Exploring Conditions of Cooperation and Sacrifice in Political and Social Settings

University Of Washington, Seattle WA

Investigators

Abstract

Left-wing long shore union members give up time and money to fight on behalf of social justice causes from which they can expect no personal material return. What beliefs and preferences guide those choices, and how are they formed? The dependent variables in this investigation are the choices organizational members make in regard to the kinds of goals to which they will contribute their money and time and the actions in which they are willing to engage. They have selected four sets of paired comparisons of union locals whose members appear similar in sociodemographic characteristics and interests before joining but, the researchers posit: (1) develop different preferences (2) as a consequence of an organizational culture that produces contingent consent with leadership and its goals. "The Lenin Problem" is how to transform narrowly materialist or, what are labeled "economistic" preference orderings into a ranking that includes commitments to social justice and the betterment of others-including strangers. The transformation from economism to class consciousness is relatively rare in the United States and only somewhat more likely (although decreasingly so) in other advanced industrial democracies. But when this transformation takes place, it offers insight into how individuals change their preference rankings or possibly develop new preferences. Labor unions are important collective action organizations with which members form identifications and grounds for ethical reciprocity. They also vary in terms of the preferences they engender among members. Investigations of unions permit exploration of the mechanisms by which "business unions" induce economistic preferences and "social movement unions" class consciousness and ideological commitments to improving the material well-being of others as well as themselves. The researchers are interested in how an organizational culture is created and maintained, how and when it produces contingent consent, and the mechanisms by which the combination of the organizational culture and contingent consent enable members to learn from each other and leaders and, in the process, develop new preference rankings, beliefs, and goals. The intuition is that democratic institutions and practices, particularly those that facilitate member participation and that make leaders accountable, are key to solving the "Lenin Problem". The investigators create analytic narratives by integrating detailed case research and rational choice accounts to provide causal explanation and assessments of the plausibility of the argument. Intellectual merit: The project promises theoretical and empirical advances for those in a wide range of disciplines concerned with developing a more powerful, testable, and tested model of cooperation and sacrifice. It also aims at improving the analytic narrative approach, an increasingly important tool for qualitative, comparative, and historical studies. Finally, it should offer a sharper grasp of labor unions and other organizations cross-nationally. By participating in multi-disciplinary conferences and by publishing their findings in journals and as a book, they hope to influence how social scientists understand actions that are rational but also motivated by ethical, ideological, identity, and contextual considerations. Broader impact: The collaboration between the PI and the senior consultant enhances the international impact. There will also be the creation and dissemination of new data bases; integration of students into research-based learning; and potential policy impacts. The authors will share the data widely and quickly by developing web-sites as well as by depositing the data in relevant archives. Undergraduate and graduate research assistants will be well integrated into the research effort and become authors or co-authors when feasible. The PI and the senior consultant are already involved with policy communities eager to learn from the results of the research. The work on labor unions will inform current debates about the future of unions, their optimal constitution, and corrupt and undemocratic practices. The research proposed here and its extensions to nationalist, religious, and political groups will contribute to understanding how organizational cultures and their governance structures affect the preferences and behavior of behavior.