DOI: 10.3886/icpsr09802.v1
title: Social Organization of the United States National Labor Policy Domain, 1981-1987
title: Version 1

description: The purpose of this data collection is to provide 
 information about the process by which various organizations become 
 involved in debates about national labor policy. A policy domain is a 
 set of organizations, both governmental and in the private sector, 
 operating at the federal level and seeking to influence the decisions 
 of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government in 
 some substantive arena--in this case, the regulation of labor 
 practices. The central issue of the research is how the social 
 structure of relationships among organizations in the national labor 
 policy domain affect the processes by which policy proposals are 
 generated, placed on the national political agenda, and subsequently 
 enacted or blocked. To address this issue, the most active 
 organizations in the United States labor policy domain were identified 
 and contacted for interviews. A knowledgeable representative from each 
 organization, typically a director of governmental affairs, was asked a 
 battery of questions about his or her organization's involvement in 
 shaping national policies. The general scope of these questions was (1) 
 What particular issues in the labor field are of interest to the 
 organization? (2) In what specific policy events between 1981 and 1987 
 did the organization participate, and what was the nature of that 
 involvement? (3) What general patterns of interaction does the 
 organization have with other participants in the national labor policy 
 domain? Variables in the collection include collective bargaining 
 regulations, participation of labor in management and control of 
 enterprises, employee stock ownership plans, and internal organization 
 and governance of labor unions and employer associations. Other items 
 cover working conditions (safety and physical conditions), employment 
 conditions (hiring, promotion, firing, layoff, retirement, time, and 
 wages), social policies (pensions, insurance, maternity leave, and job 
 rights), disadvantaged populations in the labor market (women, 
 minorities, the handicapped, youth, the elderly, veterans, welfare, 
 vocational education and retraining), discrimination in employment, and 
 labor market policies (job creation, immigration, underground economy, 
and plant closings).
description: Four complementary strategies were used to compile the list 
 of labor policy domain organizations whose agents were to be 
 interviewed. In descending order of importance, these methods were: 
 organizations that testified before the Senate and House of 
 Representatives labor committees and subcommittees, organizations 
 mentioned in The New York Times labor articles, registration as a 
congressional lobbyist, and Supreme Court amicus curiae briefs filed.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: Raw Data File: Basic Survey
DS2: Network Data: General Influence, Reputation
DS3: Network Data: Subdomain Influence, Reputation
DS4: Network Data C: Communication
DS5: Network Data D: Communication Exchange
DS6: Network Data: Favor Exchanges
DS7: Network Data: Support Exchanges
DS8: Event Items From Survey
DS9: Technical Manual for Social Organization of Labor Domains Project
description: Governmental and private sector organizations operating at 
the federal level.