The Relative Effectiveness of Legislative Campaigning in a School of Social Work

There are three interrelated strategies commonly used by social workers for coping with the conservative attack on social welfare institutions: client advocacy, electoral, and policy strategies. The paper evaluates the relative effectiveness of the policy strategy when 532 members of a school of social work were asked to write their legislators in support of progressive legislation. Five indicators of the relative effectiveness of this campaign were identified and assessed. The campaign is adjudged relatively effective from the standpoint of enlisting and motivating participants ready for service or action\u27 (action potential); in implementing a formal plan or organization--a connected series of operations to bring about a particular result (organization potential); in activizing a leadership cadre for current and future campaigns (leadership potential); and in disseminating information relevant to the campaign (information potential). The evidence on outcome effectiveness -- for producing a decided, decisive, and desired result -- was inconclusive. The advantages and disadvantages of the policy strategy are discussed