

Will Trade Unions Survive in the Platform Economy? Emerging Patterns of Platform Workerss Collective Voice and Representation in Europe

Via a non-exhaustive mapping of various examples in Western European countries, this Working Paper explores to what extent the collective representation and voice of digital platform workers are being shaped by current dynamics in the platform economy. The argument is developed that currently emerging patterns hint at a possible co-existence or combinations of mainstream trade unions and other unions and union-like organisations defending platform workers’ needs and interests. Patterns in representation forms reveal a demarcation between the logic of membership and the logic of influence. Though not new, this demarcation has become more exposed, prevalent and salient since the platform economy, also in highly institutionalised labour markets. The Working Paper also emphasises that any meaningful analysis of the representation and voice of platform workers should consider the diversity of platforms and the associated variance in the power resources of platform workers.

Two logics of NGO advocacy: understanding inside and outside lobbying on EU environmental policies

ABSTRACTContributions by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to European governance supposedly enhance participatory democracy. It matters for this democratic surplus how NGOs foster relationships to both policy-makers and publics by engaging in inside and outside lobbying on European Union policies. This article investigates the factors that explain this lobbying behaviour. It contrasts organization-level hypotheses on the NGOs’ relational and resource characteristics with issue-level hypotheses on the complexity, salience and beneficiary group of the policy issue. Expectations are formulated under the assumption that different logics of influence and reputation drive inside and outside lobbying by NGOs. The findings suggest that issue-level characteristics have more explanatory power than organization-level factors. More salient, less complex issues and issues involving a public good have significantly higher odds of outside lobbying, while public goods attract less inside lobbying. The logic of reputation seems to capture outside lobbying, while the logic driving inside lobbying remains more puzzling.

Associational autonomy or political influence? The case of the cooperation between the Danish Dairies' Buttermark Association and the Danish state, 1900–1912

Studies show that it may be risky for business associations to cooperate with the state. Trapped in a dilemma between a ‘logic of membership’ and a ‘logic of influence’, these associations may obtain political influence from cooperation but only at the risk of losing their associational autonomy, which often leads to dissatisfaction among members. This article presents an illustrative example of the loss of associational autonomy within the context of agricultural corporatism, namely the cooperation between the Buttermark Association (BA) and the Danish state on a law-supported branch trademark for all Danish butter intended to ensure high quality and hinder the fraudulent sale and adulteration of milk. This trademark is the famous lur brand required by Danish law from 1906 and still in use today.

Double Exposures: On the Reciprocity of Influence between Tennessee Williams and Jean Cocteau

Le vrai drame, c'est la distance et que les etres ne se connaissent pas. S'ils se connaissaient, on eviterait de la tristesse et des crimes. --Jean Cocteau, L'Aigle deux tetes (1946) (1) By labeling the, androgynous as a myth ideal, and truest human being, Tennessee Williams stated his interest in all things liminal. (2) An ardent reviser and adapter of his own and other artists' works, (3) he therefore found natural supporter and mutual influence in Jean Cocteau, the French paragon of hybrid artistry. Not content with attaining popular acclaim for his stage dramaturgies and feature films or critical prestige for his poetry and novelistic work, the latter expressed himself with equal enthusiasm through imaginatively idiosyncratic drawings, paintings, ceramics, mosaics, frescoes, furniture, stained glass, tapestries, advertising posters, and even postage stamps. (4) After all, with the continuous exploration of the brittle boundaries between media, genres, and referential frameworks, both Williams and Cocteau showed certain sensitivity to the principle of reciprocity that is not only rare in itself, but even more rarely leads to well-assimilated artistic creations. Indeed, due to partly collaborative and emulative nature, the reciprocal process at the very least implies sense of complicity that is simultaneously defined by sheer boundlessness as, in the words of leading literary critic Harold Bloom, is no end to 'influence as there are no limits to power of invention. (5) Endemically dialectical, the logic of influence is driven by dynamic that for Bloom holds primarily positive connotations when considered from the angle of the inspiration it implies and the mutually sympathetic themes or moods on which it thrives. (6) In context characterized by such reciprocities, the need for an approach capable of capturing the mechanisms intrinsic constructiveness therefore becomes palpable, especially when taking into account Cocteau's and Williams's shared reliance on rewrites, translations, and adaptations. These three variants of textual hybridity function by virtue of interplay between familiarity and innovation, and thus strike by their recoil from fixity without alienating their audiences in the process. It is accordingly all the more fitting that this analogy-based duality of convention and invention would find both aesthetic and thematic echoes in the meandering reciprocity of influence between Tennessee Williams and Jean Cocteau, in particular since the production of an analogical relation does not require anything but context highlighting structural relations. (7) The perspective offered by the theater, incidentally prime expressive platform for both Williams and Cocteau, provides precisely such an environment. The notion of performance, after all, could be understood as metaphor for analogizing itself, effectively staging double exposure of product and process that stimulates analogical thought. (8) The human body onstage, especially, has kept fascinating artists, audiences, and philosophers alike because of its impermeability and intangibility as an engine of such associative thinking (9)--a characteristic that prompted the following statement from the towering acting theorist Jerzy Grotowski: I have seen for very long time now that theatre with tangible, corporeal and physiological characteristics is an ideal medium for provocation, pestering of oneself and the audience through the actor (the actor who actually challenges himself when he challenges the audience). The theatre has to combat our stereotypical world vision, our conventional feelings, our preconceived notions as they are anchored in the body, in respiration, the inner reflexes, in short, in the entire human organism. The theatre has to break these sorts of taboos. Through this transgression the theatre will enable us to engage ourselves, naked and entirely agitated in something which cannot be easily defined. …

Organised Interests, Authority Structures and Political Influence: Danish and Norwegian Patient Groups Compared

The article presents a comparative analysis of the strategies applied by Danish and Norwegian patient organisations and organisations for disabled persons in order to promote the interests of their members. Three research questions are addressed: Are Danish and Norwegian patient organisations service organisations operating according to a ‘logic of membership’ or political pressure groups acting according to a ‘logic of influence’? Do patient organisations apply ‘insider’ or ‘outsider’ strategies in their efforts to influence healthcare policies? What impact do different authority structures have on the patient organisations' influencing strategies? The latter question is related to recent reforms in the public healthcare systems of the two countries. The major responsibility for public hospitals now rests with regional authorities in Denmark and central government in Norway. The study is based on a survey among nationwide patient organisations in the two countries and shows that most patient groups are ‘polyvalent’‘venue shoppers’ combining a variety of influencing strategies.

Industry institutions, social capital, and firm participation in industrial development

Industry institutions and trade associations represent the “collective interests” of an industry's constituent firms and play a prominent role in industrial development. Yet, the strength and efficacy of industry institutions to promote these “collective interests,” depends upon the active support and participation of member firms. This is essentially a collective action problem. By aligning Olson's (1971) logics of collective action framework with Nahapiet and Ghoshal's (1998) dimensions of social capital, this article uses survey data from 381 firms from across five UK manufacturing sectors to explore the factors that affect the propensity for firms to participate in industry institution led initiatives. The results suggest the propensity of firms participating in collective activities rises where “shared interests” emerge, although the over-riding factor is the extent to which firms perceive their own ability to influence and shape the direction of such activities (the logic of influence).

A Victim of Its Own Success: Internationalization, Neoliberalism, and Organizational Involution at the Business Council of Australia

The focus of this article is on the Business Council of Australia (BCA), an association of the CEOs of the 100 or so largest companies operating in Australia. Since its inception the BCA has been an influential supporter of largely successful efforts to neoliberalize and internationalize the Australian economy. Running in parallel with these developments, however, the BCA has moved from being a “somewhat strong” to a relatively weak policy organization. This article argues these two trends are causally related. Neoliberal-inspired economic restructuring and economic internationalization have weakened the “logic of membership” and the “logic of influence” of the BCA, leading to a process of organizational involution. Furthermore, potential offsets to what I describe as the organizational predations of neoliberalism and internationalization—especially via a willingness or capacity to forge supportive or mutualistic relations with the state—have not been realized.

The representative role of regional business associations: the Engineering Employers' Federation Northern Association in North East England

The representational activities of business associations at the regional level are generally underdeveloped. In the past there has been little need to cultivate regional representation due to the political centralism that is characteristic of the UK. New Labour's regional agenda changed this situation and business associations were presented with additional opportunities to participate in an emerging process of regional governance. The response to these opportunities is explored through an analysis of the experiences of the Engineering Employers' Federation Northern Association (EEFNA). This paper argues that the engagement of business associations in the process of regional governance is dependent upon their ‘will’ and capacity. Drawing upon the formative work of Schmitter and Streeck and the more recent work of Bennett, it is further argued that the elements of will and capacity are influenced by the differing ‘logics’ that drive business associations, identified here as the ‘logic of services’ and the ‘logic of influence’. Representation, the outcome of the ‘logic of influence’ is a sophisticated process. The benefits of representation are not always clear to members of business associations, therefore it has the potential to cause tensions within business associations. Indeed research indicates that in the North East there are a number of problems associated with the representation process. These problems are generated by the perceptions of the regional partners (the RDA, One NorthEast (ONE), The Regional Assembly and Government Office for the North East (GO-NE)), tensions between business associations and, in the case of the EEFNA, tensions within the association itself. These problems impact on the strength of the ‘logic of influence’. It is suggested that in the case of the EEFNA the ‘logic of services’ is the prevailing force and has overshadowed the ‘logic of influence’. The imbalance has affected both the ‘will’ and the capacity of the association to participate in the process of regional governance.

Business associations and local development: The Okanagan wine industry’s response to NAFTA

Business associations (BAs) represent a widely prevalent institution contingent upon a plethora of regional and industrial contexts around the world. Although their role in local development is rarely highlighted this paper argues that analysis of the structure and strategies of BAs reveals important insights into the problematic nature of external economies, typically based on the willingness of highly independent small firms to share and possibly fund some common service(s). BAs illustrate cooperative behaviour and their fragmentation indicates limits to cooperation and thereby to the contested nature of this particular external economy. Conceptually, the paper interprets BAs as institutional expressions of local cooperation and theorizes their strategy and structure in terms of a ‘logic of exchange’ model. This model defines the relationships between BAs, their members (organizational domains) and governments in terms of the logics of ‘membership’ and ‘influence’ that help understand the opportunities afforded and tensions imposed by the rationale and dynamics of cooperation. Empirically, the paper examines the formation and performance of BAs in the restructuring of the Okanagan’s wine industry that was stimulated by the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the US and Canada in 1989 and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) of 1991. In the Okanagan wine industry, a newly formed BA was vital in helping firms overcome the crisis generated by free trade. However, subsequent fragmentation that arose out of member disenchantment with logics of influence and membership, indicated limits to local cooperation that may constitute a significant diseconomy in a future crisis.

The state and interest groups in a framework of multi‐level decision‐making: The case of the European Union

Abstract After years of relative neglect, the role of private interest groups in European policy‐making has attracted the attention of students of European integration once again. However, research on this subject suffers from the fact that the institutional peculiarities of the European Union, especially the integration of decision‐making levels, have not been taken into account sufficiently. The crucial question addressed in this article is how the European system of joint multi‐level decision‐making affects the power and influence of private interest groups in European policy‐making. It argues that, as a consequence of the new institutional framework, the logics of influence between public and private actors may differ significantly from the patterns of interest intermediation in domestic policy‐making. Most interesting in this context seems to be the ‘paradox of weakness’, i.e. the fact that public actors can increase their autonomy vis‐a‐vis private interest groups as a consequence of their integrati...

Emergence and Development of Business Interest Associations. An Example from The Netherlands

This paper describes and analyzes the emergence and development of Dutch business interest associations (BIAs), combining the approaches of corporatism and Olsonian logic of collective action. Various factors facilitating the emergence of BIAs are identified. The development of BIAs from representative to control organizations is described on a number of dimensions. The emergence and development of BIAs can only be explained by looking at both the 'logic of membership' and the 'logic of influence' which denote the exchange relations with members and interlocutors. Crises and conflicts in these environments were important. Hence separately, Olsonian logic (referring to the logic of member ship) and corporatism (referring to the logic of influence) stop short of explaining BIAs. Their combination is required.

The Logic of Influence

The Logic of Influence