Byproduct Theory and Student Activism

For the past two years, I have served as the Treasurer of the University Democrats. This involvement has been one of the most meaningful of my college experience, as I take great pride in fulfilling the organization's primary mission of "inform[ing] students and the community about the values of the Democratic Party." Upon reading Olson's piece on interest groups, however, I have started to question whether we are truly being honest about our stated goal.

Similar to the interest groups mentioned in Olson's book, UDems hopes to mobilize its members, who share a common interest in electing Democrats. Unfortunately, we are also subject to the free-rider problem, as the benefits that come from our canvassing, phone-banking, and voter registration efforts are non-rival and non-excludable to the many students on Grounds who support progressive candidates. In fact, these students could be considered part of a "latent" group, since there are thousands of them, yet very few have a large enough personal incentive to fund lots of political activity on their own. Thus, there is potential for us to be taken advantage of by smaller advocacy organizations at UVA that are better able to police free-riding and raise money.

With this in mind, I have now come to realize that UDems' primary activity is not political activism but providing separate and selective incentives (like shirts and access to social events) to dues-paying members. Political activism is simply just a byproduct that we are able to fund using dues raised from the provision of these incentives.

Though this realization is a little unsettling, I am at least reassured that we are able to use our size as an organization to (hopefully) make a meaningful difference in local and state politics, rather than letting it become a detriment to our effectiveness. Still, one thing that has interested me throughout my run as Treasurer is the number of people who pay dues yet never pick up their shirt or go to UDems parties. Perhaps these individuals do not pay to receive selective incentives but are happy to donate to political groups because of altruistic or warm glow feelings.