Everyday Party Politics: Local Volunteers and Professional Organizers in Grassroots Campaigns

Everyday Party Politics: Local volunteers and professional organizers in grassroots campaigns Elizabeth H Super PhD in Politics The University of Edinburgh 2009 1 Everyday Party Politics: Local volunteers and professional organizers in grassroots campaigns Table of Contents Declaration .................................................................................................................3 Abstract ......................................................................................................................4 Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................5 Preface .......................................................................................................................6 Chapter 1: Introduction ...............................................................................................8 Chapter 2: Research Design ....................................................................................32 Chapter 3: Organization ...........................................................................................65 Chapter 4: Learning..................................................................................................90 Chapter 5: Motives and Meaning............................................................................121 Chapter 6: Representation and Linkage.................................................................155 Chapter 7: Professional organizers and expert volunteers.....................................180 Chapter 8: Conclusion ............................................................................................205 Bibliography............................................................................................................222 Appendices.............................................................................................................237 2 Declaration 9 January 2009 I declare that, except where otherwise indicated, this thesis is entirely my own work, and that no part of it has been submitted for any other degree or professional qualification. Elizabeth H. Super 3 Abstract The decline in traditional methods of civic engagement is a cause for concern in many Western democracies. Similarly, studies of American party politics point to a transformation from locally-based volunteer organizations to national ones assisting candidate-centered, professionally-run campaigns, leaving little room for volunteer participants. This thesis analyses the recent resurgence of grassroots participation and organization in the United States. Using interpretive methods, I present a study of grassroots participants in Massachusetts Democratic Party primary campaigns in 2006. Primary documents, interviews with volunteers and paid members of field staff, and observations of canvassing work all detail the personal and organizational contexts of participation, illuminating the meanings individuals found in campaign work. Grassroots participation takes place in a loosely organized set of candidate-based campaigns, local party committees, and civic spheres. When participants first engage in this environment, they become socialized into a community with learned norms, practices, and ways of knowing. While those interviewed shared some of the motivations of party activists in previous studies, the motives and beliefs described by both professional organizers and volunteers were less policy focused than expected, and blurred the distinction between ideological and social categories. Indeed, while organizers and volunteers build distinct identities through their campaign participation, they share many more similarities than the literature on activism and professionalism in parties would suggest. Participants also serve a crucial role as translators between party elites and their fellow citizens, with important implications for linkage and the problem of decoupling. Rather than a return to traditional methods and structures of political engagement, the participants observed take part in and are building communities which have much in common with new forms of non-traditional participation. These findings contribute to the development of party organization theories and point towards the need for greater dialogue between scholars of party politics, organizational studies, and civic engagement. 4 Acknowledgements I am deeply indebted to Richard Freeman and Elizabeth Bomberg, who have served as supervisors and mentors over the past several years. Richard’s encouragement and thoughtful input at every stage made the PhD an exciting endeavor. Elizabeth brought an intellectual curiosity and rich knowledge about American politics that was always refreshing and inspiring. I am grateful for the support of the faculty and postgraduate community at the School of Social and Political Studies who provided input in seminars, workshops, research groups and conversation that was always constructive. I am also grateful for the financial support provided by the School. I am equally indebted to the many informants I had the pleasure of working with and meeting during my time in Massachusetts, whose generosity with their time, expertise and enthusiasm I benefitted from. A special thanks goes to Mark for his friendship and investment in the research, not least through his patient answering of many questions and lengthy conversations on any topic related to politics or sports. Written acknowledgements can never express the depth of gratification due to friends and family. Maggie, Kate, John, Bruce and Amelia all helped me to keep things in perspective, and the members of ‘the collective’ have been excellent partners in crime here in Edinburgh. My parents have provided every kind of support in life, not least intellectual. Finally, Nat has suffered the ups and downs of doing a PhD alongside me every step of the way and is the best partner one could ask for. 5 Preface On 3 November 2004 I sat in Faneuil Hall, Boston, and watched John Kerry, the Democratic candidate for President of the United States of America, deliver his concession speech after losing the election to George W. Bush. Exhausted and drained, I had walked over to Faneuil Hall with my fellow Kerry-Edwards campaign staff members who had made it to the office, and earlier that morning were busy answering the phone calls that came flooding in from all over the country as Democrats begged, pleaded, and demanded that Kerry contest the results in Ohio. Now I was crying on the shoulder of a woman who I did not even know, a staffer from another office who had also not slept in about three weeks and could only pat my hand and tell me that it would be all right – we did everything we could do to get him elected. It was a cathartic release after two of the most intense months I had ever experienced working on the Democratic nominee’s presidential campaign. Throughout that time, I was introduced to a world I previously had no idea existed. My job, as part of a team of fellow full time staffers, was organizing hundreds and then thousands of Massachusetts citizens to call, canvass, and volunteer in order to mobilize votes for Kerry in swing states, particularly New Hampshire and the Maine Second Congressional District. When I got back to the office late on election night, having been up in New Hampshire helping out with get out the vote (GOTV) efforts during the day, my friend Tom proudly reported that they had so many people show up to make get out the vote calls that there was actually nowhere left to sit in the entire building-wide office. Volunteers were making calls on their cell phones standing in the lobby, the stairwell, outside the front door, and even in the elevator. By the end of the day volunteers were still calling Hawaii, and our phone bank had made more than 100,000 GOTV calls in a single day. Nothing prepared me for the many people I would meet who devoted their time, energy and passion to trying to get Kerry elected that year. Nor could anything have prepared me for the excitement and the sense that something new was brewing from 6 that experience, not just for me but for the many other volunteers, canvassers and staff members who were mobilized – some for the first time, some again after a long period away from politics, and some after steady years of experience. I did not know what, but something was going on, and I wanted to find out more. What was all this grassroots participation? And what did it look like from the viewpoint of those who were actually doing it? This latter question would become the primary one for my PhD, and the one that I address in this thesis. In addition to staying involved in the world of Democratic campaigning in Boston, Massachusetts, I began reading more about political participation. When I found copies of the just-published American Political Science Association report at my local bookstore on the state of political participation in America, published in late 2005, I eagerly picked it up to find out how the academy addressed this question of what participation is and what was currently happening with it. Imagine my surprise then when, upon turning to the first page, I read that “American democracy is at risk” because people just weren’t participating the way they used to (Macedo et al 2005: 1). Clearly, something did not add up between what I was reading and what I was doing. 7 Chapter 1: Introduction According to the American Political Science Association report on political participation, American democracy is at risk

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