The American Civil Liberties Union is circulating a petition to Congress that demands a return to liberty-centered government:
To My Members of Congress:
It’s the beginning of a new year, the beginning of a new Congress and time for us to look ahead at where we want our country to be a year from now.
In the coming year, I will ask you to take a number of steps to enhance freedom and fairness for everyone in America. This year, my New Year’s resolutions include working with you to help:
1. Restore habeas corpus and due process
2. End torture in secret prisons
3. Stop warrantless eavesdropping on innocent Americans
4. Fix the Patriot Act and bring it in line with the Constitution
I am in complete agreement with the text of the petition, and I’ve gone ahead and signed it. But having signed the petition, I wonder what effect it may have. Are these petitions helpful? ThePetitionSite.com has a response to this question:
Yes — often, but the answer really depends on a number of factors. In general, the more a target organization is impacted by public opinion, the more effective are the petitions. In addition, ThePetitionSite enhances the credibility of online petitions by centralizing signature collection, structuring/regulating signature data collection and output, facilitating communication of petitions via fax, email, etc. and by using fraud-reduction technology. Remember — the effect of a petition usually goes far beyond the actual list of signatures. Journalists write stories about the petitions, signers get inspired to take additional actions, and other “potential targets” conform their behavior to avoid being a target.
That’s written in publicrelationese; let’s translate it:
1. The more the target of a petition knows of the petition, the more the target is affected by the petition.
2. Petitions are effective when journalists write about them, publishing news stories that are effective.
3. Petitions are effective if signers are encouraged by signing a petition to do something else that is effective.
4. Petitions are effective if “potential targets” are frightened at the prospect of being a subject of a petition.
Numbers 1 and 4 are about social construction of reality: if people and organizations in power think petitions are scary and effective, they will be scarily effective. But the converse of that is that if those in power think petitions are silly, they’ll just laugh petitions off. Numbers 2 and 3 are claims that signing a petition isn’t itself effective, but instead promotes some other effective action, either by the petition signer or by some third party. This is a plausible assertion — does anyone have an example of any such chain of events actually occuring? One was the original MoveOn petition for censure and against impeachment of Bill Clinton, which was widely covered in the press. Any others?
There is a number 5 and a number 6 which The Petition Site does not identify in its FAQ.
5. Unless a petition signatory unchecks a box when signing, she or he will be added to the ACLU mailing list, enabling the ACLU to send out fundraising messages.
6. Unless a petition signatory unchecks a box when signing, she or he will be added to the Care2.com mailing list, enabling all sorts of messages to be sent to the signatory.
These may indirectly lead to the furthering of a cause, if the ACLU or Care2.com engage in other actions that promote a cause. These steps certainly lead to the furthering of these two organizations.
I come out of this still feeling uncertain about petitions. Do you sign petitions? Do you feel they’re effective? Do you have examples of the effectiveness of petitions?
An update on this: I see an example on ThePetitionSite of a petition effort working — this one regarding the protection of Beluga whales. In line with ThePetitionSite’s FAQ, this effort succeeded because it did not stand alone but was offered in conjunction with the work of an associated organization — in this case, Defenders of Wildlife.