Working Papers

Joshua William Busby
Do states and decision-makers ever act for moral reasons? And if they do, is it only when it is convenient or relatively costless for them to do so? A number of advocacy movements on developing country debt relief, climate change, landmines, and other issues emerged in the 1990s to ask decision-makers to make foreign policy decisions on that basis. The primary advocates were motivated not by their own material interests but broader notions of right and wrong. What contributes to the domestic acceptance of these moral commitments? Why do some advocacy efforts succeed where others fail? Through a case study of the Jubilee 2000 campaign for developing country debt relief, this article offers an account of persuasion based on strategic framing by advocates to get the attention of decision-makers. Such strategic but not narrowly self-interested activity allows weak actors to leverage existing value and/ or ideational traditions to build broader political coalitions. This article, through case studies of debt relief in the United States and Japan, also links the emerging literature on strategic framing to the domestic institutional context and the ways veto players or ‘‘policy gatekeepers’’ evaluate trade-offs between costs and values.

• Download Paper

Margaret L. Vaaler and Peter Frumkin
The present study uses hierarchical linear modeling and a large sample of AmeriCorps members and AmeriCorps programs to examine the determinants of national service outcomes at the individual and program levels. We found several demographic variations in civic engagement and trust, tolerance and life skills, including race variations in gains in constructive group interactions and personal behavior in groups post-service. Programmatic characteristics have important influences on AmeriCorps members’ civic engagement, tolerance, and trust post-service. Furthermore, the level of support of members that programs offer is a key component to success of AmeriCorps programs. We conclude that the impact of national service could be improved through a better and deeper understanding of the interaction of individual and program level influences on AmeriCorps members’ outcomes. Successfully managing the recruitment of members and the delivery of quality programs in the future will depend on how well the interactions of individual and program-level determinants are understood.

• Download Paper

Dr. Alejandro Natal
This paper examines the life-work histories of twenty-four civil society activists that crossed the boundary of the third sector into the government in Mexico (2000-2006). The motivation of the study was to document and analyse the experiences of these ?crossovers?, since, initial anecdotal evidence suggested that many of these individuals were working from the inside of government to promote progressive reforms. However, the data collected suggests a different picture. It indicates that (a) some of these people were ill-prepared in terms of their strategy for working within government, both in terms of understanding how things worked inside government, and in having no clear mandate from their constituencies or supporters; (b) some also lacked the necessary skills to negotiate and build agendas and support with other actors within government to shape the policy process once inside; (c) that this made them highly vulnerable to ?capture? or immobilisation by interest groups once inside; and (d) that their reputations and relationships with the broader third sector were damaged as a result of their entry into government. By contrast, the evidence suggests that civil society strategies to shape the policy process from outside the government had been more successful in bringing about progressive social change. The paper concludes with reflection on (a) lessons for theorizing about civil society and policy change in Mexico and (b) some reflections about civil society and government relationship.

• Download Paper

Sondra N Barringer, 2009 Summer Fellow - University of Arizona
Within organizational research a question researchers are often interested in is the “why” question. A question that is not focused on as frequently is the how question. I argue in this paper that as researchers we need to pay more attention to how organizations are behaving within organizational fields before we begin to answer the why questions and in order to do this researchers need to expand their methodological tool kits. This analysis examines how institutions within the field of higher education have responded to the changing environmental conditions. Using multilevel latent class analysis I show that there are a number of distinct strategies that the organizations within this field are pursing as well as distinct deviations between the behavior of public and nonprofit institutions. This analysis of the changes occurring in the field of higher education demonstrates the ability of MLCA to break the organizational field down into more manageable units, which allows for a deeper understanding of the ways in which these fields are changing over time. MLCA makes organizational fields more manageable both empirically and conceptually resulting in a more accurate assessment of the critical dynamics within the organizational fields.

• Download Paper

Jasmine McGinnis, 2009 Summer Fellow - Georgia State University and Georgia Institute of Technology
The ability of nonprofit organizations to attract and retain the next generation of its workforce will play an integral role in the growth and vitality of the sector. Management literature provides a number of suggestions to nonprofit managers of how to enhance non-compensation related job characteristics in order to attract and retain a young workforce. Yet, this literature ignores the fact survey research indicates that Generation Y employees value compensation and non-compensation related characteristics differently than previous generations. Before management changes are proposed and implemented by nonprofit managers, we must first understand how the nonprofit sector compensates Generation Y employees. This study enhances our understanding of wage differentials by using data from the 2005 American Community Survey to examine a sample of 36,000 young, educated employees both within and across nonprofit, mixed and for profit industries. My findings indicate that the wage equity experienced by minorities and females found in previous research, is not consistent when comparing nonprofit and mixed industries. Additionally, one of the most notable findings (not discussed in previous research, but likely relevant to this sample) is the difference in earnings of employees with advanced degrees (Masters Degree and beyond). Employers in for profit industries are better compensating young employees who hold advanced degrees.

• Download Paper

Rebecca Nesbit, 2008 Summer Fellow - University of North Carolina—Charlotte and David A. Reingold - Indiana University
Research has shown that military service is linked with some forms of political engagement, such as voting, especially for minorities. In this paper, we explore the relationship between military service and another measure of civic engagement— volunteering. Military service can help to overcome barriers to volunteering by helping to socialize people with a norm of civic responsibility, by providing social resources and skills that compensate for the lack of personal resources, and by making people aware of opportunities to volunteer and “asking” them to do so. The data used to explore this research question are from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (CPS) 2005 September supplement on volunteering. We find that military service is positively related to volunteering among blacks and Hispanics. Married veterans and veterans over the age of 65 are more likely to volunteer than nonveterans.

• Download Paper

Kristen Hopewell, 2008 Summer Fellow - University of Michigan
In the paper, I draw on the case of the WTO to argue that we need to be more attentive to the ways in which institutions of global governance structure global civil society. Looking at the WTO, I contend that the nature of the policy-making environment results in very specific opportunities and constraints for transnational advocacy organizations seeking to influence the global trading system. I present evidence that suggests that transnational advocacy organizations are being transformed by and from within the context in which they operate. Specifically, important changes are taking place in these organizations’ strategies and in how they formulate their critiques, as they adapt and respond to the circumstances they face in engaging in advocacy at the supra-national level and in the particular context of the WTO. These shifts center primarily around issues of expertise and discourse. I argue that these represent significant changes in both the style and substance of protest, with important implications for the dynamics of civil society contestation surrounding the WTO and the scope of debate in the global public sphere over the direction and governance of globalization. Examining the engagement of transnational advocacy organizations with the WTO can therefore not only improve our understanding of the dynamics of the global justice movement but also prompt us to rethink the way we conceptualize global civil society.

• Download Paper

Chris Gauthier, 2008 Summer Fellow - University of Michigan
Much of the literature on community service has sought to investigate the factors that compel individuals to participate. These studies have tended to investigate service using rational choice models or socialization and human capital perspectives. While this literature is useful it fails to address an important dimension of service, specifically the meaning that service has for individuals and how their service activities correspond to their vision of meaningful social change. This study proposes that there are different domains of service defined by the intersection of the type of work that an individual engages in (actions) and the individual’s vision of how meaningful social change occurs (belief). Rational choice or market models would predict that individuals serve exclusively in domains that align belief and action; however, drawing on in-depth interviews with college age volunteers, the data presented here suggests that volunteers often engage in service activities that do not conform to expectations. Despite the tension between action and belief, these individuals still see their service work as meaningful. The ways individuals make meaning of service that is out of step with an ideal alignment of belief and action outcomes are explored.

• Download Paper

Olena Verbenko, 2009 Summer Fellow - University of Chicago
This paper examines the diversity of corporate philanthropic practices and aims to determine whether corporations are strategic in their philanthropic giving. Using an original database including firm-level data on dollar donations for charitable purposes among American Fortune 500 companies, this paper looks at the kind of firms that participate in giving, the kind of giving programs these firms set up, and the structure of the foundation giving these firms chose. The definition and identification of strategic philanthropy is discussed and explored. The main empirical findings of this paper provide evidence that at present time firms continue practicing non-strategic philanthropy.

• Download Paper