Politics at Work

by Alexander Hertel-Fernandez (Author)

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.

Review
"Hertel-Fernandez 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 legal for 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

"…it is also a remarkably important trove of new information for specialists and anyone else interested in the forces at work in modern politics." –Kirkus

"How does corporate America shape U.S. elections and governance? If you answered campaign spending and lobbying, you're missing a huge part of the picture: the widespread-and worrisome-efforts of employers to mobilize their own workers on behalf of business interests. In Politics at Work, Alex Hertel-Fernandez shines new light on this hitherto hidden world of corporate power. By doing so, he fundamentally recasts our understanding of business's role in American politics." –Jacob S. Hacker, Stanley B. Resor Professor of Political Science, Director, Institution for Social and Policy Studies, and co-author of Winner-Take-All Politics

"Alexander Hertel-Fernandez's findings will be eye-opening to anyone who assumes that employer attempts to mobilize workers are confined to civic-minded get-out-the-vote drives. Hertel-Fernandez demonstrates the potentially coercive tactics used by management to send political messages to employees and to urge them to take political action on behalf of specified political objectives and explores the implications of these processes for American democracy. In so doing, he adds another piece to our understanding of the strengthened links between economic and political power in an era of increasing economic inequality." –Kay Lehman Schlozman, J. Joseph Moakley Professor of Political Science, Boston College

"A terrific study of an overlooked but alarming topic. With compelling new evidence, Hertel-Fernandez shows how American employers use their influence to sway their workers' political beliefs and voting behavior. A must-read for anyone concerned about corporations' influence over American politics-and over Americans' lives." –Martin Gilens, author of Affluence & Influence and co-author of Democracy in America? What Has Gone Wrong and What We Can Do About It

About the Author
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.