Voices and Echoes for the Environment: Public Interest Representation in the 1990s and Beyond

by Ronald Shaiko

Overview

What are the challenges facing public interest groups as a result of their transformation from the small, grassroots groups of the 1960s into the large, professionalized, multi-billion dollar industry of the '90s? How might public interest groups meet these challenges as they move into the next century? Focusing on national environmental organizations, including Sierra Club, National Wildlife Federation, The Wilderness Society, and Environmental Defense Fund, Voices and Echoes for the Environment demonstrates how the demands of organizational maintenance encroach on the goal of effective policy influence.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231113557
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	08/11/1999
Series:	Power, Conflict, and Democracy: American Politics Into the 21st Century
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	300
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)
Lexile:	1580L (what's this?)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Ronald G. Shaiko is associate professor of government in the School of Public Affairs at American University, where he is also the founder and academic director of the Lobbying Institute in the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies. He is currently serving as a Democracy Fellow in the Center for Democracy and Governance at the United States Agency for International Development.

Table of Contents

1. Voices and Echoes in the Public Interest Marketplace: The Development of the Public Interest Sector
2. From Social Movement to Public Interest Organizations: The Organizational Transformation of Environmentalism in the United States
3. Growing Pains: Leadership Challenges in Contemporary Environmental Organizations
4. Membership Recruitment and Retention: Direct Mail, Telemarketing, and Canvassing
5. It's Not Easy Being Green: Leadership Incentives and Membership Motivations
6. The Heart of the Matter: Leadership-Membership Connections
7. Organizational Leadership and Grassroots Empowerment: Reinvigorating Public Interest Representation in the United States
Appendix A. Public Interest Organizations
Appendix B. Operationalization of Variables, chapter 5
Appendix C. Validity and Reliability, chapter 5
Appendix D. Specific and General Policy Issues Presented in 1977—1978 Communications
Appendix E. Operationalization of Variables, chapter 6

What People are Saying About This

Andrew McFarland

With a focus on the 1990's, Shaiko's volume presents a wealth of knowledge and cogent analysis about the role of Washington's environmental lobbies, and indicates their great influence. Shaiko's writing and data presentation are very clear, and hence any concerned person can learn from this book, which emphasizes organizational dynamics.

— Andrew McFarland, University of Illinois at Chicago, coeditor of Social Movements and American Political Institutions

Russell J. Dalton

Voices and Echoes for the Environment impressively documents how the public interest movement, and especially environmental groups, have evolved into institutionalized participants in democratic politics. It represents an important new contribution to the study of interest groups and greenpolitics in America.

Jeffrey M. Berry

Shaiko has written the definitive work on environmental lobbies. His analysis of environmental groups as organizations is particularly incisive; he understands that these lobbies are businesses operating in a competitive marketplace. Voices and Echoes for the Environment is a must-read for anyone who follows environmental policy or interest group politics.

Editorial Reviews

Focusing on the Environmental Defense Fund and Environmental Action,... Voices and Echoes for the Environment examines the implications, especially for relations between leaders and rank and file, of the massive growth in membership and budgets since the 1960s... On the evidence of [this] book, the future for scholarship about the human dialogue with the rest of nature in the United States looks increasingly bright green.

Peter A Coatesn Studies

An insightful analysis of the 1990's mainstream environmental movement viewed as organizations and businesses.

Chice

Focusing on the Environmental Defense Fund and Environmental Action,... Voices and Echoes for the Environment examines the implications, especially for relations between leaders and rank and file, of the massive growth in membership and budgets since the 1960s... On the evidence of [this] book, the future for scholarship about the human dialogue with the rest of nature in the United States looks increasingly bright green.

American Studies - Peter A Coates

Focusing on the Environmental Defense Fund and Environmental Action,... Voices and Echoes for the Environment examines the implications, especially for relations between leaders and rank and file, of the massive growth in membership and budgets since the 1960s... On the evidence of [this] book, the future for scholarship about the human dialogue with the rest of nature in the United States looks increasingly bright green.

— Peter A Coates

American Studies

A thorough analysis of the dramatic transformation of grassroots environmental special interest groups in the 1960s into 'highly organized, professionalized public interest organizations' by the late 1990s....The strength of Shaiko's work is his linking of various aspects of organizational maintenance with political representation....Voices and Echoes is a contribution to the public policy literature. It will be welcomed by academics and practioners alike.

E. Robert Statham Jr.

With a focus on the 1990's, Shaiko's volume presents a wealth of knowledge and cogent analysis about the role of Washington's environmental lobbies, and indicates their great influence. Shaiko's writing and data presentation are very clear, and hence any concerned person can learn from this book, which emphasizes organizational dynamics.

Andrew McFarland

Shaiko has written the definitive work on environmental lobbies. His analysis of environmental groups as organizations is particularly incisive; he understands that these lobbies are businesses operating in a competitive marketplace. Voices and Echoes for the Environment is a must-read for anyone who follows environmental policy or interest group politics.

Jeffrey M. Berry

An insightful analysis of the 1990's mainstream environmental movement viewed as organizations and businesses.

Choice

Focusing on five organizations (the Environmental Defense Fund, the National Wildlife Federation, the Sierra Club, The Wilderness Society, and the now-defunct Environmental Action), this study explores the transformation of a loosely organized collection of groups advocating social change in the 1960s into the highly organized, professionalized public interest organizations they subsequently became. Coverage includes the history of the movement in general, as well as the organization, maintenance, and representation of the environmental groups. The author concludes that organizational effectiveness requires a restructuring of public interest organizations that stresses policy influence over organizational maintenance. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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