Governing States: What Practitioners Need to Know about Power-building and Policymaking

• In Event: 1523 - Practice Symposium Roundtables
  In Informal Discussion Roundtable: Table 6: Sociologists Working in Policy Settings

Abstract

This workshop will help sociologists generate research questions that answer pressing strategic questions facing power-building organizations at the state level.

The conservative movement has worked patiently to take over a majority of American states for over forty years. In 2010, conservatives had consolidated so much power in the states that they began to talk seriously about a convention of American states to change the U.S. Constitution. Going in to the November 2018 elections, Democrats held a trifecta of all three branches of state government trifecta in only 8 states, while Republicans held a trifecta in 26. Even after the historic wave election of 2018, Democrats ended with 14 trifectas while Republicans retained 23.

Practitioners need immediate, practical guidance on how to seek a path to moderate-to-liberal policymaking in the majority of U.S. states dominated by the far-right wing of the Republican Party. While conservative power-building in the states has been closely studied, we still don’t know why moderates and liberals have struggled to prioritize and implement their own power-building strategies in a majority of states. Governing states requires guidance that goes beyond competing tactics to get to fifty percent plus one. Building a durable governing coalition requires a much broader set of organizations and constituencies working in multiple arenas, not just electoral politics.

This workshop is facilitated by Lydia Bean, a sociologist who has both built and studied state-based power-building organizations. Scholars will hear from social movement leaders about how to design research questions that address their urgent strategic challenges (Co-facilitators TBA). The format will be participatory, with opportunities for researchers to share and brainstorm research with implications for state power-building and movement strategy.

Author

• Lydia Bean, University of Texas at Arlington