Awards

• Winner of Winner of the American Political Science Association's 2019 Robert A. Dahl Award Winner of the American Political Science Association's Gladys M. Kammerer Award.
• Winner of Winner of the American Political Science Association's 2019 Robert A. Dahl Award.

Overview

Employers are increasingly recruiting their workers into politics to change elections and public policy-sometimes in coercive ways. Using a diverse array of evidence, including national surveys of workers and employers, as well as in-depth interviews with top corporate managers, Alexander Hertel-Fernandez's Politics at Work explains why mobilization of workers has become an appealing corporate political strategy in recent decades. The book also assesses the effect of employer mobilization on the political process more broadly, including its consequences for electoral contests, policy debates, and political representation. Hertel-Fernandez shows that while employer political recruitment has some benefits for American democracy-for instance, getting more workers to the polls-it also has troubling implications for our democratic system. Workers face considerable pressure to respond to their managers' political requests because of the economic power employers possess over workers. In spite of these worrisome patterns, Hertel-Fernandez found that corporate managers view the mobilization of their own workers as an important strategy for influencing politics. As he shows, companies consider mobilization of their workers to be even more effective at changing public policy than making campaign contributions or buying electoral ads. Hertel-Fernandez closes with an array of solutions that could protect workers from employer political coercion and could also win the support of majorities of Americans. By carefully examining a growing yet underappreciated political practice, Politics at Work contributes to our understanding of the changing workplace, as well as the increasing power of corporations in American politics. It is essential reading for anyone interested in the connections between inequality, public policy, and American democracy.

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9780190629892

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Reviews

Hertel-Fernandez, a Columbia professor of international and public affairs, provides an eye-opening and timely look at the increased role of private-sector employers in American politics. He instantly demands attention with examples of employer behavior that is currently legalfor instance, requiring subordinates to volunteer for political campaigns as a condition of employment.He offers cogent legislative reforms to protect workers from political coercion by their bosses, in the hope that these reforms can remedy one important and growing symptom of the troubled relationship between democracy and corporate capitalism. Hertel-Fernandez has performed a great public service with this accessible and rigorously documented study. * Publishers Weekly *

Hertel-Fernandez (Columbia) has written an excellent new book that adds to the growing canon on business influence in American politics. * A. J. Nownes, CHOICE * Hertel-Fernandez, a Columbia professor of international and public affairs, provides an eye-opening and timely look at the increased role of private-sector employers in American politics. He instantly demands attention with examples of employer behavior that is currently legalfor instance, requiring subordinates to volunteer for political campaigns as a condition of employment.He offers cogent legislative reforms to protect workers from political coercion by their bosses, in the hope that these reforms can remedy one important and growing symptom of the troubled relationship between democracy and corporate capitalism. Hertel-Fernandez has performed a great public service with this accessible and rigorously documented study. * Publishers Weekly * [Politics at Work's] chief attribute is to unearth and investigate a major workplace dynamic that has received little scholarly or popular attention * Jake Rosenfeld, Washington University-St. Louis, ILR Review *

Author Information

Alexander Hertel-Fernandez is Assistant Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. A specialist on American politics and corporate power, his work has appeared in the American Prospect, MSNBC, the New York Times, the New Yorker, Salon, NPR, Talking Points Memo, Vox, and the Washington Post.

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