Abstract
The ideal of the “grassroots” has a particularly revered meaning in American Democracy. It brings up the image of a small group of concerned citizens coming together around a shared vision for a particular aspect of society and encouraging the participation of their friends and neighbors in a larger process to bring about that vision. Indeed, the idea of petitioning grievances is laid out specifically in the Constitution: “the right of the people … to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” In Grassroots for Hire: Public Affairs Consultants in American Democracy, Edward T. Walker examines the growth of the public affairs consultant industry as a major force facilitating the creation of what he calls a “subsidized public,” in which corporations and other well-funded organizations “lower the costs of participation for targeted activist groups” (p. 10). He finds that this leads to an increased likelihood of participation from activists whose interests are in line with those of the subsidizers. Walker argues that these consultants have existed for several decades, but new communication technologies and the professionalization of popular mobilization have caused a recent increase in their prevalence and efficacy.
Walker uses Goffman’s (1959) concept of the front and back stage to explain how public affairs consultants work behind the scenes (back stage) to craft and create a presentation for the public via the mobilization of social action (front stage). In the book, he specifically explains that mobilizing individuals and groups within the subsidized public is different from “astroturfing,” a term attributed to former US Vice Presidential candidate Lloyd Bentsen to describe deceptive practices that make a message or movement appear to come from and maintain support from grassroots. True astroturfing, he argues, in which the actor is not engaging an actual public, is most likely to fail and be transparently inauthentic. He also explains that there is an inherent risk involved when an actor engages in astroturfing because being caught doing so can result in delegitimation and reduced credibility.
Walker provides a historical overview of public affairs consulting beginning with Edward Bernays’ infamous campaign to convince women to smoke Lucky Strike cigarettes, to the growth of corporate advocacy (think tanks, corporate grassroots, etc.) in response to citizen activism of the late 1960s and early 1970s. He describes how corporations and consultants use the practices developed through the professionalization of protest that began after the 1960s as individual movement organizations themselves developed into a social movement sector. According to Walker, the use of public affairs consultants for mobilizing grassroots activists is not limited to corporate actors. He describes how associations, particularly those that lack large, inherent membership bases, “outsource advocacy” via similar means.
To make broad claims about the industry of public affairs consultants as a whole, Walker compared all of the companies listed in Campaigns and Elections Magazine from 1990 to 2004 (712) and then looked at the magazine again to see which ones were still operating in 2009. He then sent surveys to and conducted interviews with managers at these long-standing firms. He also used data from the websites of these firms to get additional information, including client lists and partisan affiliation. The major strength of this work is the combination of the broad industrial context, provided by the extensive survey and website data, and the rich, detailed insights provided by the interview data. While these mixed methods provide a comprehensive understanding of the practices of public affairs firms as well as how their staff perceive and market themselves, we can only make inferences as to the reasons why corporations and organizations reach out to these consultants. Additional interviews with the clients of public affairs firms would provide a more complete understanding of the relationship between client needs and consultant practices.
One of the most important contributions of this book, beyond the thorough detailing of a relatively hidden industry, is its suggestion about how the subsidized public can alter democracy and civil society. Walker argues that while these campaigns do not necessarily prevent other types of activism, they increase the degree to which the subsidized positions in public debate are heard. He provides examples of the “elite sponsorship” of grassroots that buoyed corporate-sponsored positions in the areas of charter schools, hydraulic fracking, gambling, and internet regulation.
Grassroots for Hire is an important contribution to scholarship that focuses on how corporations and interest groups influence political, social, and policy change. While there has been significant research surrounding the role of think tanks (Rich, 2005; Stone, 1996), interest groups (Walker, 1991), and advocacy organizations (Andrews & Edwards, 2004) in American politics, Walker sheds light on the unique ways in which these groups use professional organizers to mobilize dormant publics to achieve their ends. This work holds particular importance for politics in US states, like California, that have a tradition of direct democracy via ballot measure, where mobilization around issues can result in immediate policy changes.