The underrepresentation of liberal Christians: Mobilization strategies of religious interest groups

Abstract

This article examines the uneven mobilization patterns of liberal and conservative Christian interest groups to test competing theories of group mobilization and to address the question of whether actual group membership is an accurate reflection of potential membership. An analysis of National Election Survey data suggests that the number of potential members of liberal Christian interest groups may actually be much higher than current group sizes indicate. Interviews with a sample of group leaders indicate that conservative groups are more effective than liberal groups at using existing networks to mobilize potential members.

Acknowledgment

The author wishes to thank Mark A. Smith who graciously took time to look over various versions of this manuscript and offer comments.

Notes

1 The ideological self-placement measure runs from 1 to 7. I recode this into a variable running from 0 to 1 and then divide the scale as follows: 0.0–.33 = liberal, .34–.66 = moderate, .67–1.0 = conservative.

2 There is evidence that this historical tradition may be changing. For example, Catholics are no longer a cohesive Democratic voting block.

3 V980505, v980503, v980448, v980486, v980497, v980457, v980463.

4 With the exception of the death penalty variable, these issues factor along two dimensions: one related to economic issues and the other related to social issues.

5 This finding suggests the need to explore the reasons liberal Christian interest groups are more likely to be made up of organizations rather than individual members.

6 The actual difference is probably even greater because for several of the groups that list numbers of chapters instead of numbers of members, I counted them as if each chapter had only one member. The three groups that claimed chapters were all conservative. Also, one liberal group is counted by its mailing list rather than its list of members, further inflating the difference.

7 Contact author for a list of interview questions.