Advocacy organizations and collective action / edited by Aseem Prakash and Mary Kay Gugerty.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Advocacy organizations and collective action: an introduction / Aseem Prakash and Mary Kay Gugerty -- Part I. The Institutional Environment and Advocacy Organization: The price of advocacy: mobilization and maintenance in advocacy organizations / McGee Young; Acting in good faith: an economic approach to religious organizations as advocacy groups / Anthony J. Gill and Steven J. Pfaff; Institutional environment and the organization of advocacy NGOs in the OECD / Elizabeth A. Bloodgood -- Part II. Advocacy Tactics and Strategies: The market for human rights / Clifford Bob; Brand identity and the tactical repertoires of advocacy organizations / Maryann Barakso; Shopping around: environmental organizations and the search for policy venues / Sarah B. Pralle --ttPart III. International Advocacy and Market Structures: The political economy of transnational action among international NGOs / Alexander Cooley and James Ron; Advocacy organizations, networks, and the firm analogy / Jesse D. Lecy, George E. Mitchell and Hans Peter Schmitz; Shaping civic advocacy: international and domestic policies towards Russia's NGO sector / Sarah L. Henderson -- Part IV. Towards a New Research Program: Rethinking advocacy organizations?: a critical comment / Thomas Risse; Conclusions and future research: rethinking advocacy organizations / Mary Kay Gugerty and Aseem Prakash.

Advocacy organizations are viewed as actors motivated primarily by principled beliefs. This volume outlines a new agenda for the study of advocacy organizations, proposing a model of NGOs as collective actors that seek to fulfil normative concerns and instrumental incentives, face collective action problems, and compete as well as collaborate with other advocacy actors. The firm analogy is a useful way of studying advocacy actors because individuals via advocacy NGOs make choices which are analytically similar to those that shareholders make in the context of firms. The authors view advocacy NGOs as special types of firms that make strategic choices in policy markets which, along with creating public goods, support organizational survival, visibility, and growth. Advocacy NGOs' strategy can therefore be understood as a response to opportunities to supply distinct advocacy products to well defined constituencies as well as a response to normative or principled concerns.This volume outlines a new agenda for the study of advocacy. We focus on particular advocacy actors, NGO advocacy organizations, involved in public advocacy. We begin with the premise that since advocacy is a collective endeavor, advocacy NGOs should be viewed as actors pursuing collective action. Collective action issues should therefore bear upon their emergence and strategies. We draw on the firm analogy, modeling advocacy NGOs as "firms" operating in competitive policy markets. The firm analogy is instructive because individuals via advocacy NGOs make analytically similar choices regarding the collective organization of their social, political, and economic activities.