Political Economy Workshop (Gov 3007)

Alexander Hertel-Fernandez will present his paper "Office Politics: When Do Firms Recruit their Workers into Politics?” Abstract for "Office Politics: When Do Firms Recruit their Workers into Politics?” American employers now have the legal right to recruit their workers into partisan politics and to fire or discipline employees who refuse to participate. How many employees experience such political recruitment, and when do firms decide to engage in this practice? Drawing on original national surveys of top corporate managers and workers, I first characterize the landscape of employer political recruitment of employees. One in four workers reported receiving political messages from their managers, and about half of surveyed firms reported engaging in political recruitment. Firm managers perceived recruitment to be a highly effective means of changing public policy, ranking it as being even more effective than making political contributions to candidates or buying political advertisements. I next test theories about when firms engage their workers in politics. I further explore this question with in-depth interviews with corporate managers. The strongest predictors of employer political recruitment center on bargaining power between firms and workers, firms’ regulatory exposure, and the extent to which firms are involved in other political activities. My findings suggest that political mobilization is an important feature of the American workplace, as well as a crucial strategy companies use to change public policy.