Social Interest Groups Research Articles

The enlargement of the European Union and social dialogue in Central and Eastern Europe

In the coming years, the European Union is likely to have new members among Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs). Currently, most of them are going through a massive process of institutional and legislative reform, particularly related to the adoption of the acquis communautaire. Meanwhile, the advent of free markets and moves towards privatisation of industry have led to major changes in their economies. However, the involvement of social and economic interest groups in public policy‐making seems to be rather irregular, if not totally ineffective. This article presents an account of the development and the current state of social dialogue among trades unions, employers’ organisations and the governments of the candidate countries. It argues that the role of representative groups must be strengthened in order to ensure an effective implementation of the reform agendas. Moreover, a more regular resort to concertation could help to establish a working system of ‘checks‐and‐balances’ in the political systems of CEE.

Prevailing Impressions in Science and Medical News

In a content analysis, the authors assess the prevailing impressions toward social actors in the coverage of science and biomedical news in the Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post during biennial periods from 1989 to 1995. The social actors and outcome variables studied were favorability toward science and medical professionals, the health care delivery system, science and medicine as social institutions, industry, government, and public interest groups. The study found that prevailing impressions toward industry, government, the health care delivery system, science and medical professionals, science and medicine as social institutions, and public interest groups were within a middle or ascribed equivocal range for both newspapers during all the time periods surveyed. The findings challenge some qualitative, case-study-based scholarship that suggests prevailing impressions are skewed in highly favorable or unfavorable directions toward social actors in science reporting.

The Origins and Evolution of Conflict in Portland’s Neighborhood Association System: A Case Study of North Portland’s District Coalition Board

Neighborhood associations represent a possible vehicle for broke ring private interests and public welfare within a diverse social context. In order to function at the level hoped for by normative political theory, neighborhood associations must be able to host vigorous dialogue within varied social interest group settings. Yet, because of the limited resources they typically command, and the disparate interests and agendas they are often confronted with, neighborhood associations are panicularly vulnerable to destructive levels of conflict and an array of collective action problems. As such, a central interest for neighborhood association research is to identify the constraints that impede citizens of different cultural and class backgrounds from working together to forge consensus around community wide concerns and agendas. A related interest is to see that this activity can occur with as little interference from central administrative agencies as possible. Portland, Oregon’s neighborhood association system offers a unique laboratory for exploring these research interests because it hosts a system of nominally autonomous neighborhood associations which receive ongoing subsidy from local tax revenue. This paper examines preliminary interview and archival data collected for dissertation research which suggests that Portland’s system may foster conflict more than it suppons consensus formation. The implications of these findings are examined against research claims made elsewhere that Portland’s neighborhood association system is exemplary.

The history of the institutions of Mercosul

SUMMARY In this article, Maria Claudia Drummond discusses the recent phenomenon of representative institutions which become part of the machinery of free trade areas, or economic unions between groups of sovereign states in the continent of South America. After the failure in the 1960s of ambitious schemes to establish a Latin American Free Trade Area a more modest project emerged, starting with the Declaration of Iguaçu of 1985 signed by Argentina and Brazil. This became the starting point for establishing a common market in the southern cone of South America, and was enlarged to include Paraguay and Uruguay to constitute the Mercosul union of the four nations, formalized in the Treaty of Asuncion in 1991. The article describes the institutions of Mercosul, a Council, an Executive, a Trade Commission and a Joint Parliamentary Committee, which could be developed later into a full Mercosul Parliament. These are completed by a Consultative Forum for the independent representation of corporate economic and social interest groups.

Information Technologies, Advocacy, and Development: Resistance and Backlash to Industrial Shrimp Farming

While the overwhelming belief is that advanced information and communication technologies (ICT) will profoundly influence society, experts differ significantly about whether these impacts will be positive or negative. Current discussions of ICT frequently embody either optimistic or pessimistic predictions. These debates are not very helpful, however, in designing policies, programs, and projects that are intended to realize the development or the democratizing potential of these technologies—especially when applied in the developing world. Empirical evidence suggests that both positive and negative impacts occur—depending on diverse points of view, the potential for particular stakeholders or social interest groups to take advantage of the technologies, the scale or level of analysis at which impacts are evaluated, the political economic context, etc. This paper accepts this ambiguity. It uses the recent globalization of resistance to industrial shrimp farming and associated industry response to empirica...

Manufacturing visions of society and history in textbooks

Interviews with personnel involved in designing secondary-school social-science textbooks, and the findings of previous research in the sociology of work in mass media organizations, reveal three, often complementary, domains of control that influence textbook visual content: (a) industrial—the meaning, relevance, and historical or social significance of an image directed through captioning and accuracy guidelines; (b) commercial—marketing pressures that make aesthetic appeal of great importance to the textbook's production success; and (c) social—interest groups that influence the visual components of the textbook, but because of space limitations the game is zero-sum. This study finds that, in all, the textbook vision of society is homogenized and sanitized to reduce the risk of controversy.

Ethical issues in the forensic applications of DNA analysis

Attitudes towards forensic applications of DNA analysis vary. But two archetypal opposed viewpoints may be constructed—“Camp Enthusiastic” and “Camp Hostile”. Section 2characterises these two camps and analyses their opposition as reflecting (i) different models of criminal justice and different views in ethical theory about the normative relationship between the individual and society; or (ii) the agenda of different social or political interest groups in society. It is argued that explaining the dispute as a socio–political one, rather than as a disagreement in ethical theory, merely serves to shift the focus of ethical interest or concern from forensic applications of DNA analysis, as such, to their socio–political context, compelling a focus on the ethics of the adversarial system of justice in particular. Section 3presents an approach to adjudicating the dispute between the two Camps. It is argued that commitment to human rights logically entails commitment to the Principle of Generic Consistency (PGC) of the American Philosopher Alan Gewirth. Consequently, the European Convention on Human Rights, which is binding on all European States, must be interpreted in line with the PGC. The PGC is explained and it is argued that it supports the Due Process Model of Criminal Justice (characteristic of Camp Hostile) over the Crime Control Model (characteristic of Camp Enthusiastic).

The National Conferences in Benin and Togo Revisited

As many as sevenConférences nationales(CNs) took place in French-speaking Africa between February 1990 and January 1993, all against the background of the apparent ‘wind of change’ which is sweeping across the continent where democratic governance is eventually to replace authoritarian rule. In Benin, the assembly of delegates that met during 19–28 February 1990 was supposed to be representative of all social, religious, professional, and political interest groups whose aim was to introduce a constitutional liberal democracy. This CN managed to gain acceptance of the sovereignty which it had declared on the second day — namely, that all its decisions would be legal and binding. The authority of President Matthieu Kérékou was thus effectively emasculated, whilst the elections which were timetabled and held a year later, finally unseated him after 20 years in power. In Togo, General Gnassingbe Eyadéma was able to reject the sovereignty claimed. by the CN, held from 8 July to 28 August 1991, as the balance of power was firmly in his favour.

Political opportunity and the rise and decline of interest group sectors

Interest group activity is always affected by the political environment in which groups operate. As a result, effective study of public interest groups must situate them in a larger political context. We propose a means of doing so by building on theoretical and empirical studies of both social movements and interest groups. We argue that groups can best be understood by changing the unit of analysis from an individual group to the set of groups pursuing common agendas, or an “interest group sector.” Drawing from both empirical and theoretical literature, we establish both the necessity and the theoretical parameters for a sectoral analysis, and offer a basic framework for such an analysis. We demonstrate empirical support for a sectoral approach by looking at the periodicity of group formation in five public interest sectors. We then propose a six stage framework to describe a cyclic process of issue emergence, resource mobilization, organization building, and their relation to the policy process. We conclude by discussing the potential policy impact of interest group mobilization and institutionalization, and its relationship to democracy.

Rescheduling the special interest group.

The committee members of the RCN Social Interest Group for Nurses Working Within Day Hospitals/Day Care for Older People would like to apologise to the large number of people who were interested in attending our conference, which unfortunately had to be postponed.

Measuring Adherence to Alternative vs. Conventional Agricultural Paradigms: A Proposed Scale*

Abstract Current debates and conflicts in agriculture appear to reflect the competing perspectives of two increasingly distinct camps of agricultural stakeholders: proponents of “alternative agriculture” and proponents of “conventional agriculture.” Several analysts have argued that members of these two camps hold fundamentally divergent paradigms of agriculture, and thus, literally see the world quite differently. The purpose of this paper is to describe an instrument—the Alternative‐Conventional Agriculture Paradigm Scale (or ACAP Scale)—developed to measure the basic beliefs and values assumed to constitute the two competing perspectives in agriculture.Items designed to tap all of the major dimensions identified in the alternative‐conventional agriculture debate were included in surveys of known groups of alternative and conventional agriculturalists, as well as in a statewide survey of farmers. The items discriminate significantly between the three samples (with the statewide farmer sample taking the intermediate position), suggesting their validity as measures of the elements of the competing agricultural paradigms. The items also exhibit a high degree of internal consistency, indicating the appropriateness of combining them into a single instrument to measure adherence to alternative versus conventional agriculture. As expected, the known groups provide more consistent responses than do the statewide sample of farmers, presumably reflecting the greater ideological coherence of social movement and interest group members. However, the alternative agriculturalists are far more consistent than are the conventional agriculturalists, and potential explanations for this finding are drawn from recent work on social movements.

Mass Political Behaviour: Is There More to Learn?

Research progress in voting studies and party competition, the mass media, work on social movements, interest groups and collective action, is reviewed for the last decade. Theoretical impetus in applied work seems weak in British studies; sub-fields of research are being pursued in isolation. In electoral studies at least there are signs of over-specialization and loss of valuable interconnections with the mainstream of political science. A number of pathways for improving the state of the art are identified, focusing on a renewal of theoretical input, the correction of some ‘system biases’, greater methodological pluralism and more integration of demand-side and supply-side studies.

L'Etat et ses trois niveaux: le régime, la gouverne et la politie

The State and Its Three Levels: Regime, Governance and PolityThis article is not simply a summary of the analytical framework already presented in the earlier, principal theoretical works of the author. It goes beyond the simple exercise of schematic brevity by adding some new elements: the notion of collective action groups between those of social classes and interest groups; a first transposition of a schema conceived for the classical unitary state to one applicable to the federal, or “multiple,” state; and a new formulation of the three analytical levels, specifically those characterizing this theoretical framework, which go by the labels of “regime,” “governance,” and “polity.”The article is divided into three parts corresponding to the study of the three levels and connected by an equal number of “thresholds” of levels. The conclusion points out the lines of transposition for the study of a federal state and the directions of research for the analysis of political change.

The Identification and Evaluation of Racial Gerrymandering

Despite the elimination of differences in the population sizes of election districts, gerrymandering of district boundaries remains an obstacle to full equality for all social and political groups. Legal challenges to district lines on grounds of racial-vote dilution frequently fail because plaintiffs cannot show evidence of discriminatory intent on the part of the redistricting authorities and because no accepted measure of gerrymandering has been developed. A disputed redistricting may be one of hundreds of feasible, constitutional ways to redraw district lines. Charges of racial bias were evaluated using a statistical framework. Congressional districts in Manhattan were favorable to blacks, whereas districts in New Orleans and Mississippi were unfairly drawn to dilute black voting power. Courts, academics, and legal experts can use this evaluation method to determine the fairness of a proposed reapportionment or to judge a plan's equity for social or political interest groups.

Modernizing Administrative Elites: The Making of Managers for Soviet Cities

In recent years, the study of elites and elite politics in the Soviet setting has moved decisively away from the particularistic concerns of an area-studies approach. In the process, there has emerged a greater emphasis on developing and testing the kinds of hypotheses regarding elite behavior which can be subsequently utilized to generate cross-national insights with theoretical ramifications. The first step in this process required a decisive movement away from the classic interests of the Kremlinologists. Proponents of this analytic approach long argued for short-range policy predictions as well as intermediate-range projections of leadership orientations based on a tracking of the ebb and flow in the fortunes of prominent individuals (or small factions) within the leadership.' The next stage in the development of investigations of Soviet elites was marked by the emergence of more sophisticated studies of leadership recruitment patterns which introduced the notion of change as the chief dependent variable (rather than acquisition of power, as in the studies of the Kremlinologists). Such studies built upon the hypothesis that if the system as a whole increasingly displayed the characteristics of an advanced industrial society, then it was likely that the political elite, to survive, would invariably transform itself to become more representative of emergent social forces or institutional interest groups.2 Other studies widened and extended those analytic paths which had only recently been cleared. Using analyses of time-series data, a third group of writings has looked at the possibility of a strong and positive correlation between the demographic and career characteristics of elite cohorts and the kinds of attitudes or skills-and presumably policies as well-which this elite

Creating connections: Exploring the intermediary use of ICTs by Congolese refugees at tertiary educational institutions in Cape Town

The development of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has been seen as a boon for groups that occupy a marginal position in the mainstream commercial media or that have limited access to such media. ICTs such as the Internet have optimistically been seen as potentially providing a communicative space where community movements, activists and social interest groups might share information more freely and with fewer of the space limitations and distribution problems than in traditional media. In the South African context, one such marginalised community is the refugees from other African countries who have made South Africa their home. Several opinion surveys and research projects into the representation of refugees in South African media have raised concerns about how refugees are treated in the mainstream media. Against the background of such problems, one could ask the question of whether the benefits that new media technologies have proven to hold for other marginal groups will also apply to refugees. If this is the case, how do refugees use new media technologies to their benefit, and how should this usage be theorised? This article seeks to explore these questions through a study of a specific South African refugee community, namely the Congolese refugee community in Cape Town. The article presents both preliminary indications of the uses of ICTs by this community and initial theoretical reflections on these findings.

Coexistence, National and International: The First Annual Scientific Meeting of the International Law Association (Canadian Branch)

All law," as Professor Gregory Tunkin, the former Principal Legal Adviser to the Soviet Foreign Ministry, has remarked, "is a species of coexistence." I take it that Dr. Tunkin means by that that legal norms, if they are to be really meaningful as law-in-action in any community, must proceed on a basis of the reconciliation of the competing claims advanced by the main social interestgroups in that community. The international law of the era of the Soviet-Western détente, that hopefully has succeeded to the erstwhile Cold War conflicts, is based on just such a species of intersystems accommodations and compromises, highlighted of course by the Moscow Test Ban Treaty of August 1963 but represented also in a series of lesser agreements and adjustments of fundamental interests-conflicts. The essence of international law-making under these circumstances, if it is to yield a viable system of norms that actually will operate as law-in-action in the contemporary World Community, becomes one of looking for genuine mutuality and reciprocity of interest as between the main political-ideological groupings in the World Community.

St. Louis Politics: Relationships Among Interests, Parties, and Governmental Structure

OLITICAL SCIENTISTS have been troubled in recent years by just what it is they mean when they talk about a political party. Whether the discussion concentrates on the American scene or includes comparative data from other countries, the ambiguity of party as an analytical tool remains. Particularly difficult and very largely untouched by specific empirical analysis are the relationships which connect core party organizations, the social and economic interest group configuration, and the formal governmental structure of a community. Whereas some political scientists have assumed the crucial importance of the formal structure in shaping the political life of the community, others have tended to regard structure as largely irrelevant and to argue instead that the only significant variables were embraced in interest group activity. This paper will offer a synopsis of the situation in one city, St. Louis, Missouri, in an effort to suggest the ways in which the three factors mentioned are interrelated. The burden of the argument here is that a somewhat peculiar bifurcated structure of local government plays a crucial role in shaping the nature and scope of political conflict in the city. Two broad interest groupings in St. Louis, each composed of rather loosely allied groups and each pursuing different sets of goals in the political arena, are enabled to live under the same party label by the fact that each grouping can control one segment of the governmental structure and from that control secure the portion of its goals most vital to it. Neither group gains complete satisfaction thereby, but the consequence is that the two groups are not forced into the full range of sharp competition that a more centralized and monolithic structure might require.

The Mine Bosses' Union--A Study in Group Leadership

of his fellows who align themselves with the commercial interests of uptown New York. The artist and intellectual can assume such a position successfully only because he stands outside the ties of the more mundane world, free from occupational routine and social obligations. In essence charismatic authority is unstable. The intellectual knows no legitimacy other than that provided by the recognition of his followers. Should this recognition fail, his position is lost, for he cannot deduce his authority from code or statute. He must constantly prove himself anew to his followers. His polemics against society must be comprehensible in terms of the life experience of at least a segment of society's members. His followers are loyal to this inner vision of society and not necessarily to him as a person and certainly not to his office or position. Weber pointed out that it is the fate of charisma whenever it comes into contact with the permanent institutions of a community to give way to tradition, rational socialization, and discipline.32 The chief factor determining this routinization of charisma has been the desire of a particular social strata or interest group to legitimize and thus preserve their privileged position. Prestige and influence which were charismatically acquired are legalized and rationalized into a cosmos of acquired rights, duties, and functions. Allegiance no longer adheres to the individual but to his office or social position. That such rationalization has not taken place in the case of the intellectuals is largely due to the accessibility of intellectual status and the fact that intellectual leadership has so generally been in opposition to social restraints of any kind. In addition the social position of the artist intellectual has seldom been one which it would be to his great advantage to preserve and the artist by very definition has never been a practical man of affairs who would undertake its systematic institutionalization. It is precisely because the intellectual artistic elite have never been a governing or administrative group that they have escaped internal discipline and have as a group maintained their charismatic authority. 3 Gerth and Mills, op. cit., p. 253.