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Since 2009 the Tea Party has disrupted and deeply influenced American politics. The force of the movement has been felt not only in the three election cycles since then, but also in the development of public policy. One area where Tea Party influence has been said to be significant is in the area of environmental sustainability. As local governments have moved toward adopting environmental measures aimed at promoting sustainability, there have been some cases where local Tea Parties have emerged as aggressive and strident opponents of related policy changes. How widespread this behavior has been is unclear. In this paper we look broadly at the Tea Party movement across the country and systematically assess its influence in urban America. Based on evidence we've gathered for a number of different databases, we find that the Tea Party has not had a measurable impact on city policymaking in the area of sustainability. Moreover, we find that local Tea Party chapters generally have very limited organizational capacity to engage in advocacy. Across 50 large American cities, our findings indicate that the typical Tea Party chapter is at best a modest presence in local politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although we usually refer to the "Tea Party," this movement is made up of hundreds of highly independent "Tea Parties." Our paper explores the impact of this local control over the development of the advocacy that has emerged in the years since the movement began to take shape in the spring of 2009. Here we examine the localism of the Tea Party movement, looking at 1) organizational leadership and control, 2) the utilization of "outrage" language, 3) the role of the Tea Party in Republican congressional primaries, and 4) the emergence of a new path to recruitment for running for Congress. The paper is built upon two original databases. The first is a set of elite interviews conducted over the past year with the leaders of various state and local Tea Parties across the United States. The second database contains systematic examinations of every House and Senate race where an incumbent was being challenged or where there was an open seat. In many ways we find that the advocacy choices made by Tea Parties are closely linked to the autonomy of these individual organizations. The refusal of local Tea Parties to "scale up" has profound implications for the continuing development of the movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many cities across the United States have embraced programs aimed at sustainability. This may seem surprising as adopting aggressive environmental protection programs are regarded by some as inimical to economic development. An alternative perspective is that in the modern city sustainability can be part of an economic development strategy. To explore the actual behavior of cities we draw on two original databases on 50 large American cities. One source of data is composed of survey responses from city councilors, agency administrators, and leaders of local advocacy groups in each of these cities. The second database contains information as to what these 50 cities actually do in terms of sustainable programs and policies. In testing a series of hypotheses, we find that: a high number of programs aimed at promoting sustainability is linked to the inclusion of environmental advocacy groups; that this relationship is not compromised by business advocacy; and that inclusion of environmental groups in policymaking seems to be supported, rather than impeded, by high rates of economic growth by the cities [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do nonprofits empower themselves? In this paper we analyze nonprofit advocacy in city politics, emphasizing especially their interaction with local policymakers. First we discuss what we call the "politics of place" in cities, examining the participation of three types of citywide and neighborhood nonprofits. The second section develops two lines of inquiry and articulates a set of hypotheses that grow out of a theoretical construct relating to low barriers to entry. Next, after describing the empirical methodology, those hypotheses are tested with data derived from large scale surveys in 50 of the nation's largest cities. The subjects of these three surveys are city councilors, agency administrators, and interest group advocates. We find that access to policymakers in city politics is relatively easy as the barriers to entry for advocates is quite low. Not surprisingly the evidence points to a privileged position for business, though neighborhood associations also stand out in terms of incorporation into the policymaking process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An intriguing puzzle concerning urban environments is whether or not cities are characterized by a Kuznets Curve. Based on theorizing about the economic development of countries, our conjecture is this: can we assume that after cities reach a level of economic prosperity that they place greater emphasis on quality of life issues and, conversely, less emphasis on economic development? If so, wealthier cities should prioritize sustainability efforts-those programs and policies designed to mitigate environmental degradation. We examine this proposition here but move beyond a simple relationship between city income and effort toward environmental protection. Rather, we hypothesize that any such relationship is conditioned by a city's level of environmental advocacy. The data utilized in this analysis are derived from two large-scale databases. One is a comprehensive inventory of sustainability programs and policies in fifty large American cities. The other is a set of surveys in those same 50 cities. Our multivariate model supports our hypothesis. Controlling for income growth, a city's commitment to sustainability is strongly linked to environmentalists' presence in the policymaking process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

American cities vary greatly in the degree to which they demonstrate a commitment to sustainability. Determining why some cities develop an array of programs designed to promote sustainability while others cities do little is a complex undertaking. We focus here on the interaction between various interest group sectors and city councilors. Our measurements draw on a combination of two databases, one a survey of 50 large American cities and the other a comprehensive index of city-level programming in the area of environmental protection and sustainability. Particular attention is paid to the role of urban nonprofits, including neighborhood associations, environmental groups, and non-environmental civic associations. Although the relationships are not consistent through all tests, there is an overall pattern that links nonprofit advocacy to increased levels of sustainability programs and policies. In a multivariate analysis labor union advocacy proves to be most powerful predicator of serious city-level sustainability efforts. This belies the image of labor as being anti-environmental. Our modern, post-industrial economy generates jobs with the development of green businesses. Overall, we find that city governments appear relatively open with a diverse array of advocacy groups participating in the policymaking process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relationship between sense of community, political and civic participation, and the pursuit of sustainability in American cities. Using the Social Capital Benchmark Survey cities as the source of comparison, it finds that cities pursuing sustainability policies do tend to be more participatory places. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Washington: The Real No-Spin ZoneAbstractA broad and enduring belief holds that strategic politicians are often able to reframe issues when existing issue definitions are working to their disadvantage. Both scholars and journalists have written extensively about the process by which clever advocates push new frames that alter the way in which an issue is understood. The best known example of this is the reframing of late term abortions as "partial birth abortions." We test this basic proposition, drawing on a large-scale study of Washington policymaking. Specifically, we utilize more than 300 interviews conducted for 98 separate cases to measure the frequency of reframing. We monitored these 98 issues over time from our initial interviews to a follow-up interview 18-24 months later. Our conclusion is that full or partial reframing is exceedingly rare. Three broad lines of reasoning provide a framework for understanding why reframing is so uncommon. In turn we discuss explanations relating to resources, political realities, and beliefs. We conclude by arguing that initial frames tend to be stable and over time debate revolves around the core, not the surface of issues. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In years past interest group theory was deeply influenced by research on groups in cities, but more recent scholarship on interest groups has focused on national politics. To what degree do contemporary urban interest group systems fit the models of national policymaking? In trying to answer this question we draw on a set of interviews with city councilors, administrators, and interest group representatives in eight cities in eastern Massachusetts. Three significant problems are addressed. First, what is the rate of participation by different interest group sectors, and how does this constellation of groups at the local level compare with that in Washington? We found an abundance of citizen groups and neighborhood associations, and a much smaller proportion of business organizations in comparison to Washington. Second, what is the relationship between local groups and urban governments? The data revealed a substantial amount of collaboration, especially between nonprofits and the more urban of the cities. The third and final part of the analysis examines development politics in the city of Boston. A clear bias toward facilitating large development project exists, but it is difficult to detect any unified elite dominating city politics. The evidence gathered suggests that the structure of city politics and the needs of bureaucracies necessitates and facilitates a high level of participation by diverse interest group populations. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ensuring Nonprofit Passivity Abstract This paper explores the political behavior of 501(c)(3) nonprofits. Since these nonprofits offer tax deductions to donors, and are thus subsidized by taxpayer dollars, the government is justified in regulating what these nonprofits are allowed to do in the political arena. A first step here is to analyze competing interest group theories to judge how nonprofits fit into prevailing conceptions of the appropriate role of interest groups in a democracy. Interestingly, American law on public charities disregards those theories that justify participation by lobbies or recognize how skewed the interest group world is, and instead considers nonprofit lobbying as a potential danger to the integrity of the polity. The lobbying provision of charity law is examined closely and its ambiguity along with the inconsistent and inadequate administration of sec. 501(c)(3) by the IRS discourages nonprofits from participating in the public policymaking process. Drawing on data from the Strengthening Nonprofit Advocacy Project, the evidence demonstrates that nonprofit leaders badly misunderstand their rights under the law. The data also show that charity law significantly reduces the level of legislative lobbying by nonprofits. The result is that the most disadvantaged sectors of society receive reduced representation in the political system. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the first in a series of papers reporting the final results of the Advocacy and Public Policymaking Project (http://lobby.la.psu.edu). We interviewed 315 policy advocates and government officials centrally involved in a random sample of 98 issues reflecting the full range of policy activities of the federal government during the last two years of the Clinton Administration and the first two years of the Bush Administration. In this paper we focus on the structure of policy conflict. Each of our 98 issues was conceptually multidimensional and understood in such a way by everyone involved. Policy debate surrounding the issues, however, was far more limited.. We map out the structure of policy disagreement across our issues, describing the surprisingly small numbers of distinct perspectives active on each case. Our findings help understand the causes of low-dimensionality in Washington debates. These structural features are broader than institutional design alone, and stem from the nature of the professional and knowledge-based communities surrounding the policies; the continuing nature of debates, which creates a strong status-quo bias; cost issues; and political and gate-keeping efforts. The paper is the first to lay out these dimensional structures and to describe the nature of policy disagreement and political conflict in a random sample of issues. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our research offers a systematic look at how advocates' goals, the magnitude of the policy changes they seek, and the salience of the policy issues they care about shape the arguments and tactics advocates employ on a random sample of 98 issues. Our data show that the process of advocacy differs considerably for status quo supporters and challengers. Supporters of the status quo engage in far fewer activities than do challengers, and they are much more likely to make negative claims about the policy options proposed by others and ignore the virtues of the policy they support. Although the data did not reveal many linkages between salience and argument use, we did observe a relationship between conflict-expanding tactics and greater issue salience. The magnitude and type of policy change that was sought had minimal impact on the arguments and tactics used by advocates. Overall, our investigation demonstrates that there are compelling patterns to the advocacy process in Washington that may help to explain the movement or lack thereof that we observe. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Popular accounts of interest group influence in the policy process often focus on organizational budgets and campaign contributions, asserting that these resources lead to outcomes that are most preferred by "special" interest groups. Scholarly work that has attempted to assess this influence, however, has come to no set conclusion - sometimes resources lead to influence, sometimes they do not, and sometimes the results are inconclusive. To address the question of whether increased financial resources leads to preferred policy outcomes, we make use of a set of 98 randomly selected U.S. national policy issues about which we have conducted more than 300 interviews and collected extensive secondary source information on more than 1,200 organized interests. Our data include information on a broad range of indicators of financial resources, as well as non-material resources such as governmental allies and group membership. We find that when resources are considered by group type, businesses and other occupational organizations have the clear advantage, especially for material resources. These findings confirm those of numerous previous surveys of interest groups in Washington. When analyzed at the issue level, however, we find that material resources tend to be fairly evenly split on each side of an issue. Poorer citizen groups often cooperate with more well-to-do business and professional organizations, and the citizen groups bring other resources to the table, including membership numbers and public legitimacy. Resource-rich organizations were no more likely than resource-poor organizations to be on the winning side of the policy debate. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]