Organizing

Primer: What is Political Organizing?

Political mechanisms are crucial elements in political science. These are instances, entities, or activities within a political sequence that causally lead to another instance or outcome later in the sequence. For example, the 'rally around the flag effect' occurs when a period of war or crisis significantly boosts popular support for a political leader. The causal mechanism is the event (war/crisis) triggering political-psychological processes (fear, patriotism, a desire for leadership), resulting in increased support for the leader.

Political mechanisms are causal and can be observed and measured. Understanding them begins with speculation and theory, similar to other sciences. Political sequences are complex, with outcomes influenced by many factors that cannot always be perfectly observed or controlled in regression analysis. It is the job of political scientists to observe, measure, and understand these mechanisms as accurately as possible.

The main challenge in proving causal mechanisms mathematically (as computational political scientists attempt) is the reliance on observational data, which makes it statistically difficult to establish causal mechanisms with high certainty, apart from political experimentation.

I offer an explanation of political mechanisms to prime you for understanding political organizing. I use an analogy to explain the essence of political organizing. You are familiar with electoral campaigns, which are political campaigns that seek to elect a person to a position. Political organizing is a type of political campaigning that consists of campaigns that seek a specific policy or political outcome. This is distinct from activism, as organizing consists of intentionally designed and implemented campaigns to produce a political or policy outcome- usually by engaging in political activities outside of formal political/governmental channels. Political organizing projects are collaborative and dynamic, able to tactically shift to meet the opportunities and constraints of a political context, though are intentionally and thoroughly designed before and during their implementation. Political organizing is the effort to achieve a specific political/policy outcome by inducing causal mechanisms that organizers theorize will lend to said achievement. In this way, political organizing is putting political science into practice. 

My Organizing Contributions

Recommended Tools and Learning Materials

Midwest Academy Strategy Chart A useful structure/prompt for designing political organizing campaigns.

Power in Movement: Social Movements and Contentious Politics A book about movements and contentious political action.

Grassroots Tactics Planning Guide A list of organizing tactics, data indicating their respective effectiveness and an explanation of ideas for how to do them.