Yes, to Repeal the Eighth Amendment
How the pro-‐choice movements organized prior to the success in the Irish Referendum 2018
Viktoria Hallmans
Bachelor thesis
Department of Government Uppsala University, Fall 2018 Supervisor: Katrin Uba
Words: 12499
Pages: 40
Abstract
This thesis investigates the pro-‐choice movements organization prior to the referendum in Ireland 2018 to Repeal the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution, which meant a legalization of abortion for women in Ireland. It is clear that the different pro-‐choice movements had a major impact on the referendum as they won a great victory. However, no previous studies have been made to analyze the organization structure and form of the engaged pro-‐choice movements. Therefore, this thesis analyzes the pro-‐choice movements own platforms to distinguish how they are organized and their pattern of coalition between each other, as coalition is an important factor for social movements to affect the policy. The finding of 97 pro-‐choice movements prior to the referendum have been analyzed to tell whether they are considered to be informal, more mobile and unstructured form, and formal movements, with established routines and procedures, to achieve success. The result shows that the majority of the engaged pro-‐choice movement can be qualified as informal, however the formal movements might have played an important role to form a coalition between different movements. It seems that the in the Irish pro-‐choice movement both informal and formal organization structure had a meaning for changing the stigma of abortion.
Table of Contents
1.Introduction ... 4
1.1 The Irish Abortion History ... 6
2. Theoretical framework ... 8
2.1 Previous research on Social Movements ... 8
2.2 Professionalization and Formalization of Social Movement Organizations ... 10
2.3 Coalition ... 14
3. Research design and method ... 16
3.1 Research design ... 16
3.2. Method for data collection ... 17
3.3 Operationalization ... 18
3.3.1 Operationalization Formalization ... 19
3.3.2 Operationalization Coalition ... 21
3.4 Social Network Analysis ... 22
3.5 Analytical tool ... 23
3.5.1 Ten-degree scale of formalization ... 24
4. Results and Analysis ... 25
4.1 Overall Results ... 25
4.2 Discussion of the results ... 30
5. Conclusions and further research ... 33
6. References ... 34
7. Appendix ... 38
1.Introduction
On the 25th of May 2018, a majority of the Irish citizens voted Yes to Repeal the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution (Article 40.3.3). The referendum ended a long era of the country’s strict ban on abortion under almost any circumstance (Field, 2018). The new legislation will make it legal for women in the Republic of Ireland to have an abortion up to 12 weeks of pregnancy without any restriction and up to 24 weeks if the mother's health is at risk (Laffoy, 2017). Irish women will no longer be forced to travel overseas to have an abortion or to buy illegal black-‐market abortion pills to take by themselves at home (Hinsliff, 2018).
Scholars on democratic policies agree that Social Movement Organizations (SMOs), interest groups and political parties all influence public policy (Burstein and Linton, 2002). The pro-‐
choice movement campaigning had a major impact on forcing the referendum in 2018 on to the political agenda. The referendum campaign was a strategic engagement by civil society actors and the liberalization of the abortion laws was made possible by well-‐organized civil society groups which could use the platform of the referendum as provider of public engagement (Enright et al, 2015). The pro-‐choice movement also gained the support from major political parties, which has been important for the success of the civil society campaign (Field, 2018).
We already know that the pro-‐choice movement have succeeded with their goal to legalize abortion. Therefore, we must first look at their organization structure and form to see if it has any meaning for the success of the pro-‐choice movement in Ireland, as the structure of the organization will have an impact on the productivity of a social movement (Amenta et al, 2010). The main purpose of this thesis is to investigate how the organization structure of the pro-‐choice movement is and how the coalition structure looked like prior the Irish referendum 2018. Previously research on pro-‐choice movements have showed that the most successful movements have been professionalized and formalized with the ability to maintain broad coalitions. However, in the 2018 Irish referendum it might have been less need for formalized and professionalized movements as the technology of communication has changed the way to spread information. Rather it been the informal movements who have spread the information through social media and such, to challenge the stigma of abortion in Ireland. On the other hand, formalization and professionalization might have been unavoidable as the
mobilization for the pro-‐choice movement has been existing for a long term since the Eighth Amendment was added to the Constitution in 1983. The formalized movements might have acted as a connection between the less formal and had an important part in the coalition building. Therefore, the research question for this thesis will be the following:
How is the pro-‐choice movement organized in Ireland?
The pro-‐choice movements’ coalition in the Irish referendum 2018 will be analyzed according to Tarrow’s (2011) theory on coalition, and Staggenborg’s (1988) theory on professionalized and formalized Social Movement Organizations and the effect it has on coalition. As far as I know, no previously research have been made about the meaning of the social movements organizations structure and form in the pro-‐choice movement in Ireland. However, it has been stated that the pro-‐choice campaigning had an impact to win in the referendum. This research will answer if the success of the pro-‐choice movement will exist with or without formalization and if the coalitions between the different movements is dependent on it. All the information about the pro-‐choice movements will be retrieved from their own websites (Facebook or Twitter in case they do not have any website) to tell us whether they been formalized or not and how they organized themselves in the abortion campaign. Three methods will be used in order to answer the research question, Collection Action Organization (AOA), Social Network Analysis (SNA) and Quantitative Content Analysis, to located formalization in the pro-‐choice movement. The AOA is the approach to collected data from each organization, the SNA will be used to make a visual graph of the Irish pro-‐choice movements coalition and the Quantitative Content Analysis will be used for analyzing the collected data. These methods together will tell us the information about which organizations cooperates the most with others and if their ability to sustain networks are depending on whether formalization is important or not for the success to Repeal the Eighth Amendment. Depending on the result we either have reason to believe formalization and professionalization is of importance for success, or not as it might be other tactics more useful for the success of a pro-‐choice movement.
1.1 The Irish Abortion History
The Irish legislation ban on abortion was first ratified in the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act (eISBa). However, in 1983, the Eighth Amendment was added to the Constitution and was approved by a majority of the voters in a referendum, which banned abortion during almost all circumstances. The campaigning for the strict abortion law was held by pro-‐life groups, as they were afraid of more liberal abortion laws like the British legislation of abortion in 1967 (Field, 2018).
Since then, there have been a number of cases highlighted by the media. An example is the”
x case” in the 1990’s when a rape victim became suicidal when she was not allowed to travel overseas to have an abortion. This court case started protests from both pro-‐life and pro-‐
choice activist and resulted in a referendum which made it legal to travel overseas for an abortion. Additionally, information was also to be given to women about options in other countries where women could have an abortion (BBC, 2018). In 2002, another referendum was held, and the majority voted No to remove the threat of suicide as a legal ground for abortion. The attempt to introduce stricter abortion law was defeated (Field, 2018).
In 2012, Savita Halappanavar died in hospital after being refused an abortion due to a septic miscarriage as the heartbeat of the fetus could still be detectable. After her death the pro-‐
choice movement mobilized and demonstrated outside the Irish Parliament urging the coalition government Fine Gael -‐ Labour to take action (BBC, 2012). The case of Savita forced the Irish government to consider another law for termination of pregnancy (Berer, 2013). This resulted in the 2013 Protection of life during Pregnancy Act, termination of pregnancy would be legal and accessible in Ireland if the mother's life were at risk. However, an illegal abortion or helping anyone with one, could result with 14 years in jail (eISBb). During the general election in 2016, abortion was a much-‐discussed topic as the new Protection of life during Pregnancy Act did not satisfy the pro-‐choice movement. The National Women’s Council Ireland (NWCI) made a manifesto where the candidates in the election could list themselves as supporters for Repealing the Eighth Amendment (Field, 2018).
The 29th of January, the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar announced that a referendum to Repeal the Eighth Amendment would be proposed by the Government (Field, 2018). After the cabinet meeting he said in a speech:
“If the amendment is approved in a referendum, abortion in Ireland will be become safe, legal and rare, in the situations provided for by the Oireachtas. If the referendum is defeated, the law will remain as it is now.” (Irish times, 2018a)
In March 2018 the date for the referendum was set on 25th of May (Field, 2018). The pro -‐
choice organized and the grassroots organizations Abortion Rights Campaign (ARC), National Women's Council of Ireland (NWCI) and Coalition to Repeal the Eight engaged in lobbying and public awareness about abortion before the election. (Field, 2018). The public consensus around human rights and the women’s autonomy and self-‐determination was also pushed for by the pro-‐choice movement (Enright et al, 2015). The three pro-‐choice organization, Abortion rights campaign (ARC), Coalition to Repeal the Eighth Amendment (an umbrella organization of 100 networks for pro-‐choice) and National Women’s council of Ireland (NWCI) started the political campaign “Together for Yes” with a strong civil focus.
All three organizations contributed with members who worked with the campaign. (Field, 2018). Bakhru (2017) also argue that the Irish Family planning association had a major impact on the law reform changes for the sexual and reproductive health of women and was also in engaged in the campaign (Field, 2018). Notably, the support also came from organizations like
“Doctors for Choice”, “Psychologist for yes”, “Student trade union” and the majority of the political parties in the republic. The Irish political parties supported both Together for Yes and had own individual campaigns (Field, 2018). Fine Gael, Sinn Féin, Labour, Solidarity/ People before profit, Green Party and the Social Democrats were all supporting the Repeal of the Eight Amendment. The other two remaining Irish political parties in the Oireachtas (Parliament), Fianna Fáil and the Independent Alliance, were divided within the parties with voices for and against to the Repeal (Bardon, 2018).
The result of the referendum in the 25th of May 2018 ended with 66.4% for YES and 33.6%
for No (Irish Times 2018b). The Repeal of the Eighth Amendment was a revolution act of pro-‐
choice activists raising their voices through communities and social networks (Li, 2018). Li (2018) describes it as a victory won by the pro-‐choice movement with forces joining together in the umbrella group “Together for Yes”.
2. Theoretical framework
This section will present the research theoretical framework which is necessary to answer the research question. It will be used in order to tell us how formalized the pro-‐choice movement are and how the coalition of movements looks like in the Irish case. The first chapter will describe previously research, to be more narrowed to describing professionalization, formalization and coalition of Social Movement organizations in the following chapters.
2.1 Previous research on Social Movements
In order to understand how different movements are organized and how the organization structure and form might affect the policy outcomes, we must first define Social Movements (SM), but also define the meaning of a Social Movement Organization (SMO). Tarrow (2011) describes a Social Movement as a movement of people who together treat the political opportunities and mobilize people in order to meet the powerful opponents (Tarrow, 2011).
Furthermore, McCarthy and Zald (1977) define Social Movement Organization (SMO) as:
“A social movement organization (SMO) is a complex, or formal, organization which identifies its goals with the preferences of a social movement or a countermovement and attempts to implement those goals” (Ibid, p. 1218).
The movements encounter authorities and their legislative power, which in a society sets the norms, to achieve change (Tarrow, 2011). Burstein & Linton (2002) argue that SMOs and interest groups are easy to forget in the public policy as they do not have the same impact as parties, which are in control of the government and automatically given more influence.
However, a SMO is likely to have influence when policy legislators will worry not to meeting their demands as it might affect their reelection (Burstein & Linton, 2002). Therefore, movements try to seek where they are more likely to have impact and influence on policies (Amenta et al, 2010) and during these circumstances a SMO have the have ability to defeat
the officeholders if they are dissatisfied with them. Notably, this would only be the case for groups with policy access (Burstein & Linton, 2002).
For a movement to affect the policy, both McCammon et al (2001) and McCarty & Zald (1977) agree that the movement must emerge and develop into an organization with key strategies.
The movements have to establish a structure for the mobilization as it will be needed for the movements to act when the political context turns in their favor (McCammon et al, 2001).
The suffrage movement is useful in relation to the Irish pro-‐choice movement, as Enright et al (2015) describes the right for abortion as women’s right for self-‐determination and autonomy, a recognition of their agency in the matter, which do not differ much from what suffrage movement was about. McCammon et al (2001) recognized that the key strategies to gain suffrage for the suffrage movement in America was the use of inside and outside strategies. The inside strategy used by the suffrage movements was lobbying the women's suffrage arguments to lawmakers and gaining their support, which was necessary to win the suffrage vote (McCammon et al, 2001). Political and legislative lobbying is described by Yaziji and Doh (2013) as “highly institutional tactics” which requires establish networks for the SMO, as it will be needed to be able to influence regulative and political players. Michie et al (2018) also recognized the use of lobbying tactics prior to the Irish referendum 2018, which Staggenborg’s (1988) research on the pro-‐choice movement in America is described as one of the tactics performed by the formal SMOs, as the informal would not have the resources for such work.
On the contrary, in the American suffrage movement, outside tactics had more influence in the public referendum of suffrage for women as the outcome was dependent on the public opinion, even if they had the decision-‐makers support (McCammon et al, 2001). Outside tactics is considered to be “institutional neutral” tactics, which includes press conferences, marches and rallies as they rely less on regulatory, political and legal institutions (Yaziji & Doh, 2013). Michie et al (2018) also argue that pro-‐choice movements use of social media have been efficient to gain attention both national and international about the abortion legislation in Ireland. Example of this have been posting trending hashtags directed to Irish politicians.
The pro-‐choice movement also worked with hashtags like #repealthe8th, #trustwomen and
#hometovote, supporting Irish emigrants to come back home to vote (Li, 2018). This strategy,
women’s narratives of their abortion on social media, has been a tool to challenge the abortion stigma (Michie et al, 2018). Due to the highlighting of the abortion issue in Ireland, Michie et al (2018) describes it as putting even more pressure on the government and with these tactics the pro-‐choice movement brought the abortion reform to the forefront of the political agendas current debate.
Nevertheless, Amenta et al (2010) argues for that there is no magical political context, strategies or specific organizational form which could always help challengers. It is rather the specific form of organization that will work better in different political context than others. If this is the case with the political context of the pro-‐choice movement, it might be Staggenborg’s (1988) theory on professionalization and formalization that can be the most helpful strategy and organization form that in general will help pro-‐choice movements the most. Her research of the American pro-‐choice movements showed that professionalization of social movements and activities might not help to expand the movement sector. However, it will affect the structure and maintenance of social movement organizations’ strategies and tactics, but also their participation in coalition work (Staggenborg, 1988).
In relation to the pro-‐choice movement in the Republic of Ireland, Field (2018) argue that the pro-‐choice movements’ campaigning had a major impact on forcing the abortion issue on to political agenda in Ireland. Although, we do not yet know how the structure for these successful organization, which will be further explored to understand how Irish pro-‐choice movements structure and form is organized prior to the referendum 2018.
2.2 Professionalization and Formalization of Social Movement Organizations
As mentioned before, the mobilization of the pro-‐choice movement in Ireland might have unavoidable been professionalized and formalized as they have been existing for a long time and have had the ability to maintain themselves through decades. The professionalization of a movement is important according to Staggenborg (1988) as the paid staff and leaders found in the formalized SMOs have the “know-‐how-‐necessary” to be able to carry out task and take advantage of environmental opportunities and elite preferences (Staggenborg, 1988). Michie et al (2018) also recognized the use of lobbying tactics prior the referendum which could
indicate that at least some of the movements indeed have professionalized in order to use such tactic. According to Tarrow (2011), some leaders have been prone to, depending on the situation, been able to transform the movement into a successful organization which sustain the conflict with opponents, the elite and authorities. Without this leadership in a SMO, they are not likely to last for long (Tarrow, 2011). Staggenborg (1988) describes it as the leaders become professional and learns skills which they can transfer between organizations and are considering to be “entrepreneurs”, who initiate tactics, movements and organizations.
Notably, the distinguished criteria for being professional or nonprofessional as well as being informal and formal SMO described in the theory section is both ideal types. The reality is much more complexed (Staggenborg, 1988).
A SMO have different kinds of leaders who are involved in the decision making of the movement and are described as activists, like any other active member who is not a “paper member” (constituent contributors). The different leaders are the professional leaders, volunteer leaders and nonprofessional leaders. Professional leaders are staff with salary who make a career of movement work, they are dependent on an income and are more likely to move from one movement to another to purse their own strategies. Contrariwise, volunteer leaders are unpaid activist and have engaged because of their involvement in the matter and tend to stay in the same movement. Nonprofessional leaders get compensated for all or some of their time for their movement work. However, unlike professional they do not consider their work as a career option. Nonprofessional leaders depended on an income act more like a professional leader and the ones without an income operate more like volunteers (Staggenborg, 1988).
In order to facilitate the professional staff and organization structure, which is important to maintain the SMO, professionalized and formalized SMOs actively solicit resources from supporting foundations (Staggenborg, 1988). The resources are then used for mobilization of the SMO and is important for the movements to gain political success (McCammon et al, 2001 and Staggenborg, 1988). Another important circumstance is that SMOs are no longer dependent on the mass membership, rather it is about constituent contributors who support the SMO with membership fees (Staggenborg, 1988). Despite the development of “checkbook members” McCarthy (2005) argue that we should not forget the traditional active
membership as SMOs will still create organizations and recruit members into active involvement in communities (McCarthy, 2005). Which we might be able to see in the involvement of legalizing abortion, as it effects many people and are depended on the change in a public opinion like in the suffrage case in America (McCammon et al, 2001). However, the increase of contributing constitutions is important accordingly to Staggenborg (1978) as the professionalized social movement have an increased as a result of the funding. Activist can make careers of being movements leaders and instead of active participants in the organizations the members rely on paid leaders to accomplish the wanted change (Staggenborg, 1988). Although, it is not impossible for volunteer activists to have the continuity in performing maintenance. Only it is harder for the volunteers to possess the time necessary to do so as they often have a daytime job as well. Therefor the survival of informal SMOs tends to be small and exclusive (Staggenborg, 1988). Tarrow (2011) also agree that organization need to be formal at a certain level, otherwise there is a risk that they fade away.
Although, it he also describes difficulty to achieve flexibility to reach out to informal organizations and protesters gathered in communities, as well as create a robust structure contention with more formal organizations.
To be able to exist more than a few years without being small and exclusive, Staggenborg (1988) and other scholars have shown that SMOs must become more formal to be able to mobilize and organize when the opportunity turns to reach success. The mobilization and organization of the pro-‐choice movements in the Irish referendum 2018 gives us good reasons to believe that professionalization and formalization have been prone to achieve the policy outcomes (Staggenborg, 1988). Professionalized SMOs according to Staggenborg (1988) have reasons to be associate with formalization as professional leaders are more likely to be hired in already formalized SMO or the professional leaders tend to formalize organizations they lead (Staggenborg, 1988). Formal SMOs may be characterized by having a board of directors, who only meets a number of times per year, and an executive committee, who meets more frequently and takes the administrative decisions, and staff members, who are in touch with mass media, responsible for campaigns etc. As the professional leaders make a career out of a movement they are also less likely to be initiator of social movements. With all these qualities that formal organizations contain, they are much more likely to survive longer than informal SMOs in the long run (Staggenborg, 1988). This structure of organization is absent in
the informal SMOs as they do not have the resources to hire the professional staff and carry out the task possible by paid professionals. The informal SMO is characterized by having a few established procedures, minimal division of labor and loose requirements for membership.
Decision tend to be made in an “ad hoc” rather than by routine. Personnel assignment and procedures structures are frequently adjusted to meet immediate needs. The lack of procedures also makes it possible for each individual leader to exert an influence on the organizational structure as it is likely to be dominated by nonprofessional, largely volunteer leaders and structures probably going to change with different leaders. However, Staggenborg (1988) note that in the beginning of the pro-‐choice movements in America, the SMOs were informal and the leaders prior to formalization were nonprofessional and volunteer leaders.
The nonprofessional SMOs are more mobile in their organizations structure and procedures, the formalized SMOs structure is associated with professional leadership having procedures and structure as they have managed to establish a task routine. Even with changes in leadership they will continue to function as usual, they are less dependent on the skill of the individual leader. They have established bureaucratic procedures which determine the decision making and functions like membership criteria and rules for governing the subunits (Staggenborg, 1988). However, Tarrow (2011) argue that some movements emerge without a formal leadership but still function much alike them as leaders without the experience borrows the resources and organizational form from formal SMOs to create cognate groups.
Tarrow (2011) also argue that the key to survival may not be because of formalization of an organization, rather it is about the interpersonal networks which can survive even when the formal organization no longer exists. It is about organizations interaction with each other and the coordination and aggregation as organizations can exist even without the formalization (Tarrow, 2011).
The findings from the suffrage movement success in America were combined gendered and political opportunity working to change the existing culture norms (McCammon et al, 2001).
Which also was the case in Ireland as the pro-‐choice movement promote public awareness and was a growing counter voice from the pro-‐choice movements with effective mobilization both online and offline, a combination of different approaches (Michie et al, 2018). As
described by Michie et al (2018) the pro-‐choice movement in Ireland used all kinds of strategies to achieve their goals. Everything from art, merchandise, digital media to more traditional protest, like lobbying, rallies and marches (Michie et al, 2018). This could mean the less use of formal SMOs and more use of informal SMOs in the Irish pro-‐choice movement However, formal SMOs can engage in direct-‐action, which is the informal movements routine (Staggenborg 1988). Formalized SMOs have the ability to switch from the institutional tactics when needed. Although, the direct tactics used are often more orderly and tend to be non-‐
disruptive and planned events of tactics (Staggenborg, 1988). Formalized SMOs helps to maintain social movements and is associated with institutionalization of collective action.
They tend to select tactics that enhance organizational maintenance and are also more democratic than informal SMOs as they follow procedures that makes it more difficult for individual leaders to attain disproportionate power. Movement goal is still radical but with alternative tactics, movement demands, and representatives that becomes more incorporated into mainstream politics (Staggenborg, 1988). Burstein & Linton (2002) also argues that when organizations are able to participate in policy, officeholders are more likely to be influenced and pay attention to the group.
Staggenborg (1988) research shows that informal SMOs are necessary for the initiation of movements and building pressure on opponents. However, formal SMOs have an important function to perform after victories won by informal SMOs as well as they beneficiaries of the funding from elite. They are also better on maintaining themselves during a long period of time. Particularly after legalization of abortion, as it gets harder to mobilize. An important reason to their ability to sustain themselves are the fact that foundations rather deal with organization who have management devices and professional leaders (Staggenborg, 1988).
2.3 Coalition
One could argue theoretical that the Irish pro-‐choice movement did not need to be professionalized and formalized to achieve success, instead it was about the ability to collaborate with allies and form strong coalitions with other movements who had the same agenda (Tarrow, 2011). Tarrow (2011) states that to challenge powerful opponents, social movements need to form coalitions and organize the public to make collective claims.
Coalitions can constitute new actors and receive these collective claims. A campaign can also
combine different actors together toward the collective claim, containing public performance as well as media efforts, lobbying and educational activists. Single protests events will gather the organizations and shape the growth of a campaign around the event of conflict. A campaign always attracts at least three parties together for a particular constituency and will be followed by a coalition formation to combine against the common threat. A coalition is resources and members put together to help the organization to gain in numbers and legitimacy to become a unity against the common powerful enemy. Almost always when challengers stand against a stronger opponent they form coalitions and mount campaigns. In situations with old alignments coming apart the formed coalitions are important as it will place new issues on the agenda (Tarrow, 2011).
On the other hand, Staggenborg (1988) describes formalization of SMOs as having an impact on coalition work within movements. The formalization of SMOs plays an important role for the creating coalition and are dominant for the lasting of coalitions. It is easier to maintain coalition work with formalized SMOs due to the paid staff that are available to act as the organizational representatives, they make it easier to coordinate and maintain the coalitions.
Therefore, another argument could be that the formalized SMOs are the ones with most networks to other movements as they have the possibility to maintain them. Even if it is possible for volunteers to keep contact with each other it is more difficult because of the absent of the formalized organization’s coalition structure. It is a question of who will organize who, and who will be the one connecting to other movements. Nevertheless, it is also a matter of time, when the professional paid staff can arrange meetings and build networks with each other during day time, volunteers have full time jobs and not the same ability to join (Staggenborg, 1988).
In the Irish case we do not yet know what will describe the success for the pro-‐choice movements. It might be because of the strength of coalitions itself as Tarrow (2011) describes it or will it be the strength of coalition made possible by the formalized SMOs as Staggenborg (1988) research have shown.
3. Research design and method
This section will present the research design and method used leading to my result. The content will be described and motivated for in relation to the material in each chapter.
3.1 Research design
The Irish referendum is of much interest as the resulted ended with a great victory for the Yes-‐side, to Repeal the Eighth Amendment from the Constitution and legalize abortion.
Ireland is described as one of the most catholic countries in Europe and have had one of the strictest laws on abortion (de Freytas-‐Tamura, 2018), which makes the outcome of the Irish referendum interesting as the opinion of abortion have shifted radically since the adding of the Eighth Amendment in 1983. As we do not know more than that pro-‐choice movement succeed in the referendum, it is relevant to analyze the pro-‐choice movements organization structure as it might have affected the outcome of the success of the movements. Therefore, I found it of much interest to choose the different pro-‐choice movements in Ireland as the unit of analysis, with the ambition to describe how they organized.
The thesis is of analyzing the organization structure of the pro-‐choice movement in Ireland is of a descriptive design and will be analyzed through looking at the case itself with the meaning of trying to explain the content within (Esaiasson et al, 2012). A descriptive research will be useful as this thesis wants to answer how the pro-‐choice movement in Ireland is organized.
The descriptive nature of the design would be important for further research in the subject, this research only lays the foundations of the importance of analyzing the structures of the pro-‐choice movements in Ireland.
Three types of methods will be used to answer the research question. One approach for collecting data about the pro-‐choice movement and two methods for analyzing the material.
The selected methods have been important for the collection the data but also how to analyze the result and combine the information about coalitions with the structure of the movements.
Further explanation will be presented in the next three chapters, which also will describe how they are connected.
3.2. Method for data collection
In order to answer the research question about the formalization and coalitions of the pro-‐
choice movement, I have decided to map online outlets (websites) of the organizations and movements involved in the Irish pro-‐choice campaign. The method of using the pro-‐choice movements own websites or other relevant platforms (Facebook or Twitter) is inspired by the collective action organization approach (AOA) made by Kousis, Giugni & Lahusen (2018) and will be used together with two other methods, Social Network Analysis and Quantitative Content Analysis as the analytical tool to analyze the retrieved material. Kousis, Giugni and Lahusen (2018) describes the AOA method as “extremely helpful in tracing mobilization and action repertoires of social movements across both space and time” (Kousis, Giugni &
Lahusen, 2018, p. 740). The development of this method is a step further from relaying on newspapers as the main source. Surely, newspapers articles have given important information about the Irish referendum 2018 and the pro-‐choice movements activity in the campaign. However, the researchers described it as newspapers usually provide limitations in their media covered as they often provide filtered and restricted information (Kousis, Giugni & Lahusen, 2018). The information from the pro-‐choice movements websites will proved all the necessary information of each movement and what they choose to emphasize.
The AOA method of analyzing organizations websites are described in four phases. The first phase, and the most used in this research, identifies websites relevant for the study, which can be made through systematic google search and respective literature (Kousis, Giugni &
Lahusen, 2018). The identification of pro-‐choice movements in this research have been mainly through Field’s (2018) article “Abortion referendum of 2018 and a timeline of abortion politics in Ireland to date”. The article mentioned important pro-‐choice movements for the victory of Repealing the Eighth and with the help of the article I was able to use google to find the websites of the mention pro-‐choice movements. The second phase in AOA is to identify organizational data and analyze the websites links to other sites in the matter (Kousis, Giugni
& Lahusen, 2018). The website of the Together for Yes was more than helpful as it had a list of every contributing movement and ally in their campaign. Links were provided to other movements website, Facebook or Twitter. By each movement connected to Together for Yes, their own websites could be analyzed, which in some cases lead to finding other connections with other pro-‐choice movement. By the online mapping l successfully fund 97 groups
involved in the campaigning of Repealing the Eighth Amendment. Although, 26 of the organizations engaged in the campaign will only be analyzed as supporters/allies to other pro-‐
choice movements but not by themselves as they are political parties, Trade unions, newspapers and other organizations which are not object of research as they cannot be qualified as informal or formal SMOs.
The choice of analyzing the own websites does not exclude that other pro-‐choice movements been passed by without my knowledge. In spite of the might excluded movements, I found the material large enough that if I would miss one or two other pro-‐choice movements I would probably be able to generalize the data collected of the other movements. The possibility to generalize movement is also described by Kousis, Giugni and Lahusen (2018) as possible with a large amount of website. One could then question if 97 pro-‐choice movements prior to the referendum is qualified as a large set of data, I would say yes in this case as I could not find any other pro-‐choice movement, but also as it provides a variety of different pro-‐choice movements with different attributes. The remaining phases described by Kousis, Giugni and Lahusen (2018) is not relevant for the research as other methods will be used to analyze the collected data in this research.
3.3 Operationalization
In order to measure if formalization will have any meaning of the organization structure in the pro-‐choice movement in Ireland and if it might have any effect on the political outcome, the theoretical definition most be given operational indicators (Esaiasson et al, 2012). That will say how I will measure the pro-‐choice movements structure and form but also their cooperation with other pro-‐choice groups. The operationalization of my theoretical definition will be made in two parts. One part will be to measure each organization in the pro-‐choice movements formalization and given them a ranking on a ten-‐degree described in an upcoming chapter. The other part will be measure coalition between different pro-‐choice movements as Staggenborg (1988) claims formalization to be important part of being able to build coalitions, but also accordingly to Tarrow (2011) as he argues that coalition is important for movements to proceed their goals without any implications that it must be a formalized SMO.
This division of the operationalization make it even more clear and distinct what will be measured. It will tell us if the formalized structure had any impact in the pro-‐choice
movement or if it something that will happen with or without formalization of a movement.
Perhaps there might be another explanation for the success. The two parts will later be combined as one in the analyze section of this thesis, together the operationalization of coalition and formalization will help us understand which organizations having most coalition and if the ones with many ties are classified as formalized or not. That might give us an explanation if formalization have an important role in the success for abortion rights, as it was in Staggenborg’s (1988) research of pro-‐choice movements in America.
3.3.1 Operationalization Formalization
The theoretical definition of professionalization and formalization will be measured accordingly from Staggenborg’s (1988) research on formalization and her description of important parts of being classified as a formalized SMO. With this operationalization gathered from Staggenborg (1988) the theoretical definition will be measurable in reality (Esaiasson et al, 2012). In order to see what kind of organization structure different pro-‐choice groups have, I will be measuring according the following criterions for formalized (which includes professionalization) SMOs described by Staggenborg (1988):
Organization information:
● Organization’s establishment
● Membership criteria -‐ to become a member one must either pay a fee (conscience constitution) and/or fulfill some sort of requirement.
Type of leadership:
● Paid staff
● Foundations grants -‐ the organization will be needed to have some kind of founding as they have paid staff.
Division of labor:
● Board of directors/ Executive committee
● Subunits
● Bylaws
Organization tactics:
● Lobbying tactics, legislative lobbying or campaign lobbying, etc.
● Political campaigns
● Educational work
The organizations establishment will not be encountered for more than it might show different ages for formal and informal SMOs, as we have reasons to believe that formal SMOs have exist longer as it is harder for informal SMOs to maintain in the long run (Staggenborg, 1988). Staggenborg (1988) describes paid staff as an important for the maintain and function of the movement and what kind of tactics they will most comely use, therefor paid staff as a criterion has more value than the other characteristics described in the operationalization of formalization. Without paid staff other characteristics as lobbying and educational work are much harder to execute, however it is not possible for volunteers to perform that task, rather it is easier for paid staff as it is their job to influence the policy agenda. Even if formal and informal SMOs are not ideal types it is somewhere understood that paid staff is needed for the formal SMOs to actually be formal, otherwise it can be informal SMOs acting as formal as the current leader of the SMO finds it important (Staggenborg, 1988). Staggenborg describes Board of Directors and Executive Committee as two different characteristics, however in the analyzed material the pro-‐choice movements with that attribute have often described it as having a Board of Executives or similar which indicate a merging of the two different characteristics. This is not entirely unexpected as this thesis analyze the Irish pro-‐choice movement and Staggenborg (1988) the American, this is two different countries which probably will have their differences in language and approaches. Despite some differences the research made on the American pro-‐choice movement is useful in the Irish case because it is both about the pro-‐choice movement for abortion and as there is no other professionalization and formalization study made on the Irish pro-‐choice movement. The other characteristics are also described by Staggenborg (1988) as most common for the formal movements. Although, they can be found in informal SMOs as well, a scale of formalization is therefore suitable as SMOs can be more or less formal or informal (Staggenborg, 1988).
The operationalization is made with the characteristics described by Staggenborg (1988), one could then argue that the validity, that will say that the one measure what one said to measure (Esaiasson et al, 2012), is relatively good as it is a known operationalization by scholars. Staggenborg’s (1988) characteristic provides a clear definition of how to distinguish a formal SMO from an informal SMO, which is much relevant for the research of how the organization structures is and how it will affect their success. It will also be easy to find these criteria in the analysis of the selected pro-‐choice organization because either they have it or not. Even if the validity is good the operationalization is not trustworthy unless the reliability is good as well. To achieve good reliability the operationalization must be absence of careless mistakes or random errors. The validity must be used right, that will say that the criterion formalization is used in the right way when applied on the material. It is also a question about over -‐ and underestimate, which is the most common mistake which can affect the trust and credibility of the collected material (Esaiasson et al, 2012).
The readers should be aware that the information collected from different pro-‐choice movements will vary as the organizations have more or less informative platforms. In some cases, websites were mentioned but unfortunately not accessible. This might have affected result on underestimate of formalization of SMOs (Esaiasson et al, 2012). On the other hand, it might also tell us something about the SMO if the information is poor. Maybe the lack of information means that there is no established institution to tell about because it is nonexistent. The lack of established bureaucratic procedure, which Staggenborg (1988) links with formalization of a movement, would mean that poor information would be more related to the informal movements.
3.3.2 Operationalization Coalition
The operationalization to measure coalition between groups is important as both Tarrow (2011) and Staggenborg (1988) describes it as such, even though they have different approaches. The operationalization of coalition will therefore be measured by collecting data about which pro-‐choice movement collaborate with other pro-‐choice movements on each website, Facebook or/and Twitter. The information from the pro-‐choice organization will be used with the Social Network Analysis approach to be able to get a visual connection between the pro-‐choice movements.
The operationalization of coalition is not without doubt, questions are raised if the pro-‐choice movements coalition actually been written out on their platforms or it is more something that is commonly known by pro-‐choice activist in Ireland. Will coalitions between SMOs be missed because of the method used in this research? Unfortunately, yes, I reckon this will be the case.
Due to the limit of time and resources it would not be possible to contact over 70 different pro-‐choice movements analyzed in this research to ask which organization they collaborate with. Therefor the best way has been to analyze their platforms for the fastest possible result.
One could also argue that the lack of clear printed cooperation actually means it is not worth mentioning and all the meaningful and important coalitions will be present on an organization's platform because it is worth mentioning.
The motivation to why I used the pro-‐choice movements own platforms is (1) for the availability to easy access the information they put in their platforms. (2) It will make it easier to analyze a larger amount of organizations which would be important to distinguish a pattern in the Social Network Analysis. (3) The information on the platforms could be seen as information the pro-‐choice movement finds important. (4) The information gathered about both formalization and coalitions on the platforms are from the same source and gives us a distinct understanding of how the organization in question works.
3.4 Social Network Analysis
The unit of analysis found through AOA, have together with the help from the Social Network Analysis (SNA) helped me to create a visualization of the pro-‐choice movement connections.
The SNA approach is useful in the analysis of which organization who been working the most with others. Later with this information, we will be able to examine if the structure of the organization is formalized or not to answer if SMO are more likely to be formalized if they are engaged in more coalitions. The SNA will help us to draw a conclusion if the organization structure of formalization is the most common one and if it actually had affect in making coalitions.
SNA tries to enlighten patterns and consequences of the network (McCullon, Armstrong &
Johnson, 2013), in this research the pro-‐choice coalitions. The coalition of pro-‐choice
movements can later in the SNA be combined with the degrees of formalization. The graph will show links between the pro-‐choice SMOs, called agents, which are analyzed in this research. The visual graph will have dots which is called the nodes (the agents) and they are combined with lines, called edges, connecting them to each other. For a network to exist it must have some sort of connection or links between the analysis units (McCullon, Armstrong
& Johnson, 2013).
The SNA presented in the result is made of the 97 pro-‐choice movements collected with the AOA. Each node has been analyzed through their own platforms (Websites, Facebook or Twitter) to find the which others they have been connected to, the edges of the graph.
Notably, 26 organization of the collected material are political parties, trade unions and other organization not qualified as pro-‐choice movements “per se” and will only be analyzed from the pro-‐choice movements platform and not by themselves (the websites of these organizations will not be found in the appendix 1, as I have not investigated them at all).
However, they are still in interest for the visualization of connection between them and the 71 relevant pro-‐choice movements. If the pro-‐choice movement have political allies and are able to maintain them it might be because they are indeed formal (Staggenborg, 1988).
The program Gephi have been used to make a visual graph of the coalition between pro-‐
choice movements. The great thing about using the SNA as approach is how the data is presented and how we can see different connections. On the contrary, it will not tell us how much work individual pro-‐choice movement have made or the structure and form of the movement. Therefore, in this research the SNA approach is supplemented with Quantitative Content Analysis as the analytical tool to tell us more about each individual pro-‐choice movement and to draw conclusions between coalition and formalization.
3.5 Analytical tool
In order to analyze the effect of formalization in the collected data made with the collective action organization approach (AOA), a Quantitative Content Analysis will be used as the analytical tool on the pro-‐choice movements own websites to categories them as formalized movements or not. Quantitative Content Analysis means that the material analyzed will be based on equal and comparable extraction of analysis units as their information can be
expressed in numbers. The method will also answer question about the presence of different categories in the material (Esaiasson et al, 2012). With this method I will be able to do a necessary coding of the presence of formalized features in the pro-‐choice movement.
The Quantitative Content Analysis is beneficial in order to analyze a large amount of data in a relatively short time by counting a list of criteria of each website, Facebook or Twitter (Esaiasson et al, 2012). The method will contain “mechanical counting”, but to be able to do this method on the collected data, a definition of the meaning of formalization must first be interpreted which is described in the operationalization section (Esaiasson et al, 2012). With the operationalization of formalization gathered from Staggenborg’s (1988) definition a coding of the material has been made by the pro-‐choice movements found with the AOA.
Furthermore, the data matrix will be made in an excel file with the information about the different pro-‐choice movements. The analytic tool for this research will contain the pro-‐choice movements as the units of analysis but also the variables that have the characteristics of formalization described by Staggenborg (1998) to clarify different values the pro-‐choice movements can take (Esaiasson et al, 2012).
3.5.1 Ten-degree scale of formalization
The excel file for the coding of the material will contain 12 variables and the coalition between SMOs. The analysis units to be analyzed are the 71 pro-‐choice movements. The formalization features a validation of a ten-‐degree scale based on the information gathered from the pro-‐
choice movements websites (or Facebook and Twitter) with use of the AOA approach. Three variables, organization name, website and establishment are important for the coding but less important for the measurement and operationalization of formalization and will be ruled out as a counted criterion for the ten degree-‐scale of formalization. Therefore, the scale will be measured with ten degrees, as eight out of nine criteria’s will be given one point to the scale and one of the nine criterions, paid staff, will be give two points as it is of more importance than the others. The 26 organization not accounted for as SMOs will also be withdrawn from the ten-‐degree scale as they are not analyzed by themselves, they will only appear in the SNA as they have connection and support the pro-‐choice movement but are not in the subject of interest for this research.
