Reconsidering a Typology of Incentives Among Campaign Activists

Date01 September 1987
DOI10.1177/106591298704000309
Published date01 September 1987
Subject MatterArticles
RECONSIDERING
A
TYPOLOGY
OF
INCENTIVES
AMONG
CAMPAIGN
ACTIVISTS:
A
Research
Note
PENNY
M.
MILLER,
Temple
University
MALCOLM
E.
JEWELL,
University
of
Kentucky
and
LEE
SIGELMAN,
University
of Arizona
LARK
and
Wilson
(1961)
distinguished
among
three
types
of in-
~
centives
which
organizations
offer
their
members:
&dquo;material&dquo;
incentives,
tangible
rewards
translatable
into
monetary
terms;
&dquo;soli-
dary&dquo;
incentives,
intangible
rewards
that
result
from
the
very
act
of
as-
sociating ;
and
&dquo;purposive&dquo;
incentives,
intangible
rewards
that
pertain
to
the
stated
ends
of
association
rather
than
to
association
per
se.
This
typol-
ogy
has
informed
numerous
analyses
of
various
types
of
political
activists,
including
party
leaders
and
activists
(Costantini
and
King
1984),
campaign
contributors
(Hedges
1984),
delegates
to
presidential
nominating
conven-
tions
(Kirkpatrick
1976;
Roback
1980),
and
local
ward
leaders
(Hofstetter
1973).
Unfortunately,
there
are
numerous
differences
among
these
studies
in
operationalizations
of
the
Clark-Wilson
categories.
For
example,
although
most
researchers
classify
the
desire
to
enhance
one’s
political
career
as a
material
motivation,
Brown,
Hedges,
and
Powell
(1980)
consider
it
soli-
dary ;
moreover,
others
(e.g.,
Kirkpatrick
1976;
Semel
1978;
Costantini
and
King
1984)
have
used
Clark
and
Wilson’s
original
distinctions
as
a
springboard
for
more
complex
typologies
of
their
own.
Nonetheless,
cer-
tain
general
patterns
of
motivation
can
be
discerned.
For
example,
Hedges
(1984),
Roback
(1980),
and
Kirkpatrick
(1976)
all
found
that
purposive,
&dquo;good-citizen&dquo;
motivations
were
more
widespread
than
any
other
moti-
vation
among
campaign
contributors
and
presidential
convention
delegates;
by
contrast,
material
reasons
for
involvement
appear
to
be
rather
uncom-
mon
among
political
activists
(Hedges
1984;
Kirkpatrick
1976).
While
these
studies
have
helped
clarify
why
people
become
involved
in
political
activity,
very
little
is
known
about
their
motivations
for
active
involvement
in
the
campaign
of
a
particular
candidate
-
a
question
to
which
the
Clark-Wilson
typology
can
be,
but
has
not
yet
been,
applied.
That
is
the
purpose
of
the
present
study,
which
extends
the
Clark-Wilson
typology
to
a
new
setting:
a
set
of
gubernatorial
primary
campaigns.
The
research
site
is
Kentucky,
a
factionalized
one-party
state.
The
general
ex-
pectation
underlying
the
research
is
that
the
incentive
mix
motivating
the

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