Power and the Quest for Justice
2017-07
Loading...
View/Download File
Persistent link to this item
Statistics
View StatisticsJournal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Title
Power and the Quest for Justice
Authors
Published Date
2017-07
Publisher
Type
Thesis or Dissertation
Abstract
This dissertation asks how legal, political and social actors affect the beliefs and actions of public interest law organizations. In order to answer this question requires two conceptual prerequisites. The first is the concept of power. There are substantial limitation with current understandings of what it means to affect others . I conduct an ordinary language analysis to illustrate interest group scholars’ acceptance of one sense of power—as domination. In the process, I recover another sense of power— as influence—the ability to affect others through imperceptible and non-coercive means. The second conceptual prerequisite is what public law organizations do, and how these actions reinforce one another. I create the concept of triangular advocacy to explain how these groups try to change society through a combination of legal, political, and social advocacy. While legal advocacy is central to public law groups’ efforts, political and social advocacy complements their goals. With the concepts of power—as influence, and triangular advocacy, I examine the question that I posed at the outset: how key actors have power with public law groups. I find that legal and social advocacy are important ways for PILOs to overcome challenges that political actors and the broader public place in their way. If public law groups perceive themselves as having good relationships with political actors, however, then they can concentrate on insider forms of politics, and do not need to emphasize social change as strongly.
Description
University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. July 2017. Major: Political Science. Advisor: Timothy Johnson. 1 computer file (PDF); ix, 160 pages.
Related to
Replaces
License
Collections
Series/Report Number
Funding information
Isbn identifier
Doi identifier
Previously Published Citation
Suggested citation
Snell, Paul. (2017). Power and the Quest for Justice. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/190494.
Content distributed via the University Digital Conservancy may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor. By using these files, users agree to the Terms of Use. Materials in the UDC may contain content that is disturbing and/or harmful. For more information, please see our statement on harmful content in digital repositories.