Why do social workers care about politics?

1. Why do social workers care about politics? Obtaining power and producing results!

2. Legislative and Political Activities for Social Workers • Examining how current legislation helps or hurts our clients, our organization, communities, or social workers. • Examining how proposed legislation helps or hurts clients, etc. • Looking at how people or organizations will be affected by funding increases or cutbacks. • Proposing legislation. • Lobbying for legislation proposed by others. • Lobbying for funding for social service or health programs. • Researching what politicians or interest groups support or oppose legislation that could help or hurt our constituents; understanding their vested interests and motivation. • Targeting politicians/decision-makers who can be influenced. • Campaigning for politicians who support the interests of clients, social workers, etc.

3. Content Analysis examines: Wording and intent of current or proposed legislation How current legislation has been implemented or new legislation has been implemented as well as its current or expected impact Legal interpretations of current legislation Basic social values or principles incorporated into legislation. Process Analysis examines: 1) Legislative procedures for decision-making 2) Stage of Legislation process for pending legislation Supporters and opponents and the degree of their political power Likely outcomes of process and how it can be influenced Effects of regulations or existing institutions on how decisions are made Legislative Analysis looks at either the content of legislation or legislative processes

4. We often use policy (content models) to analyze the content of legislation. For example, Gilbert & Terrell (1998) use the principles of equality, equity, and adequacy incorporated into the following framework to analyze policies (p. 69).

5. Major components of process analysis are: • Interest groups involved in the process. • Status and authority of decision-makers (bureaucrats and elected politicians) • Amount of power held by interest groups and decision-makers. • Vested interests and motives of decision-makers and interest groups • Strategies used by all participants to influence results. • Rules of the game – implicit & explicit • Alliances among participants

6. Research is commonly done by: • Observations of process • Interviews with decision-makers • Media accounts and analysis • Industry ties and other types of affiliations of participants • Campaign donations • Obvious inferences about vested interests based on background information about participants and pending legislation or policy options • Looking at voting patterns and election turnout; timing of elections; composition of electorate.

7. Example of Application of Neo-elitist Model: Voting in U.S. • Not everyone is registered to vote. (only about 50% are registered) • Not every registered voter actually votes. (only about 50% of registered vote) • People may need to travel to register or change address & name. (excludes poor and those with disabilities) • National law now only requires for first time voters. • Some states exclude former felons from voting (excludes 13% of all African American men) • Polling places are not accessible to people with disabilities. • Older, white citizens are more likely to vote than young people, African Americans, and Latinos • Latinos and other new immigrants are excluded from voting because they are not citizens. • Ballot language excludes some voters. Data used to determine whether ballots should be printed in languages other than English are updated every 10 years. • Translations are required when more than 5% or 10,000 voters speak English as a second language.

8. Election campaigns attempt to: • Identify likely new voters. • Identify who is already likely to vote for the candidate. • Target appeals to specific ethnic groups. • Initiate voter registration and get out the vote efforts.

9. Social workers can: • Volunteer on election campaigns • Run for office • Help people register to vote (Motor Voter legislation requires some social service organizations to do this) • Help inform people about candidates and about individual voting rights. • Be a poll watcher or election judge. • Monitor impact of the Help American Vote Act.

10. Recent issues • Translation • Identification • Ballot layout • Electronic voting machines and paper trails. • Students voting in college towns. • Charges of vote fraud (mostly applied in communities of color) • Law enforcement presence in polling places • Concern about Federal requirements that states maintain a centralized voting list