Political Organizations : : Updated Edition / / James Q. Wilson.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Princeton University Press eBook-Package Archive 1927-1999
• VerfasserIn: Wilson, James Q.,
• Place / Publishing House: Princeton, NJ : : Princeton University Press, , [2021]; ©1995
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Series: Princeton Studies in American Politics: Historical, International, and Comparative Perspectives ; 189
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (387 p.)

A major work by one of America's eminent political scientists, Political Organizations has had a profound impact on how we view the influence of interest groups on policymaking. James Wilson wrote this book to counter two ideas: that popular interests will automatically generate political organizations and that such organizations will faithfully mirror the opinions and interests of their members. Moreover, he demonstrated that the way in which political organizations (including parties, business groups, labor unions, and civil rights associations) are created and maintained has a profound impact on the opinions they represent and the tactics they use. Now available for the first time in paperback, this book has broadened its scope to include recently developed organizations as it addresses many of today's concerns over the power of such groups as special-interest lobbies. In 1973, when this book was first published, the press and public were fascinated by the social movements of the 1960s, thinking that the antiwar and civil rights movements might sweep aside old-fashioned interest-group lobbies. Wilson argued, however, that such movements would inevitably be supplanted by new organizations, ones with goals and tactics that might direct the course of action away from some of the movements' founding principles. In light of the current popular distress with special-interest groups and their supposed death-grip on Congress, Wilson again attempts to modify a widely held view. He shows that although lobbies have multiplied in number and kind, they remain considerably constrained by the difficulty they have in maintaining themselves.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- INTRODUCTION TO THE PAPERBACK EDITION -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- CHAPTER 1 Organizations and Politics -- PART I. A Theoretical Perspective -- CHAPTER 2 Rationality and Self-Interest -- CHAPTER 3 Organizational Maintenance and Incentives -- CHAPTER 4 Social Structure and Organizations -- CHAPTER 5 Political Structure and Organizations -- PART II. The Perspective Applied -- CHAPTER 6 Political Parties -- CHAPTER 7 Labor Unions -- CHAPTER 8 Business Associations -- CHAPTER 9 Civil Rights Organizations -- PART III. Internal Processes -- CHAPTER 10 Organizational Creation and Change -- CHAPTER 11 Authority and Leadership -- CHAPTER 12 Organizational Democracy -- PART IV. External Processes -- CHAPTER 13 Competition and Coalitions -- CHAPTER 14 Bargaining, Protest, and Violence -- PART V. Political Roles -- CHAPTER 15 Organizational Representation -- CHAPTER 16 Organizations and Public Policy -- INDEX