Prophets in the Wilderness: An Ecology of Ministerial Organization Participation in Public Affairs

Studies of interest groups typically sample from organizations or lobbyists registered with a government - those already engaged in political action. Because of this design choice, the questions asked of organizational systems are constrained. We take a different tack, pursuing investigation of one...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Politics and religion
Authors: Djupe, Paul A. 1971- (Author) ; Niles, Franklyn C. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Cambridge Univ. Press [2010]
In: Politics and religion
Online Access: Volltext (Resolving-System)
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Summary:Studies of interest groups typically sample from organizations or lobbyists registered with a government - those already engaged in political action. Because of this design choice, the questions asked of organizational systems are constrained. We take a different tack, pursuing investigation of one organizational form, ministerial organizations (MOs), in a wide variety of systems to ask about whether and how they engage in public affairs across ecologies. Specifically, we ask: What pressures affect whether MOs engage a public versus private purpose? How do MOs forage in public affairs, with what size and diversity of coalition? The data result from a hyper-network survey of MO contacts, identified by a national sample of United Methodist Church clergy. We find, contrary to assertions in previous work that religious interest groups respond to ecological pressures in a similar manner as other interest groups.
ISSN:1755-0491
Contains:Enthalten in: Politics and religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1017/S1755048309990472