By Invitation Only (review)

By Invitation Only. By Steven E. Schier. Pittsburgh, Penn.: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2000; pp. x + 247. $45.00 cloth; $17.95 paper.

Why has electoral turnout declined in the United States? What, if anything, can be done to increase voting participation? In this book Steven Schier advances a theory to account for change over time in who is politically active. He argues that for much of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, mass mobilization by the political parties generated high levels of turnout among those eligible to vote, which of course for most of that period included only white males. In place of mass mobilization by political parties, what now occurs is narrowly targeted political activation. It is this shift from mass mobilization to political activation that he blames for low levels of turnout. Having developed this argument in the first chapter, he then turns to examine why the change occurred and what might be done to generate higher levels of voter turnout in the United States.

Why and how did the politics of exclusive invitation develop? According to Schier, the causes of this change to exclusive rather than inclusive politics include the decay of political party organizations, the shift to nominating candidates for elective office through use of the direct primary and other reforms in the electoral system, the use of new campaign techniques, the development of new technologies of mass communication, and the evolution of increasingly user unfriendly systems of election registration, administration, and balloting. In order to increase the probability of obtaining preferred electoral and policy outcomes favored by political elites, candidate organizations and interest groups use political activation strategies. Schier defines activation as identifying and activating the small segments of citizens most likely to get the desired message and to vote or to lobby government as the activating political elites desire. Thus, American politics has become the politics of narrow targeting and exclusive activation, not the politics of mass mobilization.

The use of political activation is viewed by Schier as a rational response by political elites to a changed environment. With weaker party ties among the electorate and ineffective local party organizations, mass mobilization based on broad partisan appeals is no longer effective. New telecommunications technologies and the ability to target specific groups with relevant messages provide efficient, less costly, yet effective stimulation of support for candidates and policies. The use of activation politics has both contributed to and been supported by the development of a number of specialized campaign consultant professionals. The role of political parties has changed to that of fund raiser for and provider of services to candidates.

As Schier argues, activation politics is not restricted just to the election of candidates for public office. The growth in the number and types of interest groups operating at each level of government and the increased reach of government policies stimulate the use of activation strategies by interest groups, corporations, local governments, and even universities to lobby government decision makers. This use of activation strategies results in the proliferation of narrow, group-specific policy demands with an accompanying frequent neglect of majority preferences and broader policy needs.

Schier supports his arguments with evidence drawn from a wide range of empirical studies. These include research on electoral behavior, political attitudes, campaign management, political participation, mass communication, interest groups, and public policy. What is original in this book is not the evidence, but Schier's use of it to support his argument about the politics of exclusive invitation.

What might be done to produce a broader mobilization of the electorate? Here Schier, as have other critics of modern politics, faces the almost insurmountable problem of how to undo the effects of the changed legal, technological, political, social, and economic contexts within which modern politics occurs. Undoing the Progressive Era reforms and restoring party control over nominations would be unlikely to gain the support either of the mass public or of those who run for elective office. Furthermore, Schier fails to point out...