Abstract:
Advocacy organisations can contrihute to democracy in two ways. Through
their internal processes they can train their members in democratic decision
making and educate them about relevant political issues. They can also
have an external effect, by representing various interests and influencing
politics and policy-making. Little has been written ahout the relationship
between these external and internal democratic effects: that is, on how
policies advocated are shaped by members or constituents of advocacy
organisations. However; this is an important dynamic, as the different
ways a leadership engages its membership or supporters can give weight
to advocacy in terms of its legitimacy as the voice of those its claims to
represent, and can impact on the degree to which members are inculcated
with democratic skills and values. To examine the nexus of internal and
external effects through governance the paper presents an analysis of twelve
Australian advocacy organisations highlighting the diverse ways that groups
identify and articulate the perspectives of their constituency. It concludes
that while some advocacy organisations fail to meet criteria of internal
democracy the diversity of governance arrangements, taken as a whole,
has other positive effects for the political system and society.
