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Explores the role of individual activists in promoting the growth of political organizations. His findings on single members (i.e. members who operated in areas where there were no chapters and therefore acted as individual political entrepreneurs) of the Nazi party in Germany in the 1920s and early 1930s qualify some of the propositions of mass society theory regarding the mobilization of extremist politics. Early Nazi activists were not marginal, socially isolated persons but came from ordinary middle class backgrounds, and were embedded in organizational activities: the stronger their social networks, the higher their chances of establishing a local chapter of NSDAP. On the other hand, their linkages were all within the extreme right subculture and totally separated from mainstream politics. This is actually consistent with the claim that concentric social circles (i.e. densely knit clusters of ties with little outside ramifications) rather than intersecting ones generate a fragmented society and are therefore an obstacle to democratic politics.

Presents a case for a reorientation of social movement theory and research along network lines. While looking at networks as a powerful precondition of collective action has proved a fruitful exercise in its own right, one could also take the network idea further and make it the core of a distinctive research program. Adopting a concept of social movement as a distinctive type of social networks may reorient social movement analysis and help better specifying the relation between movements and related phenomena such as coalitions, solidarity campaigns, and political organizations. The chapter briefly sketches the basic traits of a research programme for the analysis of network social mechanisms within social movements, looking first at different network patterns, and then identifying some analytical principles, which also draw upon existing paradigms.

Placed in a comparative perspective, the hallmark of Australian politics is the dominance of party: the vast majority of voters identify with and vote for one of the major political parties, and gaining election at the federal level is next to impossible without the benefit of one of three party labels (Liberal, National, or Labour). Within the legislature, party government operates in every sense of the word, with parties determining the legislative agenda and enforcing rigid discipline among their members. Perhaps more interestingly from a comparative perspective, Australia has seen little decline in the strength of the major parties in recent years, in contrast to Britain, the US, or many of the other advanced democracies. The explanation for the continuing strength of political parties in Australia can be traced to the origins and development of the country's political culture; Australia's split from Britain was imbued with the utilitarian ideas of Jeremy Bentham and his followers, and political parties are a necessary and important part of this utilitarian political culture. The introductory part discusses these factors, and also presents a separate account of the development of the party system; the next three sections cover the same topics as those in the other country case studies in the book, and examine party legitimacy (turnout—voting is compulsory, party identification, party membership, and attitudes towards parties), organizational strength (party finance, and mass media), and systemic functionality (governance, interest articulation and aggregation, political recruitment, political organization, political participation, and political communication and education).

Dutch society takes pride in its egalitarian character, and political and administrative officeholders are neither separated off nor placed on a pedestal. This general attitude originates in the predominantly middle‐class nature of Dutch society, in which the idea of formal incorporation of top civil servants in a separate class of administrative personnel is foreign; however, at the same time, there is a striving for unity in the national administration. The issue of tension between unity and fragmentation forces an assessment in this chapter of current developments in the higher civil service in comparison with the situation as it existed from the Second World War up to the early 1990s, with the emphasis on developments in the past two decades in which the most important event was the formation of a Senior Public Service (the Algemene Bestuursdienst, or ABD) after 1 July 1995. The first main section of the chapter (section II) examines what is meant by a ‘senior civil service’ in the Dutch context, where even the creation of the ABD does not provide a conclusive answer, since there are many senior civil servants outside it. In order to address this issue, the characteristics of the Dutch personnel management system are examined, and a brief outline given of the ABD and of the number of top civil servants working at central government level in the period 1976–1995. Section III turns to the political–administrative organization and the consultative structures at the top of the central government departments, and discusses the structure of the ABD, while section IV discusses the political affiliation (politicization) of top civil servants, and section V looks at functional mobility at the top, with special attention to the functional motives for creating the ABD. Finally, the social political structure of the civil service is reviewed, with sections on social (VI) and educational (VII) background.

Considers the role that the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has played in the evolution of EU law, and places recent developments in the context of longer‐term trends in the jurisprudence of the Court. Rather than debating the question of what kind of institutional actor the ECJ is within the EU political system, the chapter proceeds on the premise that the Court is a purposive actor that nonetheless considers itself to be constrained in significant ways by the text of the EC Treaties, by its own previous body of case law, and in different ways by the political and social context within which it operates. Reflects on the polity‐shaping impacts of the case law of the ECJ, including the effects on EU and national political organizations and on the notion of a European citizen, and, finally, how the Court may or may not be responding to the changing nature of EU law. Various case studies on case law are included. The four sections of the chapter are: Introduction; The Court and the Political Decision‐Making Bodies: Policing of the Bounds of EU Power; The Court and the Individual; and Conclusion.

This chapter examines the evolution of the Washington pressure community, assessing changes in the number and distribution of active organizations over a twenty-five-year span. Of special concern is whether these patterns—in particular, the strong representation of business interests in contrast to the economic interests of less economically advantaged—are unique to a 2001 analysis or are a persistent aspect of organized interest representation in Washington. The chapter reveals how most of the organizations new to the pressure community are not organizations that never existed before; rather, they are organizations that have been outside of politics and, for reasons that are less well studied, are activated into politics. Thus the shape of the pressure community is influenced by a number of factors—of which an important one, but far from the only one, is the set of processes by which new political organizations come into being.

The question of party political decline is approached by examining four aspects that have featured prominently in debate: parties as representative agencies; party organization; parties in relation to the state and society; and parties in their ‘external’ environment. The last aspect includes discussion of the alternatives to party democracy and ‘party deficit’ in the European Union. Since this account is concerned with European developments, the effects of European integration on the role of political parties are particularly relevant. Before the main analysis is undertaken, the chapter takes a brief look at the whole question of party decline in its historical context.

This chapter provides an island history of Bronze Age and early Iron Age Cyprus, discussing at length all published documentary evidence related to Alashiya, Ku‐pi‐ri‐jo, and Iadnana (Neo‐Assyrian cuneiform texts). Whilst specific focus falls on issues of identity, the more general intention is to situate Cyprus in its eastern Mediterranean context. Each section — on economy, society, and polity — provides commentary on the material dimensions of the textual evidence; a general historical overview concludes the chapter. Given converging streams of evidence, it is argued that Late Bronze Age Cyprus was centrally organized — politically and economically — under a ruling class that had adopted a coherent ideological and symbolic repertoire of material paraphernalia to signal their identity, within and beyond the island. The documentary evidence related to Alashiya demonstrates a role so pervasive and influential in the international world of the eastern Mediterranean and the Near East at this time that it is difficult to see how its king would not have controlled the entire island.

This chapter sets the stage for the remainder of the book by examining the types of political organizations most likely to mobilize individual citizens concerned about job insecurity, healthcare costs, retirement insecurity, and college costs. Part of this discussion involves identifying the types of barriers that must be overcome when forming such organizations. Another part involves identifying examples of organizations (including interest groups, parties, and campaigns) that are most likely to overcome them. This latter part of the discussion is situated historically, showing how the types of organizations most likely to mobilize people facing material concerns have changed over time. The chapter also describes how these groups seek to engage individual citizens in the cause, including depending upon them to devote time and money.

Chapter 2 places the new generation of internet-mediated organizations into historical context, emphasizing the substantive importance of the new communications technologies. Building upon the works of Skocpol (2003), Bimber (2003), Bosso (2005), Berry (1999), and others, the chapter draws parallels between the well-studied “interest group explosion” of the 1970s and the rise of “netroots” political associations today. Both are predicated on changes to the technological environment, enabling changes in membership and fundraising regimes. Shifts in these regimes facilitate opportunities for a new set of political actors to experiment with novel structures for collective action. This transition can be properly understood as a “disruptive innovation,” in which longstanding organizations are displaced as the “market” for political mobilization is fundamentally redefined (Christensen 1997). After introducing the historical analogue, the chapter provides a detailed analysis of MoveOn.org, highlighting the innovations in staff structure, membership, fundraising, and strategy that have made it such an important force in American politics today. The chapter concludes by discussing the disruptive fundraising challenges that the MoveOn Effect poses for legacy advocacy groups. Drawing upon data from the Membership Communications Project dataset and new research by the Monitor Institute, it highlights the generational differences in online fundraising between new groups and old.

This chapter examines how people respond when the issues at stake refer to economic insecurity. It presents the results of a series of experiments in which citizens were randomly assigned to receive requests that mentioned either insecurity issues like education costs and healthcare costs or other issues unrelated to financial constraints that people could be facing in their own lives. The requests all involved real political organizations and the opportunity to donate real time or money to the cause. The organizations themselves ran the gamut from professionally run, national organizations with headquarters in Washington, D.C. to a local nonprofit that provides critical health care services to the community. All of them function at least in part, as prototypical examples of the types of groups that became common following the “advocacy explosion” in the 1960s and 1970s.

This chapter discusses the political organization of the Arab minority in Israel from 1967—1981. The Arabs was not able to achieve any significant degree of political organization during the first decade of Israel as a state because of the absence of an experienced political leadership, the shock of suddenly becoming a minority, and unfamiliarity with the Hebrew language. It took a second generation of Arabs to realize the importance of political organization and activity. This development is attributed to the Arab's acquisition of a broader education, learning of the Hebrew language and the abolition of the Military Administration in 1966. This chapter explains the challenges and accomplishments of the Arab minority in the political arena until 1981.

Chapter 7 offers a summary of findings and a series of concluding observations regarding the role of technology in American political advocacy. It offers a broader perspective on the intermediary role that the organizational layer of politics plays between elite political institutions and mass political behavior. The concluding observations discuss topics such as the mechanisms that facilitate continual change within the political system (innovation edges and advocacy inflation), the role of new media tools in facilitating new forms of “activated public opinion,” the disruptive challenges posed by the loss of “beneficial inefficiencies,” and the participatory benefits of the sedimentary character of netroots organizations.

This chapter provides a basic outline of Afghanistan's land and peoples. It describes how the various tribal and ethnic groups of Afghanistan work, because they have all played key roles in Afghanistan's history and remain vital in understanding current events there. Furthermore, this chapter introduces what Afghans themselves take for granted: their geography, religion, subsistence economy, and architecture, along with the persistent aspects of social organization in which they ground their lives. Finally, the chapter applies ibn Khaldun's classic model of Middle Eastern political organization to Afghanistan, arguing that, far from participating in a single political sphere, Afghanistan has always been two worlds, interacting but unintegrated. Its contrasting patterns of subsistence, social organization, and regional political structures underlie long-standing ethnic and tribal divisions, constituting elements of material life and social organization that have persisted for centuries, even millennia, and setting the framework for daily life as it is ordinarily lived.

This chapter follows the use of women as symbols in the fractured politics of the Black Power Movement. As the movement for black liberation fragmented, images of the beautiful black woman and calls for stylistic conformity were frequently employed in attempts to forge a unified black identity and to maintain solidarity within black political organizations.

This chapter discusses how city-regions (enormous expanses of metropolitan areas, which are often focused on a central metropolis area) and world cities/global cities are produced, and how they contribute to globalization and the regionalism of economies. It begins by explaining globalization and the emergence of regional centers, especially during the post-war years. It also explains how after much technological change and economic restructuring, these types of areas are formed. It describes how economic foundations are formed, and how these transformations in city living spread globally. It also reveals how political organizations are established in these city-regions.