Citizen Advocacy 247 Independent Citizen Advocacy: The Past and The, Prospects John D. McCarthy, Ph.D. and Debra S. Harvey, MA ' Depariment of Sociology and Life Cycle Institute The Catholic University ofAmerica During the last decade, a widespread movement of citizen advocate groups has emerged whose members, many of whom are victims of drunk drivers, work to reduce the level and consequences of drunk driving. Their efforts are widely seen by a variety of observers as having had some success. For instance, Senator John Danforth in recent congressional hearings said of MADD, This organization has made the public realize that drunk driving is not a victimless crime. This change in public attitude has made it possible for those of us in Congress and in State legislatures to pass stronger drunk driving laws. (1988) Franklin Zimring (1988), a consistently skeptical social observer, discussing these local advocacy groups says, ",. the mobilization by the groups] of public opinion has been partially responsible for the increased prominence of drunk driving as a public policy issue" (p. 374), and goes on to say, "My guess is that citizen action groups are a more important explanation [than others] of the passage of legislation in the 1980s" (p. 380). Finally, Mark Wolfson (1988) concluded in his systematic evaluation of the effects of local advocacy that the efforts of these groups positively affected State legislative initiatives and "may have [had] some influence on fatalities" (p. 9). Any organized effort to encourage the continued growth and vitality of this inde- pendent citizens' movement must depend upon an adequate description and under- standing of its emergence, the community support and attention it receives, its typical structural forms, the personal lives of its activists, and the nature and extent of its organized activities. It must depend, too, upon an understanding of the typical difficulties that such movements encounter in maintaining continued high levels of citizen advocacy. The Development of the Local Movement * The citizens' movement against drunk driving consists of a number of different national and local organizations. At the national level are two umbrella groups, Mothers 1 The original research described in this chapter was supported, in part, by a grant from the National Science Foundation (SEs-8419767) and continuing support from the Life Cycle Institute at The Catholic University of America. We thank Mark Wolfson for his continuing contributions to this research. 2 Most of the evidence upon which this description is based was gathered during the 1985-86 period and refers to the experience within the United States. Any changes the movement has undergone since then are, therefore, not reflected in this account. 248 BACKGROUND PAPERS Against Drunk Driving (MADD), headquartered in Hurst, Texas, and Remove Intoxi- cated Drivers-USA (RID), headquartered in Schenectady, New York. Both groups have a large number of local chapters spread across many States. In addition to MADD and RID, there are a number of regional and local citizens' groups that are not affiiated with any national umbrella group, which we call "out.liers." After an exhaustive attempt to generate a census of local groups, we estimate that 458 local groups, including MADD chapters, RID chapters, and outliers, existed in 1985. The pattern of foundings of these groups and their present distribution across the United States is described below. Remove Intoxicated Drive; (RID). The citizens' movement against drunk driving began in 1978. During that year, three local groups formed in New York State. These groups were later to become affiiated with a national umbrella group, Remove Intoxi- cated Drivers (RID), started by Doris Aiken in Schenectady, New York in 1979. In 1979, four more groups started in New York that were to affiliate with RID. In 1980, two more RID chapters formed, both in New York State. In 1981,14 RID chapters formed, including four in New York. That was the first year in which RID chapters formed outside of New York State-in Oklahoma, Mas- sachusetts, Tennessee, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Colorado, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Texas. The growth of RID peaked in 1982, when 18 new groups formed (see figure 1). As of 1985, RID had 70 active chapters in 23 States, although the majority were in New York (22 chapters), Illinois (6 chapters), and Tennessee (5 chapters). Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). Candy Lightner and others formed a group called Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (later to become Mothers Against Drunk Driv- ing) in Sacramento, California, in 1980 after Candy's daughter was killed by a drunk driver. A second MADD chapter formed in California in 1980. In contrast to RID, MADD was quick to diversify geographically: the nine MADD chapters formed in 1981 were in California (2 chapters), Florida (2 chapters), Ohio (2 chapters), Pennsylvania, Texas, and Kentucky (1 chapter each). The growth of MADD accelerated at a breath- taking pace over the next few years (see figure 1). As of 1985, an estimated 377 MADD chapters existed, with at least one chapter in every State except Idaho and Montana. Chapters of MADD were most heavily concentrated in California (29 chapters), Plorida (25 chapters), and Texas (26 chapters). Orttliers. The pattern of founding of groups that are not affiliated with any national organization has been somewhat harder to estimate. Since they are not affiliated nation- ally, no comprehensive listing of these groups is maintained. Information could be collected directly from only 11 groups, although this is almost certainly an underestimate of their actual number. One outlier group, Concerned Citizens and Victims of Drunk Drivers, of Reno, Nevada, was one of the earliest groups, having formed in 1979. As of 1985, outliers included a number of regional coalitions, such as the Alliance Against Intoxicated Motorists (AAIM), which is concentrated in Illinois, and Rid Arizona of Intoxicated Drivers (RAID), which, as the name suggests, is limited to Arizona. In all, outliers were found in Arizona, California, Illinois, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oregon, Utah, and Virginia. Thus, the citizens' movement against drunk driving began with the formation of a few local groups, two of which developed first into primarily regional movements in New York State and California. However, by 1985 the movement had become truly national in scope, with an estimated 458 local groups and at least one in every State but Montana. 3 3 We have not included certain kinds of groups that devote extensive efforts to the issue of drunk driving in our analysis of advocacy groups. Such groups include locals of Students Against Driving Drunk (SADD) and bt Alcohol Consciousness Concerning the Health of University Students (BACCHUS), which are, respectively, high school and college student groups. CITIZEN ADVOCACY Figure 1: New Foundings and Cummulative Number of Groups by Year 249 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 / / / / / / / / I / / / / / mouPNPES MADD -- RD -m-m__ YEAR 1978 1979 19BO 1981 1982 1983 1984 I.985 Total wcx 2 9 88 104 93 81 377 l-u!2 3 4 2 14 1B l.2 10 7 70 Outlier 1 1 4 3 1 1 11 lbtal 3 5 4 24 110 119 104 89 458 Patterns of Local Group Founding The aggregate temporal pattern of local anti-drunk driving advocacy group founding through 1985 can be seen in figure 1. Only a few groups formed between 1978 and 1980, while a burst of foundings occurred in 1981. The peak year for new foundings was 1983, with the number of new groups founded dropping off through 1984 and 1985. While the rate of new group formation declined during these years, the total number of local groups continued to expand. The pattern of emergence of these local groups was uneven between 1978 and 1985. Many communities lacked a local advocacy group dedicated primarily to the issue of drinking and driving in 1985, while other communities saw a group form rather late in the period. Our analyses (McCarthy et al. 1988; McCarthy and Wolfson 1988) of this process indicated that neither a high rate of alcohol-related motor vehicle fatalities nor the prior existence of an Alcohol Safety Action Project, each of which might be expected to do so, predicted the formation of an advocacy group by 1985 in a local community. Community size was important because larger communities were more likely to see groups formed Bnd formed early than were smaller communities. We concluded that this founding pattern is similar to the diffusion of other kinds of innovations (see Hamblin et al. 1973). To the extent that common understandings concerning drinking and driving as a soluble problem and specific models for citizen advocacy are available, the more citizens in any community, the more likely a local group will emerge. Given that most groups are formed by a single highly motivated individual, family, or small cluster of friends, group foundings are quite unpredictable events. 250 BACKGROUND PAPERS Some observers have interpreted the decline in the rate of founding new local groups to mean that this movement has begun to lose its vitality and general community support. We interpret the pattern, however, to reflect the natural limit on new group formation. First, the majority of large American communities had a local group in 1985. Second, MADD has limited new group formation, to a single group in each county, with a few exceptions. Finally, many local groups see the commnnity they serve as broader than just the city or county where they reside. Our anafysis showed that, in 1985,55 percent of the American population lived in a county which had a local advocacy group; 67 percent lived in a county in which such a group recruited members; and 95 percent lived in a media market that included such a group (McCarthy et al. 1987). These figures strongly support our assessment that local groups had come close to saturating local communities across the United States by 1985. Patterns of Local Group Dissolution Many emergent local advocacy groups do not get off the ground, and others leave almost no trace after very short corporate lives. Our analyses were based upon groups which existed during 1985. As a result, we have no information on those groups that emerged earlier but failed to survive, although we estimate a 5- to 25-percent failure rate. Frank Weed (19%) found a failure rate of about 20 percent for local MADD chapters over the 25 months ending in June 1987. This rate is consistent with our upper limit estimate. Weed's analysis showed, similar to studies of other types of local groups (Freeman et al. 1983), that younger groups fail at much higher rates than older groups. He also found that groups with more independent local leadership and with wider and deeper local community support were more likely to survive than groups without these features. The population of local advocacy groups addressing drunk driving in any period, then, is the result of previous patterns of group founding and group dissolution. As a conse- quence, any effort to maintain a large number of active groups in this movement requires an understanding of the processes of both organizational formation and dissolution. Community Support and Public Attention Strong, consistent national governmental support is demonstrated in several ways, including the efforts of the Presidential Commission on Drunk Driving, wide congres- sional support for legislation such as encouraging States to raise the drinking age and to employ "administrative revocation," and Federal executive agency initiatives on drunken driving demonstrate consistent and strong nationa governmental support. Local group leaders report wide and deep community-level support for their efforts. The national and local media attention to the issue of drunk driving and the activities of citizen advocates has been extensive as well. National and Local Support Several notable aspects of national and local support exist. One is the flowofresonrces from Federal Agencies to local citizens' groups. Such resources can be expected to increase the local capacity to mobilize around the issue. These resources take several forms. 1. Literature designed to help organize a local citizens' group against drunk driving has been produced and widely disseminated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) (1982, 1983). One packet of materials con- sisted of well-organized and simply presented steps to be followed and goals to CITIZEN ADVOCACY 251 be pursued in beginning a local citizens' group. Analysis of information col- lected from local groups suggested that nearly 80 percent of them received some of the literature they used in their activities in 1985 from NHTSA (McCarthy et al. 1987). 2. Financial support has been provided to local groups attempting to organize around the drunk driving issue. During the early days of the movement, NHTSA provided funds to support the development of a few local citizens' organizations (Mann 1983). Since then, NHTSA has continued to provide some level of indirect support. This is evident, for example, in NHTSA's 1984 budget which requested the appropriation of funds for Citizen Support: generating community support for comprehensive programs, thus providing a political base for increased counter- measure activity. As shown recently in New York, Maryland, West Virginia, California, and elsewhere, an organized and informed body of individuals can bring about major change in State laws and alcohol programs. (NHTSA 1984) This description of the activities of NHTSA makes clear its practice of en- couraging the growth of citizens' groups focusing on the drunk driving issue. 3. Extensive efforts were made by a number of Federal Agencies, especially the National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse (NIAAA) (Vejnoska 1982), to create networks of citizens concerned about drunk driving and to encourage them to organize. In addition, NHTSA, in concert with the National Safety Council and others, has continued to help organize the annual "Lifesavers" conferences that bring together local activists; Federal, State, and local officials; industry representatives; and researchers. 4. Early organizers of the anti-drunk driving movement were employed by NHTSA to generate local activity and additional technical support (Golden 1983). 5. The ongoing regional workshops for local advocacy groups sponsored by NHTSA continue one important form of national support for the movement. The national public opinion evidence also shows widespread support for the general goals of these advocates. In 1977,84 percent of the American population agreed with the statement. "There should be stricter laws on drinking and driving;" and in 1982,92 percent of the population agreed with that statement (Public Opinion 1983). In June of 1984, almost 80 percent of the American population favored a national law raising the legal drinking age to 21 years, and even larger majorities of people over the age of 30 supported such legislation. In 1984,30 percent of the public favored laws fining drivers and front seat passengers $50 for not wearing seat belts (Gallup Poll 1984). Even broader support was shown for such laws among younger citizens. A national telephone survey of adults carried out for MADD by a research and consulting firm (Epilon 1985) provided additional evidence of the wide public support for this movement. Large majorities of the respondents believed that MADD: - should be involved in victim assistance programs (81 percent), - should be involved in promotingprevattive legislation (77 percent), - should be involved in promotingpwtirive legislation (83 percent), - should be involved in reviewing court decisions (67 percent), - should be involved in educating youth (92 percent), and - should be involved in educating the public at large (90 percent). Finally, leaders of the local group reported widespread contact and support from local community organizations. Groups working on drinking and driving issues came into contact with a wide variety of individuals and groups, but primarily with the local police, 252 BACKGROUND PAPERS the central offices of MADD and RID, high schools, judges, andstate police. Numerous contacts were also reported with churches, legislators, civic groups, and NHTSA. More than 85 percent of the leaders reported that, overall, their communities supported their activities and goals. Over half the groups reported that the State and local police, NHTSA, the national central offices, and other MADD groups were very supportive. Churches and high schools were seen as very supportive for about half of the groups. When asked to choose the community organization that had been the most suppotive of their work, leaders overwhelmingly chose the local police and the State police. After police, the most supportive groups were the central of&es of MADD or RID. Both offices have worked closely with their local groups, providing support and advice. Local prosecutors were also seen as the most supportive by a large number of groups. Only a few local groups have opposed the work of the anti-drunk driving advocates, and even these groups (e.g., bar and restaurant owners, alcoholic beverage distributors and retailers, and the trial lawyers bar) were mentioned as being antagonistic by only a small minority of local leaders. Moreover, opposition to the movement tends to be issue specific. For example, representatives of the beer industry actively opposed the efforts of these groups in some States to pass 21-year-old drinking age legislation (Wolfson 1988). Nevertheless, this opposition does not extend to the overall goal of the move- ment - the reduction of drunk driving- nor to many of its specific objectives that do not threaten the economic interests of the industry. In fact, segments of the beer industry have at times provided resources, in the form of literature and financial support, to some of the local groups, and have recently supported national legislation aimed in part at facilitating administrative revocation of drivers' licenses (Rumbaugh 1988). National and Local Media Attention Access to the mass media, in particular to print and broadcast news, is an import resource for any advocacy movement. The mass media represent a potential mechanism for "communicating with movement followers, reaching out to potential recruits, neutralizing would-be opponents, and confusing or otherwise immobilizing committed opponents" (Molotoch 1979, p.71). Knowing this, advocates invest extensive effort in attempting to gain positive coverage of their issue and their advocacy. We have been systematically monitoring national and local print media coverage of the drinking and driving issue. We obtained counts of the number of national newspaper stories devoted to the issue from the National Newspaper Index, 1979-1987, which indexes stories in Tire Christian Science Monitor, l7ze Los Angeles Times, T&e New York lTmes, TIte WaN Street Journal, and The Washington Post. We obtained counts of periodical stories on drunk driving from Magazine Indexes, 1979-1987. This data base consists of an index of 370 popular periodicals. Our local newspaper counts of drunk driving stories were obtained from Newsbank, a service that indexes more than 500 daily newspapers, including at least one in every State of the United States. Figure 2 shows the trends in coverage of the drunk driving issue derived from these three sources between 1979 and 1987. The peak year of coverage for each type of print medium was 1983. Coverage of the issue declined quite consistently after 1983. It is unknown whether this trend was also reflected in local and national broadcast media. Nevertheless, the decline in coverage can be seen as handicapping efforts by advocates to generate continuing community awareness of the issue of drunk driving. Whether the trend reflects declining vitality among advocate groups or is responsible for increasing alcohol-related fatalities, as some (Stevens 1987, Dukakis 1988) have suggested, cannot be easily determined. We asked local leaders to give us their evaluations of the extent of media coverage of the drunk driving issue in their communities. We also looked at the local newspaper coverage in 96 communities. Both perceptions of the level of local coverage and actual CITIZEN ADVOCACY Figure 2: Print Media Coverage of Drunk Driving 200 lm --- /----- c_------------____ ------- - -e-- 02 1979 1980 1981 lQ62 1903 1964 l905 1906 1907 253 wa.L- -- NATIoN*L- s----- YEAR 1579 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 laxal Nevspa;le= 63 94 223 395 423 411 331 224 163 Natimal -papers 17 3 17 El. 169 162 76 68 58 Fericdids 3 1 13 35 50 42 36 26 29 print coverage were strongly related to how active the local group was in attempting to get such coverage. We also found that the more general community support the leaders saw, the more support they saw from the media. Activities related to getting media attention were fundraisers, speeches, and an active membership (as opposed to groups primarily dependent upon leaders). Likewise, when the news was perceived favorably, the leaders reported high levels of recruiting from media sources. Local Groups, Activists, and Activities Information gathered from local advocacy groups across the country allowed us to describe their typical dimensions and the characteristics of their leaders. While a few of the groups were very large and resource rich, the typical group was small, with an average of 35 members and a mailing list of 100 names. About six people beyond the leaders did volunteer work for the typical group during an average month. Seventy percent of the groups had annual revenues of $2,500 or less in 1985, with the median revenue being $1,229. Most of these local groups relied primarily on leaders, volunteers, and donations of money and other resources (e.g., telephones, postage, and supplies) to carry on their 254 BACKGROUND PAPERS work. Though they were widely supported by their communities (Ungerleider et al. 1986), they depended primarily upon their members for labor and financial support (Weed 1989). G iven that we have counted more than 450 groups, this adds up to about 2,250 leaders, 2,700 regular volunteers, 15,750group members and45,OOO people on local mailing lists in 1985. The profile of the typical activist in this movement was quite similar to activists in other advocacy movements (Verba and Nie 1972; Eitzen 1970). Because of the size of the groups, the officers typically did much of the work. Not surprisingly, the typical chapter officer was a woman. She either did not work outside of the home or worked part-time. Often she was married with school-age children at home. Though all officers tended to be highly involved (Weed 1987), the chapter president tended to be the most active (McCarthy, et al. 1987). She was, typically, about 43 years old and had had some college education. Weed (1987), in his survey of the MADD chapters, wrote "Presidents were less apt to be in the labor force that other officers, and when they were employed they tended to hold slightly higher status jobs" (p. 265). Victims were heavily represented in all leadership positions in local groups, but the presidents were the most likely to report being victims (McCarthy et al. 1987). About one-fourth of the typical local group members were victims. The majority of presidents were also at least partly responsible for starting the organization. This was consistent with other studies (Weed 1987; Ungerleider et al. 1986) on the leaders of MADD chapters. Further, many leaders were already involved in other volunteer groups. This led Weed to conclude that "MADD tends to be run by activists who have been victimized rather than victims who have become activists" (1988b, p. 19). The most important program emphases at the local level were public awareness, youth education, and attitude change on the issue of drunk driving (McCarthy et al. 1987). Victim support and changing laws were emphasized less, as was recruiting new members. When asked to rate the program area in which they were most successful, the leaders overwhelmingly chose public awareness and changing public attitudes. About a quarter of the groups indicated that they had been very active in attempting to change laws during 1985. The groups used activities such as candlelight vigils, public booths, project gradua- tion,4safe rides, and poster contests extensively. Leaders spoke widely and gained substantial access to the broadcast media. The Structure of the National Movement National advocacy movements exhibit wide variations in form. Some, for instance, have very large and strong national advocacy operations but very little organized, local, grassroots strength, while others have the obverse. In some movements, local groups are under the very close control and supervision of a national organization, while in others, these ties are very weak. Figure 3 represents the national structure of the citizens' movement against drunk driving in 1985. Both RID and MADD national offices provided support services of many kinds to their local groups, although MADD had substantially more resources for doing so. Both groups had organized intermediate levels of coordination at the State level. The formal tie between MADD national and local groups was, at least in theory, tighter than that between RID groups because of the Internal Revenue Service status of MADD. Each local group was a subgroup of a single national 5Ol(c)3 organization. This status meant that the national organization bear some level of financial responsibility for local groups. Frank Weed reported that "The opera- 4 Project graduation is a variety of activities that may include offering high school students free rides to and from graduation parties or arranged overnight lodging to sponsoring alternative alcohol-free parties. CITIZEN ADVOCACY 255 Gcoqraphicsl Level of Ornanitat ior2 National Figure 3: The Structure of the National Citizens' Advocacy Movement Against Drunken Driving state Local Cl-OUPS Emup Structure tions of the local chapters are virtually autonomous and the central office of MADD has some difficulty getting reports from all its chapters in a clear and timely manner" (1987, p.7). Local RID chapters, on the other hand, were not linked to RID national in this way, and each group made its own decision about its I.R.S. status. In fact, in 1985, the majority of local RID groups, as well as the outliers we contacted, had already received or had applied for formal nonprofit status. Regardless of the formal nature of the tie between locals and nationals, however, local leaders reported extensive contacts and high levels of support from their national group as well as from State coordinators where they existed. Likewise, lateral contacts and support were common at the grassroots level; that is, local leaders reported high levels of contact and support from other local groups working on the drinking and driving issue in their areas regardless of the national affiliation of the other group. The majority of local leaders reported some contact with local SADD groups, and about a third reported extensive contact (McCarthy et al. 1987). The major strength of the anti-drunk driving advocacy movement lies in its extensive local groups. Weed's analysis of the failure of local MADD chapters between 1985 and 1987 demonstrated that local groups are more likely to survive when they are more independent of the central office on operating policies but cooperative in carrying out common activities (198&).This suggests that the typical fierce independence of the local groups throughout this movement is also one of its major strengths. Lessons from Independent Citizen Advocacy Movements Observations across many citizen advocacy movements make obvious the difficulties in predicting their emergence and their ebbs and flows. Many thousands of fatalities in 256 BACKGROUND PAPERS alcohol-related automobile crashes occurred, for instance, before the first citizen a.d- vocacy group emerged to address this problem. It took the development of a widespread belief that the number of these incidents could be reduced by collective efforts before local groups began to form (Gusfield 1975, 1981). The continuing formation of new groups, the continuity of older groups, and the perseverance of the individual activist leaders and volunteers who staff them depend-upon a variety of factors beyond the objective extent of the drinking and driving problem itself. These factors are central to an understanding of how advocacy movements grow and decline. A number of them are particuldy important for assessing the future prospects for growth, stability, or decline of the citizens' advocacy movement against drunk driving. ~crivisr lives. Few activists understand the potentially massive Ievel of commitment of time and energy they are making when they begin their advocacy careers. We know (McCarthy and Zald 1977; McAdam 1987) that one's ability to devote such large amounts of time to advocacy are, for most people, constrained by other obligations such as jobs and parenting. Movements that depend on leaders who have little availabIe time to devote to activism are handicapped. The drunk driving movement benefits from its heavy reliance upon women leaders who do not work outside the home. Our research showed that local leaders who were employed full-time devoted substantially less time to the activities of their local group than those who were not. Having children in the home did not seem to hinder activism in this movement, however, since many of the local groups were physically based in the home of the president and integrated family members into the activities of the group (Harvey and Wolfson 1987). nle temporal and spatial dimensions of victimhood. Most advocacy movements form around a commonly timed victim experience. The citizens' movement that formed in response to the Three Mile Island nuclear "accident," for instance, depended upon many citizens responding in unison to a common event (Walsh and Warland 1983). Such movements experience common cycles of increasing and then declining enthusiasm among victim activists. The anti-drunk driving movement, on the other hand, given the discrete and disconnected nature of the victim experience, can expect to see a constant replenishment of the pool of new victims who might become activists. This is so because alcohol-related fatalities continue at high rates in most communities. To the extent that new pools of victims and other concerned citizens can be integrated into the activities of ongoing local advocacy groups, this movement should transcend the pattern of decline that results from the typical common timing of victimization. Bureaucratization and goal displacement. A typical pattern of transformation charac- terizcs the history of many citizen advocacy groups. As such organizations acquire more and more resources, leaders, who have a financial and personal stake in their operations, begin to lose track of their original goals (Perrow 1979). This pattern is especially likely to result from wide success. At the local level, the citizens' movement against drunk driving seems likely to avoid these consequences since most groups depend almost exclusively upon volunteer labor and are resource poor. Our evidence in 1985, however, showed that the vast majority (72 percent) of the presidents of the local groups were original group founders (McCarthy et al. 1987). Since most of the groups were thenvery recently founded, this may not represent a problem of too long-entrenched leadership. Cenfralization and decentralization. A lively debate continues among observers of citizens movements about the relative advantages and disadvantages of decentralized and centralized organizational structure (Gamson 1975; Piven and &ward 1977). Centralization allows more national coordination and the concentration oflocal energies toward common goals. However, it has the disadvantages of bureaucratization described above. But decentralization-that is, a movement composed of quite autonomous local groups -has certain advantages, too (Gerlach and Hine 1970). Most important is the likelihood of more creative innovation in goals and tactics. If a centralized organization undertakes an innovative campaign that is poorly conceived, an entire movement can suffer the consequences. This is part of the reason why large, national advocacy groups CITIZEN ADVOCACY 257 become cautious. However, if an autonomous local organization does SO, the costs of its failure are minimal. If such innovation is successful in one locale, it can be tried in others. This way, new successful forms and goals of advocacy spread rapidly across local groups. Another advantage of decentralization is that an entire movement is less responsible, in the eyes of the public and potential supportive groups, for "rogue" locals, that is, focal groups that deviate widely from the common goals and tactics pf the larger movement. The movement against drunk driving is highly decentralized in comparison with many other advocacy movements. This feature of its structure seems to have been responsible, in part, for the constant development of new programs and approaches in local com- munities. To the extent that solutions to the problem of drinking and driving can be achieved at the local and State levels, its decentralized form can be seen as an advantage. To the extent that solutions to its problems lie at the nationaI Ievel, this feature of its national structure may represent a disadvantage. Support by tzomictims. Many advocacy groups are made up, primarily, of individuals who are not the direct victims of the problem for which the groups seek solutions. At the grassroots level, the drunk driving movement is, as we have seen, heavily peopled by victims. To the extent that their commitment to continued efforts for solutions to the problems of drinking and driving are greater than nonvictims, this movement will benefit from such heavy levels of victim involvement. Likewise, the range and level of support by elite groups is crucial to the success of advocacy movements. This movement has benefited greatly from the strong support of such outside groups as we have shown, and, probably, would have been far less vital without that extensive support. NHTSA has continued to be supportive in many ways. The annual "Lifesavers" conference, supported by a number of outside groups, has been important in networking local leaders with one another as well as with researchers, police representatives, and industry supporters, especially insurance companies, which have a special stake in the issue of drinking and driving. To the extent that the past levels of such support continue, this factor suggests that the movement will not decline in vitality. Media cycles alld adwcacy morpemertt cycles. Many factors contribute to under- standing the extent of media coverage of any issue at a particular time. These include, importantly, major events that focus attention on the issue, concerted campaigns to focus attention on the issue by advocates, and processes internal to the production of the media outcomes themselves. Consequently, media attention to any social issue does not neces- sarily reflect its objective importance or the strength and efforts of the advocates concerned about the issue (Graber 1984). The rapid decline in print media attention to drinking and driving during the last several years, therefore, does not necessarily reflect a decline in public concern about the issue or a declining effort by local groups to continue to generate public awareness around the issue. Cycles of media attention lie the one we see here are typical and have drawn the attention of many observers. Anthony Downs (1972) argued that social problems will suddenly become prominent, grasp the public attention for a short time, and then gradually lose public attention. This cycle, he explained, is embedded in the nature of both problems and media. Problems, once understood, are difficult to solve. And, since the public consumes news partially as entertainment, a problem must be exciting, and continue to be exciting, to maintain the public's interest. Our research, which linked the extent of local leaders' activities in 1985 to the extent of local print media coverage in their communities in 1985, demonstrated that the more effort local leaders invested in attempting to gain such coverage of the issue, the more coverage they actually got. Yet, to the extent that the declining media attention to the issue of drunk driving is the result of general processes of media coverage rather than the level of effort and skill of advocates to bring the issue to public attention, it will be more difficult to reverse the cycle we have observed. 258 Consensus and conflict. Most advocacy movements meet substantial public and organized opposition. The anti-drunk driving movement is unusual in that it has achieved wide and deep support for its goals. But advocacy movements can rapidly gain or lose public support depending upon how they frame the issues and propose their solutions. For instance, Lo (1984) explained how the previously unpopular advocates for property tax reform in California altered their goals'and, as a result, became the successful "tax revolt" movement. The anti-drunk driving movement could easily frame its goaIs in ways that wouId substantially narrow the breadth of its community support. If it is seen as a "prohibitionist" movement, declining support could be expected. The Epsilon Survey (1985) presented evidence showing that citizens who perceived the movement as "anti- alcohol" were far less likely to support its instrumental goals than those who viewed it otherwise. Most organized elements of the movement have insisted on defining the issue of drunk driving to preclude public perceptions of "anti-alcoholism." To the extent that this framing of the problem continues to dominate the goals and rhetoric of the movement, it will probably continue to garner the wide and deep community support it has seen in the past. Encouraging Advocacy Movements Individuals and organized groups can facilitate or, alternatively, attempt to inhibit, the efforts of advocacy groups (Marx 1979; Wolfson 1989). Members of the general public, governmental actors, and representatives of all types of private groups at the national, State, and local level have many avenues for encouraging or discouraging the efforts of advocacy movements. The effectiveness of such efforts depend, in an important part, upon the characteristics of the movement in question, such as its organizational form, its level and location of community support, its leaders, and its typical tactical approaches. The three main types of facilitating efforts aim at (1) increasing the level of general community support, (2) indirectly improving the opportunities for organized advocacy efforts, and (3) making direct support available to organized advocacy groups. Each type of facilitation has been common in the movement against drunk driving. Examples of specific forms for each type follow. 0 Creating general community support for - Advocacy and advocacy groups - Concern for the general issue - Specific goals of advocacy (e.g., "administrative revocation") - Specific advocacy actions (e.g., a Surgeon General's Conference) o Indirectly improving advocacy effectiveness - Make general models for advocacy available - Facilitate communication among advocates - Set broad legislative and regulatory agendas - Provide new opportunities for advocacy (e.g., task forces) o Direct support of advocacy - Provide useful materials (e.g., literature) - Provide expertise - Provide training (e.g., use of volunteers) - Provide direct support (e.g., money or space) CITIZEN ADVOCACY 259 These examples of specific forms of facilitation of advocacy do not exhaust the possibilities. Conclusions about the most effective relative mix of the three types of facilitation and their most effective specific forms for the citizens' movement against drunk driving demand serious deliberation. REFERENCES Danforth, J.C. "Hearing on S. 2.549, The Drunk Driving Prevention Act of 1988." Statement presented at the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, Con- sumer Subcommittee, August 2,1988. Downs, A. Up and down with ecology - The `Issue-Attention Cycle'. Public Interest 2838-50, 1972. Dukakis, M.S. No holds barred (Letter to the Editor). Boston Magaike lO:February, 1988. Eitzen, D.S. A study of voluntary association members among middle