Advocacy Organizations and Collective Action

Abstract

MARYANN BARAKSO earned her PhD at MIT and is currently Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her research and publications explore the factors influencing the strategic and tactical choices of interest groups and the political and civic implications of those choices. She also considers the conditions under which interest groups facilitate membership representation and participation in the polity. She is the author of Governing NOW: Grassroots Activism in the National Organization for Women (Cambridge University Press, 2004). Her published articles include a forthcoming piece that examines the factors contributing to interest group density across American communities (British Journal of Politics); an analysis of the levels of democracy in women’s membership associations (Politics and Gender,2007);andan article explaining variation in levels of organizational democracy in advocacy groups (American Politics Research, 2008). She is president elect of the Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association.