Review

Reviewed Work(s): American Labor Unions in the Electoral Arena by Herbert B. Asher,
Eric S. Heberlig, Randall B. Ripley and Karen Snyder
Review by: Glenn Perusek
Source: The American Political Science Review, Vol. 96, No. 3 (Sep., 2002), p. 630
Published by: American Political Science Association
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3117955
Accessed: 14-01-2019 04:07 UTC

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 Book Reviews: AMERICAN POLITICS September 2002

Afro-Caribbean political identity geting iskey shaped byaction

races for political a "sojourner
committee (PAC) contri-
mentality [that] fuels the 'myth butions,of andreturn."'
then lobbying those(p. 39)toMain-
elected office, was easier
taining their ties to families than and thefriends in their
painstaking process of workinghomewith the rank and
countries enables Afro-Caribbeans to think
file to solidify them behind that exit Party
the Democratic may or a com-
be preferable to voice. Rogersprehensive is right issue agenda. Even though
to point out this that
system achieved
both pluralists who preach assimilation few political victories
and for thoselabor inwho
the post-Taft
think Hartley era,
that the new immigrants will become it was able to protect
just organized labor
another from greater political
minority
group wrongly ignore the power defeatsof so a
long as the Democratic Party
transnational enjoyed majorities
political
identity. in Congress. As narrowly efficient as this strategy was, it
This collection of essays could not be timelier. Although bred organizational complacency. When Democratic control
some of the studies are peripheral to the major themes and of Congress ended, labor was forced to reevaluate the tradi-
thus less interesting, scholars pondering the implications of tional strategy. The Sweeney administration of the AFL-CIO
recent immigration for ethnic and racial politics would do has emphasized aggressive organizational campaigns, polit-
well to look at this collection of essays. ical mobilization of existing members, and an increasingly
sophisticated use of electronic media to improve organized
labor's image to the general public.
American Labor Unions in the Electoral Arena By Herbert With the election of the John Sweeney as president of
B. Asher, Eric S. Heberlig, Randall B. Ripley, and Karen the AFL-CIO, organized labor sought renewal through a
Snyder. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2001. 207p. renewed focus on organization of new members, although
$69.00 cloth, $19.95 paper. it engaged in increasingly sophisticated electoral activity as
part of a comprehensive strategy. Sweeney openly spoke of
Glenn Perusek, Albion College
the danger that organized labor would be consigned to per-
For more than a generation, as the authors rightly point out, manent irrelevance in the United States if unable to organize
the impact of organized labor on electoral politics has been new members. The authors disagree with Sweeney's advo-
neglected in scholarly literature. Indeed, only a tiny minority cacy that organized labor renew itself by becoming a social
of social scientists explicitly focuses on organized labor in movement representing universal interests, suggesting, def-
the United States. Although the impact of the social move- initionally, that social movements operate outside "normal
ments of the 1960s appeared to heighten awareness of the institutional channels" and employ "illegitimate, disruptive
importance of class, race, and gender, class and its organized tactics" (p. 3). Their judicious formulation treats organized
expression, the union movement, has received less attention, labor as a "peak association" primarily concerned with ad-
while studies of race and gender have flourished. vancing the interests of their own members, but capable of
Thus, a systematic study of the impact of organized labor speaking for the interests of nonmembers as part of broader
upon electoral politics, historically grounded yet centered coalitions.
upon contemporary outcomes and prospects, is to be wel- The book, however, is not centered upon organized labor
comed. This work, the product of a decade-long study of orga- as an interest organization advocating a policy orientation
nized labor in electoral politics, relies on American National in the legislative arena. Instead, it is organized labor's work
Election Studies for national data. But in research funded in elections, and the related activities of membership educa-
by the Center for Labor Research at Ohio State University, tion and mobilization, that form the primary concerns of the
the authors conducted four original surveys of elections volume. in After examining the historical, demographic, and so-
Ohio (1990-96), sampling union members and the general ciological transformations that have diminished union power
population. In addition to being a succint statement from ina the postwar period, the authors explore members' atti-
behavioralist perspective of the trajectory of American labor tudes toward unions (Chapter 3), traditional political strategy
(Chapter 4), political strategy in the Sweeney era (Chapter 5),
in politics since the 1950s, this work's distinctive contribution
is the careful analysis of these surveys. union political activists (Chapter 6), and election day out-
The study is set against the backdrop of a long process of comes (Chapter 7).
erosion of the power of organized labor in the United States,This research confirms the standard wisdom of behavioral
as well as the political and organizational turn taken by the studies that "party identification is the ultimate variable"
AFL-CIO in 1995 to arrest this decline. The authors have a (p. 41); in the case of organized labor, party identification and
strong sense of the transformation of the socioeconomic cir- ideology are the strongest predictors of support for union-
cumstances of organized labor. In the 1930s to 1950s period, endorsed candidates. In other words, membership in a union
the typical union member lived in an urban/industrial center,alone washes out as a factor in vote choice, once controlled
near the factory, in a neighborhood with many co-workers. for In party identification. Does this make labor irrelevant in
this environment, the union hall was an integral institution American elections? Hardly. The authors convincingly argue
in the community, "the site of frequent meetings, wedding that deeper, long-run education and mobilization do make
receptions, weekend dances, and summertime potlucks. Fac- organized labor a factor. Election campaign mobilization is
tory, family, union, and neighbors were intertwined" (p. 35).less important than long-run education: "Committed mem-
But the postwar period, of course, brought suburbanization bers are more likely to look to the union for cues and to fol-
and membership dispersal, as well as transformations of the low those cues" (p. 151). This seems to confirm the Sweeney
American economy that resulted in membership decline, with administration's view that organizing new members, educat-
a membership that was more white collar, self-identified ing as members and the general public on the positive social
"middle class," and less committed to traditional strategies and economic benefits of unionization, and political strat-
for achieving organizational goals. egy work hand in hand in the difficult task of revitalizing
While union density declined throughout the postwar pe- American unionism. It also points in the direction of studies
on the formation of liberal ideology and Democratic Party
riod, the official labor movement adopted a status quo politi-
identification, studies that in all likelihood will need to rely
cal orientation. Traditional union political strategy minimized
expenditures on education and mobilization, particularly on of different methodologies than those employed in this able
members whose beliefs differed from the organization. Tar- expression of behavioralist research.

630

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