Political opportunity, organizational infrastructure and organizational founding: trade unions in İstanbul and Ankara, 1947-1980

Official URL: http://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b1147600 (Table of Contents)

Previous ecological research pointed to the ways political influences and population dynamics may interact to shape organizational survival. This body of research, however, primarily concentrated on how political processes shape the population dynamics, especially competitive and (de)legitimating relations between organizational forms. Though some of the ways in which population level processes moderate political processes have been recognized, these ideas have remained untested. This study is an attempt to extend research on political influences and population dynamics by examining whether organizational infrastructure, construed as a density dependent subpopulation level process, moderates the impact of particular changes in the political environment, namely changes in the legal framework and political turmoil, on the rate of organizational founding. The analyses were carried out using event history methods and data on all unions that were founded in İstanbul and Ankara, two major centers of unionism in Turkey, during the 1947-1980 period. The local character of most unions founded in İstanbul and Ankara during the period and regulation that stipulated industry-based organization allowed for investigating the infrastructural process, and its interaction with political opportunity, by using ecological (density dependence) models. Findings revealed that union founding rate was significantly shaped by alterations in political opportunity generated by changes in the legal framework and political turmoil and strength of organizational infrastructure. Moreover, interaction between political opportunity and organizational infrastructure was found to be significant. Findings showed that organizational infrastructure moderated the influence of enhancement in political opportunity due to change in the legal framework.