Party Elites and Women Candidates

ABSTRACT

Using a four state survey of party county chairs and locally elected women, this study finds support for the notion that potential women candidates are subject to bias in recruitment that hinders the cause of electing more women to state legislatures and Congress. It is hypothesized that bias is most likely due to one of two processes: one, the outgroup effect where negative evaluations of women as candidates are predicated on their lack of surface similarity to the predominantly male party elite, or two, the distribution effect where negative evaluations of women as candidates are predicated on the relative paucity of women in high status positions generally and politics specifically. Strong support was found for the outgroup effect, as party chairs consistently preferred candidates more like themselves. Given the ubiquity of men in the party elite, such outgroup biased attitudes represent a significant hurdle for prospective women candidates.     

EDITORIAL

Abstract

Many faith-based organizations (FBO) provide services to poor people. A major challenge for these organizations is to determine who is eligible to receive services. Thus, these organizations seek to make sure that that the poor are “truly worthy” and do not take advantage of a particular charity. The purpose of the study is to determine the kinds of barriers to service delivery that confront volunteers as they provide services to the poor. Volunteers possess the motivation to assist; however, many volunteers are given limited training, which may only include a basic understanding of the resources available at the center. We used a combination of qualitative methodologies to observe two FBOs in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. We observed and interviewed a total of 24 volunteers; 12 from each site, over a 3-month period. The two sites were similar in that they were faith-based and relied on volunteers. One site was located in a middle to lower economic area and the other site was located in a more affluent area of the county. Support provided included donations of food and financial assistance for eviction, utilities, and other emergencies. From this qualitative analysis, four working hypotheses emerged: (1) Volunteers expressed a sense of frustration over the limited resources and the increasing number of people in need; (2) Many volunteers expressed frustration that increasing burdens limited their ability to utilize the centers as a place to obtain friendship and social networks; (3) Volunteers expressed concerns and praise for the leadership at the two sites, and (4) Volunteers commented on how their faith influenced their decision to volunteer. The authors explore methods to address these challenges so clients in need can be better served.     

Detecting and Decomposing the “Faith Factor” in Social-Service Provision and Absorption

Abstract

Faith-based provision and reception of social services may yield results that differ either randomly or persistently (via “fixed effects”) from the outcomes achieved under non-faith-based, but certainly not value-free, administration of these services. Yet attributing raw differences in performance to unobservable factors assumed to derive from “faith” should be a last resort. Instead, the objective of analysis should be to identify any such factors and their cost and strength operationally so that they can become a managed part of any program offered by existing providers or entrants.

These factors, or the cost effectiveness of employing them, could differ between secular and faith-based providers. Then members of the two groups optimally would use a different mix of means even if they were to pursue precisely the same ends. Yet program design and operation by both groups would stand to benefit from knowing the keys to their relative performance in particular areas of social service with particular groups of clients. Comparing the outcomes of experiments based on random assignment may provide little help in that regard. Micro-simulations may provide a superior approach to tightening the link between input-based model predictions and continuous learning from outcomes.     

Executive Orders for the Faith-Based and Community Initiatives

Abstract

Debate surrounding the Faith-Based and Community Initiatives draws both fire and praise as the Bush Administration continues to promote the federal funding of partnerships among state and local government and faith-based service providers. President Bush has endorsed religious groups as valuable partners in delivering services that address social problems through a series of Executive Orders. The intent of this article is to further our understanding of the history related to these executive decisions, the different conceptualizations for defining and classifying faith-based organizations, the issues surrounding faith-based organizations, and the legislative effort to make the faith-based initiative a permanent statutory feature.     

How individuals use nonprofit organizations’ social media pages: Understanding functions of and networks from individual posts for social change

Previous research has regarded social media pages of nonprofit organizations (NPOs) as the organizations’ strategic space for public engagement and further collective action. However, individuals may take advantage of organizations’ pages to form networks beyond the organizations to achieve their own goals, extending their engagement to connective action. Based on content analysis of individuals’ posts on 100 NPOs’ social media pages, this exploratory study develops an original categorization scheme and reveals unique functions of and diverse networks initiated from such posts. In this way, this study combines research on public relations and connective action and captures the transformed roles and dynamics of the public and the organizations as they work toward social change.     

Schools as racialized organizations in policy and practice

In this paper we examine schooling inequalities through drawing from the contributions of racialized organizations. We apply the components of this racial theory to offer a new framework for examining racial inequalities in US K-12 schools. We analyze case studies to demonstrate how the four tenants of racialized organizations operate in three schools. In particular, we highlight how these tenants surface through schools' policies (school rules around discipline, language, and tracking) and practices (interactions between students, teachers and staff). We offer a framework for understanding how schools are shaped by the racial hierarchy at the organizational level. We close by considering implications and suggestions for future research.     

Beyond composition: What the study of diversity in K12 schools can learn from research in higher education

Several decades of interdisciplinary research have demonstrated the benefits of racially and ethnically integrated K12 schools. However, there is still much we do not know about what happens inside diverse schools that lead to these outcomes. In this article, we argue that the study of diversity in higher education, with its greater focus on internal institutional dynamics and a broader range of outcomes, can help K12 researchers fill in these gaps. However, the framework for studying diversity in higher education cannot be applied to K12 schools without first accounting for developmental and structural differences across students and sectors. To that end, this article summarizes the main components of the framework for studying diversity in the higher education literature—compositional, interactional, and organizational diversity—as well as the broad range of outcomes including not only academic achievement but also skills for lifelong learning and dispositions for citizenship in a multiracial democracy, and suggests how they can be adapted for K12 research. We argue that with this comprehensive but adapted framework, research on K12 education can inform practice and policy by providing more insight into the underlying mechanisms of school diversity and its consequences.     

Building evaluative culture in community services: Caring for evidence

An organization with a strong evaluative culture engages in self-reflection, evidence-based learning and experimentation. It sees evidence as essential for managing well, but building such a culture is challenging. Community service organizations seek to provide effective services for their clients. To build an evaluative culture, they need to acquire basic monitoring and evaluation capabilities, be provided with opportunities for using these capabilities and be adequately motivated to care about evidence as a means to improve services to their clients. Leadership along with a phased in approach are key in bringing about these behaviour changes.     

‘Go on,Go on,Go on’: Sexual Consent,Child Sexual Exploitation and Cups of Tea

This novel paper critically addresses a currently popular sex education resource which compares sexual consent to tea drinking. Drawing from a study which considered the meaning of consent through focus groups and interviews with young people and professionals, we argue that the central ‘risk avoidance’ message of such resources individualises the potential risks of non‐consensual sex and ignores the gendered social structures which shape interpersonal relationships. We suggest that simplifying and extrapolating sexual consent from broader cultural understandings is problematic. Conversations with young people are important, but they need to address the complexity of sexual consent, coercion and gendered sexual norms.     

The civic elite: A network perspective on elite consolidation among community-based organizations, 1998–2016

Is an elite consolidating among the leadership of community-based organizations (CBOs) in U.S. cities? Ethnographers identify a privatized turn in urban governance, with some nonprofit civic leaders becoming a cohesive group with enormous influence in local affairs. However, while researchers propose elite consolidation has occurred and created a more hierarchical, technocratic, and unipolar civic field, these structural changes have not been directly assessed. In this paper, I reintroduce an interorganizational network perspective to elite consolidation and evaluate how interlocking directorates among CBOs in Cleveland, OH, and Austin, TX constitute relationships among civic leaders over twenty years. Results indicate boards of directors are constituting a new civic elite, and that hierarchical interlock tendencies doubled in both cities between 1998 and 2016. The core of the networks appear to be organizations traditionally important in urban governance, though, and community analysis reveals power sharing among elite groups in the cities rather than singular dominant communities, indicating as situation of "elitist pluralism." These findings offer a new perspective on the problem of elite consolidation in civil society, and offer a benchmark for future analysis of civic elites.