How political change happens

Previously I’ve talked about how the City Council mostly care about longer-term, wealthier, homeownier residents. This raises the obvious question: how do policies get passed that the majority of these people don’t want? And more broadly, how does one effect political change?

The short version: political change (for good or for bad) requires aligned, focused action by organized groups. I’ll be focusing on local electoral politics, but the same is true in other areas as well.

The resources for elections: money and people

Within a political system centered around elections, there are two basic resources that can make a difference:

1. Money. For example, a candidate running for City Council needs money to pay a campaign manager, buy handouts and signs, send mailers, and so on.
2. People. A City Council candidate needs volunteers to knock on doors, make phone calls, stand with signs, and so on.

In the context of Council elections, having lots of money can compensate for a lack of volunteers: a candidate can pay for bigger signs, send even more mailers, and hire paid canvassers.

Conversely, having lots of volunteers can compensate for lack of money: volunteers can knock on more doors, make more phone calls, and therefore reach more people.

You only get one vote (at most). But in local elections, the money you donate, or time you spend volunteering, can result in far more votes for the candidate.

Policy prioritization: Council and public support

Politics doesn’t end with the election. There’s also the question of which problems get focused on, and which solutions are considered. How do these get prioritized?

• Council support: A Councilor is more likely to spend time on a policy that has a chance of getting passed; spending a lot of effort only to lose a vote 2 to 7 isn’t a good use of time.
• Public support: A Councilor is more likely to spend time on a policy which at least some subset of their donors, supporters, or the public more broadly care a lot about.

The definition of “public” is critical here: the people who matter are the politically engaged parts of the public. People who don’t vote, don’t donate, and don’t speak up have very little impact on how political decisions are made.

Council support also depends to some extent on public support. There are many topics where individual Councilors don’t necessarily have strong opinions, or where they have an opinion but it’s not one of their priorities. So they won’t take the lead on this issue, and they may support or oppose the policy based on their perception of public support.

This is another place where you as an individual can also affect outcomes, since writing to the Council and speaking at meetings can communicate public support to Councilors. This is important, but still limited in impact.

From individual action to group action

Unless you’re rich and can donate large sums of money, there’s a limit to how much influence and impact you can have as one person. But an organized group of people can pool their resources and:

• Recruit supporters and volunteers.
• Organize supporters to apply pressure on elected officials and public servants.
• With the help of these supporters and volunteers, set the agenda for what problems are considered, and which solutions are prioritized.
• Raise money and recruit volunteers to support candidates during elections.

Some examples of organized groups active in city politics include:

• Condo associations of larger buildings. Usually this involves a specific issue they are unhappy about, rather than city-wide issues. As property owners they have money, and they’re likely to vote, and they’re organized and aligned: exactly the kind of group a smart Councilor doesn’t want to alienate.
• “Neighborhood” associations. For the most part these are older, wealthier homeowners, organized into a group.
• Business associations. They may not all be able to vote locally, they’re a great source of donations and political influence on their customers.
• Unions. Again, their members may live across many cities, but they can be a good source of volunteers and donations.
• Political pressure groups. These can organize groups of residents to push specific policies, and often have associated Political Action Committees that will raise money and campaign for slates of candidates.

Two recent significant changes in city policy are the result of organizing by political pressure groups:

• Cambridge Bicycle Safety is responsible for the city rapidly building a network of separated bike lanes.
• A Better Cambridge is responsible for efforts to change zoning to allow taller residential buildings, for both affordable and market-rate buildings.

A third political pressure group, Cambridge Citizens Coalition, is the most prominent supporter of the status quo.

Group action in an unequal society

The more the status quo benefits one group over another, the more resources the beneficiary groups will have. And given unequal access to resources, the winners will often:

1. Use those resources to ensure the status quo continues to benefit them.
2. Or, go a step further, and use their resources to shift conditions even further in their favor.

Thus lacking organized groups pushing to improve things, the status quo will continue—or worsen. At the extreme we have the US, where the richest person in the world is using the threat of funding primary challenges to keep Senators voting the way he wants.

This doesn’t mean change for the better isn’t possible, but it does emphasize further the limits of individual action (assuming you’re not rich). Success requires the shared resources of a group.

What can you do?

Our Federal government is attempting to criminalize being trans, purge disabled employees, and return to an era where only white men are in charge, defund universities and medical schools, and much more. No doubt this week we’ll have more terrible policies to deal with.

Imposing this worldview requires widespread cooperation: from Congress, from companies and non-profits, from professional organizations and cultural institutions, from state governments and from local governments. So all of these are places we need to fight back.

How are we doing locally?

• Our state legislature is following its usual approach of being deliberately ineffective.
• Our local transphobic and homophobic City Council candidates didn’t get elected in 2023, but some of the candidates who had their back are sitting on our council.
• We will need to mitigate the economic harms we’ll see from Federal government actions, but the Council’s top priority is keeping taxes low for the richest people and companies in the city.

My personal goal with this newsletter and website is to get as many people as possible involved in local electoral politics. First, as a launchpad for changing Cambridge for the better. And then, for changing wherever and whatever you decide to take on with the skills you learn along the way.

This is certainly not the only approach you can take; we will also need unionization and strikes, protests and rallies.

If you do choose to spend time on this path, within the limits of your resources, time, and legal status, I encourage you to:

1. Vote in local elections, not just national elections.
2. Write, call, and speak to elected officials, on every level of government.
3. Volunteer for political candidates, and donate within your means; we have a municipal election this November!
4. Get involved in a local political pressure group (or start your own).

Finally, a small request from me: invite 3 local friends you think would be interested to sign up for this newsletter so we can get more people engaged in local politics.

A bit more

Song of the day: Bossfight by TC & The Groove Family.