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), and it results in increased support for the president.

Political mechanisms are causal and can be observed and measured. Understanding them begins with speculation and theory, similar to other sciences. It is the job of political scientists to observe, measure, and test these mechanisms as accurately as possible. 

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 is the effort to achieve a specific political/policy outcomes 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.