the study of political leaders

T he study of civic associations, defined here as

membership-based advocacy groups governed
by internally elected leaders, has burgeoned
since the 1990s. A renewed interest in the relationship
between civic associations and democracy has
their communities and have an impact on other civic
and political actors.”10 Civic associations that have
more political presence are better able to provide their
constituents with greater voice because they have a
seat at the policymaking table. Although this work
emerged among scholars from a variety of disciplines finds that individuals involved in civic associations
and research areas, including political science, achieve greater political presence than those who are
sociology, democratic theory, and civic engagement. 1 not involved, it does not examine why some advocacy
As Archon Fung writes in a review of research on groups are able to achieve greater presence than
associations and democracy, “By asking the general others.11
question, ‘How do associations enhance democracy?’ We open the “black box” of these associations and
scholars have brought civil society and groups back contend that an emphasis on resources and political
into the normative and empirical investigation of context is incomplete. The ability of a civic
democracy.”2 Scholars have examined the role civic association to achieve political presence depends on
associations play in the quality of its leaders. Within the context of civic
developing and sustaining democracy in a range of associations, leaders must be able to mobilize
different ways, including incorporating marginalized common effort; in other words, leaders must be able
groups and individuals into the political system;3 to enable others to achieve purpose, not just pursue
acting as representative bodies providing many types individual preferences.14 Mobilizing others for action
of individuals a voice in the larger political system; 4 thus requires a distinct set of motivational, relational,
creating spaces for citizens to develop and practice and strategic competencies. We focus on two aspects
civic skills while addressing pressing community of leadership quality: the extent to which leaders are
issues;5 providing forums for public deliberation; 6 and committed to their work and have the necessary
pushing other political institutions towards motivational, strategic, and relational skills. This
incorporating values and practices of direct argument builds on research showing that civic
participation.7 In the study of social movements, associations play an important role in developing the
scholars have begun examining the political civic skills of citizens and generating social capital, 15
consequences of protest and specifying the role of and research showing that civic leaders have found
leadership, strategy, and organizations for movement innovative ways of creating spaces within which this
impact.8 Underlying all of this research is the notion democratic capacity-building can occur.16 The
that civic associations are critical to democ- argument also bridges across disciplines to apply
racy because they provide a way for individuals to insights from organizational studies to the political
participate in informal and formal mechanisms of context. Interdisciplinary work in organizational
policymaking. studies has examined the importance of leadership
By creating venues for participation in quality in firms17 and movement organizations.18 This
policymaking, civic associations provide individuals literature recognizes leaders as being central agents of
with a way to exercise voice in politics. Only limited organizational development and performance,
research, however, has examined the factors affecting influencing not only how effective the organization is,
which associations are better able to provide their but also the kinds of values the organization embodies
members with voice than others. Recently, scholars of and the meanings it represents for individuals who
political incorporation have begun calling for more belong to it.19 As such, scholars in organizational
attention to the ways in which some civic associations studies have examined multiple dimensions of
are better able to achieve political presence or public leadership that are relevant to organizational
recognition than others because they recognize the performance, including the skill of leaders, their
connection between these associations and the power motivations, the way they are structured to do their
marginalized groups achieve in politics. Karthick work, and the kinds of training they receive. We
Ramakrishnan and Irene Bloemraad, for instance, find borrow insights from this literature to specify the
that civic participation by immigrants can lead to dimensions of leadership that are most relevant to the
greater “political presence.”9 “Political presence” is a effectiveness of civic associations in the political
term Ramakrishnan and Bloemraad use to refer to the arena.
extent to which civic organizations “have visibility in
 To study the relationship between leadership quality carry forward the traditions and ideals of broad social
and the political presence of civic associations, we movements.24 Civic associations advocate for their
draw on an original dataset studying the local entities members’ interests in the public sphere, and also
of the Sierra Club, a major national environmental provide individuals with a way to connect to and
organization. In 2003, we conducted a study, entitled identify with the political system, form bonds of social
National Purpose, Local Action (NPLA), that collected capital, and develop crucial skills for civic
comprehensive information on the organizational participation.25
practices and characteristics of over 300 local entities These civic functions render member-based civic
of the Sierra Club.20 As a federated, membership-based associations distinct from other advocacy
organization governed by voluntary leadership, the organizations, which focus primarily on lobbying.
Sierra Club is emblematic of many civic associations Many advocacy groups, such as the Chamber of
in American democracy, particularly those prevalent in Commerce, or the Automobile Manufacturer’s
American politics since the 1970s (we further discuss Association, act as representatives of firms,
the generalizability of findings from our data later in businessgroups,orotherorganizations,insteadofdrawingt
the article). Thus, this study provides a unique heir
opportunity to examine the relationship between membershipfromindividuals.Researchshowsthatthefoc
political presence and leadership quality in us
membershipbased civic associations. Our central claim oftheseinterestgroupsistolobbygovernmentonbehalfof
is that the work civic associations do in developing the its member organizations, not to infuse its
quality of their leaders informs and supports the work organizations with democratic values or to build
they do in public advocacy—and that without democratic capacity among individuals who belong to
considering leadership quality, we cannot fully them.26
understand how some civic associations achieve higher Despite the unique role of member-based civic
levels of political presence than others. associations in American political life, most studies of
their effectiveness have analyzed them together with
Understanding the Political Presence of other advocacy organizations and interest groups. As a
Member-Based Civic Associations result, most explanations for why some civic
Since Alexis de Tocqueville’s observations in the associations are more successful in the public arena
1830s, scholars have noted the importance and than others focus on characteristics of the lobbying
centrality of civic associations to American political environment, which are shared by all types of
life.Theda Skocpol, Marshall Ganz, and Ziad Munson advocacy organizations. The two main explanatory
write, “From churches and unions to social groups and factors that have emerged are the resources the group
reform crusades, membership associations have has and the environmental context within which the
provided paths into active citizenship, allowing group is working. Perhaps the leading explanation for
Americans to build community, pursue shared goals, public success among interest groups focuses on the
and influence social and political affairs.” 21 Civic extent to which these groups can act as a source of
associations underpin democracy by providing venues information and money for legislators.27 These studies
within which individuals can learn and practice public argue that success depends primarily on how many
deliberation, civic leadership, and other skills of resources, in terms of money or people, an organized
democratic citizenship. Tocqueville notes that a key interest has. Groups that can provide votes, money,
purpose of civic associations is to help people realize and information about what voters want have the most
their broader interests, instead of focusing on their influence over re-election minded legislators. As a
narrow individual preferences. In addition, by result, studies of the power of PACs or the electoral
employing these venues, they implicitly challenge activity of interest groups generally operationalize the
other public institutions to incorporate deliberation and strength of an interest group as the amount of money it
public participation in governance.22 They also play a is able to provide a legislator, the number of members
representative role in policymaking. Although it claims in a particular geographic area, or its capacity
member-based civic associations are only a small for mobilizing members for action.28 Other research
proportion of the total number of advocacy argues that the success of organized interests depends
organizations operating in Washington, Jeffrey Berry primarily on external, environmental factors.These
argues that they are particularly important because “for scholars argue that favorable or unfavorable
millions of Americans, these organizations are the environmental conditions such as the availability of
means by which they support advocacy on the political allies, the strength of opponents, the availability of
issues they care the most about.” 23 Typically, civic resources, and opportunities that may exist explain
associations are the major organizational legacy and patterns of organizational
effectiveness.Thisresearchhasfocusedprimarilyontheco f commitment to their work—should make it more or
ntext within which the group operates, and the less likely that they will have the capacity to
relationships it has to key players. This includes effectively turn resources and context into public
studies of policy subsystemsandirontriangles,29 success. Yet we have had few empirical studies of the
studiesofdirectcongressionallobbying,30 and case relationship between leadership quality and the public
studies of particular policy domains.31 success of civic associations.
In studying the political effectiveness of member- Whereasmostpreviousresearchhasessentiallyblack-
based boxed the organization, we open it up for analysis.
civicassociations,however,weshouldnotignoretheiruni Our measure of public success focuses particularly
que characteristics. Insofar as a primary role of civic on political presence, drawing on Ramakrishnan and
associations is to teach civic skills, build community, Bloemraad’s work developing political presence as a
and impart the practices of democratic citizenship to measure of effectiveness in civic organizations. They
its members, the work civic associations do internal to argue that “civic and political presence are important
the organization is as important as the work they do measures of standing, showing the degree to which
externally, advocating for [organizations] are recognized as full partners in their
members’interests.Thequestionthatarises,then,iswheth communities. Civic and political presence are also
er the work that civic associations do in developing important precursors to influence in a community.” 34
democratic leadership skills of participants relates to Specifically, Ramakrishnan and Bloemraad examine
and the extent to which immigrant communities have a
supportstheworktheydoadvocatingformembers’interes voice at the table. Defined in this way, political
tsin the public arena. In other words, are civic presence assesses the degree to which the
associations that organization has the standing it needs to be an
doabetterjobasTocquevillian“schoolsofdemocracy”als effective advocate for its constituents. Focusing on
o morelikelytobemoreeffectiveinthepoliticalarena? political presence is consistent with previous research
Answering this question links to the literature examining access as an indicator of success. Studies
examining the role examining access focus primarily on legislative
thatassociationsplayinbuildingdemocracy,andalsofills lobbying and argue that access to legislators is a key
a indicator and correlate of influence. 35 Yet, advocacy
gapinthebroaderliteratureoninterestgroupeffectiveness groups work not only in legislative arenas, but also in
. Although previous research has shown that interest the courts, the media, and in setting the public
groups depend on resources to achieve political agenda.36 Securing political presence in these arenas
success, we lack a sense of how these groups translate as a spokesperson for policy is a key objective of
resources or a favorable political environment into advocacy organizations, and parallels the idea of
political success. securing access to lawmakers.37 Examining political
We propose a new set of independent variables to presence as an indicator of public success thus allows
examinetherelationshipbetweenleadershipqualityandth us to look across multiple arenas of public advocacy
epolitical presence of civic associations. What that may be particularly important for understanding
explains variation in how effectively an organization local civic associations.This is because some
capitalizes on available resources or political associations do not work in legislative arenas but may
opportunities? Many classic achieve success by becoming respected sources for
theoreticalformulationsoforganizationalbehaviorhighli information and analysis in public debate and by
ghtleadershipqualityasakeyexplanatoryfactor,butthose being seen as authoritative advocates by political
insights elites. Political presence may be conferred by the
havenotbeengroundedinongoingempiricalworkoncivic news media, allies, opponents, elected officials, or
associations.32 The logic behind this assertion about government agencies. Civic associations that secure
leadership quality is straightforward: because civic favorable political presence from decision-makers
associations are often self-governing entities whose and achieve standing may not prevail in every battle,
leadership operates with relatively high autonomy, the but their standing gives them much better chances
success of the organization depends not only on an than their peers who lack political presence.
organization’s context and Onelikelyreasonthatpreviousresearchhasnotexplore
resources,butalsoontheabilityoforganizationalleaderst d
o effectivelyengagethoseresources.33 therelationshipofinternalorganizationalfactors,likelead
Itstandstoreason,then, that certain characteristics of ershipquality,topoliticalpresenceisthedifficultyofobtai
the leadership—such as their ningthenecessarydata.Understandingtheeffectofleader
relational,strategic,andmanagerialskills,andtheirlevelo ship necessitates an in-depth look at the internal
 operations of the organization that is often hard to organization, the Sierra Club is part of a tradition of
access, and an ability to examine organizational data multi-tiered organizations in America that have been
that allows us to quantify constructs like leadership of particular interest to scholars because of their
quality. To further explicate our potential to combine local action in a national
approach,wedrawonauniquenewstudyofmultipleorgan framework.40 The Sierra Club, the National Rifle
izations within the Sierra Club. Before going into Association (NRA), Common Cause, Mothers Against
greater depth on our analyses, we describe the data Drunk Driving (MADD), the Christian Coalition, the
and the study, National Purpose, Local Action NationalOrganizationofWomen(NOW),andmanytrade
(NPLA). unionsareexamplesofsuchcivicassociationsthathavebee
n
A Study of the Sierra Club: National thesubjectofacademicstudyfortheiradvocacyroleinAme
Purpose, Local Action rican politics.41 Third, as a major player in
The National Purpose, Local Action study examines environmental politics, the Sierra Club is part of a
the local organizational units of the Sierra Club, a movement that scholars often regard as an exemplar of
leading US national environmental organization. contemporary social movements. Scholarship on the
Some previous studies of interest groups have post-1960s advocacy explosion has traced the growth
examined a sample of organizations working in a in organizations that rely on direct recruitment of
wide range of different contexts and issue areas. 38 members, that are highly professionalized, advocate on
These studies have been challenged by the question of behalf of middle-class constituencies, and
how to compare organizational units working in such employroutineornon-disruptivetactics.42 Thesetrendsare
different issue environments.39 Because the Sierra not limited to the US and mirror key cross-national and
Club is a federated organization, we can study local transnational developments in the characteristics of
civic associations working within a common national advocacy.43 Environmentalism shares these
framework. This allows us to hold organizational characteristics with
context and the broad purposes of the organization manymodernsocialmovementssuchasfeminism,thecons
constant to assess the impact of leadership umer rights movement, and the religious right.44
development practices alongside rival explanations. It While the Sierra Club as a whole is an interesting
is important to note, however, that the local Sierra representative of contemporary movements, the
Club groups operate with considerable autonomy analytic leverage and generalizability of the study
from the national organization, setting their own comes from the study’s multi-organization design.
agenda and priorities. Thus, there is true variation in Sierra Club chapters and groups are locally-based, self-
the work they choose to do and how they choose to governing, membership-based organizations that seek
do it. voice in the political process.The results of this article
TheSierraClubisalsoanexcellentorganizationtostudy could generalize to civic associations that share these
because it is exemplary of contemporary civic characteristics, as they all face the same challenges of
associations in several ways. First, it embodies all developing leadership capable of carrying out program
three characteristics that distinguish civic associations activities in their communities. Our findings are
from other organizations: voluntary membership, particularly relevant for organizations that operate as
governance by elected leaders, and the pursuit of voice federated, national associations.45 Although caution
in the public arena. In 2003, should be exercised in extending the findings to
theorganizationconsistedof750,000membersdividedint organizations not embedded in national federations,
o this study can be applicable to other state and local
343localgroupsbasedontheirareaofresidence.Eachlocal civic associations that face similar challenges in
groupwasaffiliatedwithoneof63chapters,whichroughly gaining political presence.
correspondedtoastate-
levelorganization.Eachlocalgroup Data Collection
wasgovernedbyanExecutiveCommitteecomposedoflea The unit of analysis in this study is the local Sierra
ders elected by mail-in ballots sent to members Club entity with a particular focus on the elected
residing in Executive Committee. All of the Sierra Club’s US
thegroup’sjurisdiction.NoneofthelocalgroupsintheSierr entities were included in the study, except for those
a Club had any paid staff, and only 23 chapters had that were in reorganization in September 2003. 46 Our
more than two paid staff (most chapters only have 1 or study focused on the local groups and chapters of the
2 paid staff). Each local group was thus a distinct self- Sierra Club, and data was gathered primarily from the
governing entity with its own set of elected leaders that members of the local Executive Committees. Our data
conducted its own affairs. Second, as a federated is based on (1) interviews with Executive Committee
chairs (89.9 percent response rate); (2) written surveys activities to no avail—it is only those entities that are
with Executive Committee members (51 percent actually developing skills in their leaders that witness
response rate) aggregated to the entity; (3) secondary elevated levels of political presence. Put another way,
data available from the Sierra Club on member quality matters when it comes to the relationship of
characteristics, resources, and staff; and (4) secondary leadership practices and political presence of civic
data on the organization’s community context. 47 We associations.
have full data on 226 entities (178 groups and 48 The effect of community context and resources on
chapters, or 55 percent of all entities of the Sierra political presence is less clear from these models. We
Club). cannot reject the null hypothesis that the effect of
members and money is zero for Models 1 and 3. For
Variables and Measures Model 2, which examines predictors of funds raised
The objective in our analysis is to examine the locally, we find that having more members has a
relationship between leadership quality and the statistically significant and positive effect. This may be
political presence of civic associations, controlling for because entities with more members in their
the effect of community context and organizational geographic jurisdiction have a broader base from
resources. We specifically examine variation in local which they can draw to raise funds. It may also be that
Sierra Club entities, which work in a common issue the number of members in an area is another indicator
environment, but vary greatly in the kind of work they of the extent to which the area is friendly to the Sierra
do and the outcomes they achieve. Below is a Club. The community context variables have their
discussion of how we measure our variables. most prominent relationship to media mentions. This
finding is likely driven by the fact that media mentions
Political Presence are a product not only of the efforts and skills of the
local entity, but also the predilection of the local paper
The key dependent variable in this analysis is the
to cover the kinds of work local Sierra Club entities
political presence of Sierra Club entities. Because
may do. Thus, community context has a stronger
consistent objective indicators of political presence are
relationship to media mentions than on the other
notoriously hard to find,48 we develop three different
measures of political presence.
measures—one is a selfreport measure, the second is a
In sum, we find that leadership skills and the number
measure of local fundraising success derived from
of committed leaders have strong and significant
budget reports, and the third is a measure of media
relationships to political presence.This finding is
mentions taken from searches of online newspaper
robust to several different measures of political
databases. These measures come from three distinct,
presence and true even when we hold constant the
independent data streams. One is collected from the
resources an organization has and the characteristics of
leaders themselves (a self-report), one is collected
the community in which it works. Theories of political
from the national organization (budgetary data), and
presence that focus solely on the relationship of
one is collected from sources external to the Sierra
external factors like context and resources thus omit an
Club (media mentions). The independence of the data
important source of variation in the political presence
streams allows us to examine the robustness of our
of civic associations.
findings across multiple measures of political
Despite the many advantages the data provides in
presence. None of these measures is perfect, and they
differ in terms of their strengths and weaknesses.Thus, conducting this kind of analysis, there are some
important limitations to the study. First, it studies
we perform all of our analyses using all three measures
of the dependent variable. multiple subunits of one larger organization, the Sierra
Club. Thus, generalizing these findings to other
Although leadership skills and the number core
organizations should be done with caution, although
activists have important relationships to political
our theory is applicable to other membership-based
presence, the relationship between Executive
civic associations. Second, political presence is a
Committee size and investment in capacity-building
slippery concept to assess, and each of our measures of
activities remains unclear. These variables do not
the dependent variables has some flaws. The fact that
achieve conventional levels of statistical significance
our findings are robust across multiple measures
in any of the three models. It is possible that noise in
provides greater confidence in our findings, but future
the data can account for these findings. It is also
research could strive to develop other objective
possible that the number of committed activists matters
indicators. Third, the cross-sectional nature of the
more than the sheer size of the elected leadership, who
study is an important limitation. Without longitudinal
may have varying levels of commitment. In addition, it
data on organizational change, it is difficult to make
may also be that some entities are investing in
strong causal claims about the relationships between
leadership development and organizational support
organizational practices and organizational outcomes, Movement and the War on Poverty, 1965–1971.”
particularly given the potentially recursive American Sociological Review 66.
relationships between some of the variables. We Andrews, Kenneth, and Neal Caren. 2010. “Making
sought to be careful about this throughout the analysis the News: Movement Organizations, Media
by clearly assessing what constructs the data measured Attention, and the Public Agenda.” American
and how those were related to each other. Nonetheless, Sociological Review 75.
without comparative statics to examine changing Andrews, Kenneth, Marshall Ganz, Matthew Baggetta,
relationships, we must remain cautious about the Hahrie Han, and Chaeyoon Lim. 2010. “Leadership,
causal direction of our findings. Membership, and Voice: Civic Associations That
Work.” American Journal of Sociology 115 (4).
Discussion and Conclusions Andrews, Kenneth T., and Bob Edwards. 2004.
By linking individuals to each other in collective “Advocacy Organizations in the U.S. Political
political endeavors, civic associations play a unique Process.” Annual Review of Sociology 30.
role in American democracy. They advocate for their Barakso, Maryann. 2004. Governing Now: Grassroots
members’ interests in the public arena and also provide Activism In The National Organization For Women.
a space in which individuals can cultivate the skills Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
and commitments needed for civic life. This article Barkan, Steven E. 2004. “Explaining Public Support
brings together the study of civic associations as for the Environmental Movement: A Civic
advocacy organizations with the study of civic Voluntarism Model.” Social Science Quarterly 85.
associations as Tocquevillian schools of democracy. Bauer, Raymond A., Ithiel de Sola Pool, and Lewis
Because previous research has largely separated these
Anthony Dexter. 1963. American Business and
two strands of research, it has neglected the study of
Public Policy. Boston: Massachusetts Institute of
leadership as a factor related to the public presence of
Technology.
civic associations. Our study finds that the skills and
Baumgartner, Frank, Jeffrey M. Berry, Marie
commitment of the association’s leaders are related to
Hojnacki, David C. Kimball, and Beth L. Leech.
the political presence of the organization, above and
2009. Lobbying and Policy Change: Who Wins,
beyond the effect of things like money, members, and
Who Loses, and Why. Chicago: University of
politically favorable conditions. The work these
Chicago Press.
organizations do in strengthening democracy by acting
Baumgartner, Frank, and Beth Leech. 1998. Basic
as Tocquevillian schools of democracy (their
participatory role in American democracy) is also Interests. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press
related to their ability to exercise power in the political
arena (their advocacy role). Understanding the way
these organizations build democratic capacity has
implications not only for civic and political
participation, but also for our understanding of
advocacy power and other public outcomes.
In any democracy, having skilled and committed
civic
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