Editing Advocacy

{{short description|Public activism}}
{{About|promotion of a cause or point of view|legal representation|Advocate}}
{{for|Wikipedia's guidelines on advocacy|Wikipedia:Advocacy|selfref=y}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2016}}
{{More citations needed|date=April 2021}}

'''Advocacy''' is an [[Action (philosophy)|activity]] by an [[individual]] or [[advocacy group|group]] that aims to influence [[decision making|decisions]] within political, economic, and social institutions. Advocacy includes activities and publications to influence public policy, laws and budgets by using facts, their relationships, the media, and messaging to educate government officials and the public. Advocacy can include many activities that a person or organization undertakes, including [[media campaign]]s, [[public speaking]], commissioning and publishing research. [[Lobbying]] (often by [[lobby groups]]) is a form of advocacy where a direct approach is made to [[legislator]]s on a specific issue or specific piece of legislation.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.npaction.org/article/articleview/76/1/248 |title=Lobbying Versus Advocacy: Legal Definitions |publisher=NP Action |access-date=2010-03-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100402225054/http://www.npaction.org/article/articleview/76/1/248 |archive-date=2 April 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Research{{Whose|date=April 2019}} has started to address how advocacy groups in the United States<ref name = obarusa/> and Canada<ref name="Obar">{{cite journal|last=Obar |first=Jonathan|title=Canadian Advocacy 2.0: A Study of Social Media Use by Social Movement Groups and Activists in Canada|ssrn=2254742|date=4 December 2014|journal = Canadian Journal of Communication|doi=10.22230/cjc.2014v39n2a2678|doi-access=free}}</ref> are using social media to facilitate civic engagement and collective action.

== Forms ==

There are several forms of advocacy, each representing a different approach in a way to initiate changes in the society. One of the most popular forms is [[social justice]] advocacy.<ref name=cdlvw>{{cite book|last1=Cohen|first1=D.|last2=de la Vega|first2=R.|last3=Watson|first3=G.|title=Advocacy for social justice|year=2001|publisher=[[Kumarian Press]]|location=Bloomfield, CT}}</ref> Cohen, de la Vega, and Watson (2001) state that this definition does not encompass the notions of power relations, people's participation, and a vision of a just society as promoted by social justice advocates. For them, advocacy represents the series of actions taken and issues highlighted to change the "what is" into a "what should be", considering that this "what should be" is a more decent and a more just society <ref name=cdlvw /> Those actions, which vary with the political, economic and social environment in which they are conducted, have several points in common.<ref name=cdlvw /> For instance, they:

* Question the way policy is administered
* Participate in the agenda-setting as they raise significant issues
* Target political systems "because those systems are not responding to people's needs"
* Are inclusive and engaging
* Propose policy solutions
* Open up space for public argumentation

Other forms of advocacy include:

* Budget advocacy: another aspect of advocacy that ensures proactive engagement of Civil Society Organizations with the government budget to make the government more accountable to the people and promote transparency. Budget advocacy also enables citizens and social action groups to compel the government to be more alert to the needs and aspirations of people in general and the deprived sections of the community.
* Bureaucratic advocacy: people considered "experts" have more chance to succeed at presenting their issues to decision-makers. They use bureaucratic advocacy to influence the agenda, although at a slower pace.
* [[Issue advocacy ads|Express versus issue advocacy]]: These two types of advocacy when grouped together usually refers to a debate in the United States whether a group is expressly making their desire known that voters should cast ballots in a particular way, or whether a group has a long-term issue that isn't campaign and election season specific.
* Health, environment and climate change negotiations advocacy: supports and promotes patients' health care rights as well as enhance community health and policy initiatives that focus on the availability, safety and quality of care.
* Ideological advocacy: in this approach, groups fight, sometimes during protests, to advance their ideas in the decision-making circles. 
* Interest-group advocacy: lobbying is the main tool used by interest groups doing mass advocacy. It is a form of action that does not always succeed at influencing political decision-makers as it requires resources and organization to be effective.
* Legislative advocacy: the "reliance on the state or federal legislative process" as part of a strategy to create change.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Loue|first1=S.|last2=Lloyd|first2=L.S.|last3=O'Shea|first3=D.J.|title=Community health advocacy|journal=Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health|year=2003|volume=60|issue=6|publisher=Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers|location=New York|page={{page needed|date=March 2012}}|doi=10.1136/jech.2004.023044|pmid=16698972|pmc=2563937}}</ref>
* Mass advocacy: any type of action taken by large groups (petitions, demonstrations, etc.)
* Media advocacy: "the strategic use of the mass media as a resource to advance a social or public policy initiative" (Jernigan and Wright, 1996). In Canada, for example, the Manitoba Public Insurance campaigns illustrate how media advocacy was used to fight alcohol and tobacco-related health issues.  We can also consider the role of health advocacy and the media in "the enactment of municipal smoking bylaws in Canada between 1970 and 1995."{{Hair space}}<ref>{{cite journal|last=Asbridge|first=M.|title=Public place restrictions on smoking in Canada: assessing the role of the state, media, science and public health advocacy|journal=Social Science & Medicine|year=2004|volume=58|issue=1|pages=13–24|pmid=14572918|doi=10.1016/s0277-9536(03)00154-0}}</ref>
* Special education advocacy: advocacy with a "specific focus on the educational rights of students with disabilities." 
Different contexts in which advocacy is used:
* In a legal/law context: An "[[advocate]]" is the title of a specific person who is authorized/appointed in some way to speak on behalf of a person in a legal process. 
* In a political context: An "[[advocacy group]]" is an organized collection of people who seek to influence political decisions and policy, without seeking election to public office. 
* In a social care context: Both terms (and more specific ones such as "independent advocacy") are used in the UK in the context of a network of interconnected organisations and projects which seek to benefit people who are in difficulty (primarily in the context of disability and mental health).
* In the context of inclusion: [[Citizen Advocacy organisations]] (or programmes) seek to cause benefit by reconnecting people who have become isolated. Their practice was defined in two key documents: CAPE, and Learning from Citizen Advocacy Programs.

=== Tactics ===
[[Margaret E. Keck]] and [[Kathryn Sikkink]] have observed four types of advocacy tactics:
# Information politics: quickly and credibly generating politically usable information and moving it to where it will have the most impact.
# Symbolic politics: calling upon symbols, actions, or stories that make sense of a situation for an audience that is frequently far away. 
# Leverage politics: calling upon powerful actors to affect a situation where weaker members of a network are unlikely to have influence.
# Accountability politics: efforts to hold powerful actors to their previously stated policies or principles.<ref name="Keck & Sikkink 1998 16">{{cite book |last1=Keck |first1=Margaret E. |last2=Sikkink |first2=Kathryn |title=Activists beyond Borders Advocacy Networks in International Politics |date=1998 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-0-8014-7129-2 |page=16 |url=https://www.degruyter.com/view/product/526458}}</ref>
These tactics have been also observed within advocacy organizations outside the USA.<ref name="Kremers 2014 733">{{cite journal |last1=Kremers |first1=Daniel |title=Transnational Migrant Advocacy From Japan: Tipping the Scales in the Policy-making Process |journal=Pacific Affairs |date=2014 |volume=87 |issue=4 |page=733 |doi=10.5509/2014874715 |url=https://pacificaffairs.ubc.ca/articles/transnational-migrant-advocacy-from-japan-tipping-the-scales-in-the-policy-making-process/ |access-date=5 November 2019}}</ref>

===Use of the Internet===
Groups involved in advocacy work have been using the [[Internet]] to accomplish organizational goals. It has been argued that the Internet helps to increase the speed, reach and effectiveness of advocacy-related communication as well as mobilization efforts, suggesting that [[social media]] are beneficial to the advocacy community.<ref name="Obar"/><ref>{{cite journal|last=Ope|first=J.A.M.|title=From the Streets to the Internet: The Cyber-Diffusion of Contention|journal=Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science|year=1999|volume=566|pages=132–143|doi=10.1177/0002716299566001011}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Eaton|first=M.|title=Manufacturing Community in an Online Activity Organization: The Rhetoric of MoveOn.org's E-mails|journal=Information, Communication & Society|year=2010|volume=13|issue=2|pages=174–192|doi=10.1080/13691180902890125|s2cid=141971731}}</ref><ref name = obarusa>{{cite journal |last = Obar |first = J.A.|author2=Zube, P. |author3=Lampe, C.|title=Advocacy 2.0: An analysis of how advocacy groups in the United States perceive and use social media as tools for facilitating civic engagement and collective action|journal=Journal of Information Policy |year = 2012 |volume =2 |pages = 1–25 |ssrn = 1956352 |doi =10.2139/ssrn.1956352|s2cid = 145712218}}</ref>

=== Other examples ===
Advocacy activities may include conducting an [[exit poll]] or the filing of an [[amicus curiae|amicus brief]].

== Topics ==
{{see also|social issue}}
People advocate for a large number and variety of topics. Some of these are clear-cut [[social issue]]s that are universally agreed to be problematic and worth solving, such as [[human trafficking]]. Others—such as [[abortion]]—are much more divisive and inspire strongly held opinions on both sides. There may never be a consensus on this latter type of issues, but intense advocacy is likely to remain. In the [[United States]], any issue of widespread debate and deeply divided opinion can be referred to as a social issue. The [[Library of Congress]] has assembled an extensive list of social issues in the United States, ranging from vast ones like abortion to [[same-sex marriage]] to smaller ones like [[hacker (computer security)|hacking]] and academic [[cheating]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip0516/2005018778.html|title=Table of contents for Social issues in America|work=loc.gov}}</ref>

Topics that appear to involve advancing a certain positive ideal are often known as causes. A particular cause may be very expansive in nature — for instance, increasing [[liberty]] or fixing a broken political system. For instance in 2008, U.S. presidential candidate [[Barack Obama]] utilized such a meaning when he said, "this was the moment when we tore down barriers that have divided us for too long; when we rallied people of all parties and ages to a common cause."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/03/us/politics/03obama-transcript.html|title=Barack Obama's Caucus Speech|date=3 January 2008|work=The New York Times}}</ref> [[Change.org]] and [[Causes (company)|Causes]] are two popular websites that allow people to organize around a common cause.

Topics upon which there is universal agreement that they need to be solved include, for example, [[human trafficking]], [[poverty]], water and [[sanitation]] as a [[Right to water|human right]].<ref name="unicef">{{cite book|last1=UNICEF|title=Advocacy toolkit - A guide to influencing decisions that improve children's lives|date=2010|publisher=UNICEF|pages=144|url=http://www.unicef.org/evaluation/files/Advocacy_Toolkit.pdf|access-date=11 February 2016}}</ref>

"Social issues" as referred to in the United States also include topics (also known as "causes") intended by their advocates to advance certain ideals (such as [[Social equality|equality]]) include: [[civil rights]], [[LGBT rights]], [[women's rights]], [[environmentalism]], and [[veganism]].

== Transnational advocacy ==
Advocates and advocacy groups represent a wide range of categories and support several issues as listed on worldadvocacy.com.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.worldadvocacy.com|title=World Advocacy - The world's premier source of advocacy groups|work=worldadvocacy.com}}</ref>  The Advocacy Institute,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.advocacyinstitute.org/index.shtml|title=The Advocacy Institute|work=advocacyinstitute.org}}</ref> a US-based global organization, is dedicated to strengthening the capacity of political, social, and economic justice advocates to influence and change public policy.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Cohen|first1=D.|last2=de la Vega|first2=R.|last3=Watson|first3=G.|title=Advocacy for social justice|year=2001|publisher=[[Kumarian Press]]|location=Bloomfield, CT|page={{page needed|date=March 2012}}|no-pp=yes}}</ref>

The phenomenon of [[globalization]] draws a special attention to advocacy beyond countries’ borders. The core existence of networks such as World Advocacy or the [[Advocacy Institute]] demonstrates the increasing importance of transnational advocacy and international advocacy. Transnational advocacy networks are more likely to emerge around issues where external influence is necessary to ease the communication between internal groups and their own government. Groups of advocates willing to further their mission also tend to promote networks and to meet with their internal counterparts to exchange ideas.<ref name="Keck & Sikkink 1998 16"/>

Transnational advocacy is increasingly playing a role in advocacy for [[International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families|migrants rights]], and migrant [[advocacy organizations]] have strategically called upon governments and international organizations for leverage.<ref name="Kremers 2014 733" />

Transnational advocates spend time with local interest groups in order to better understand their views and wishes.{{citation needed|date=June 2016}}

== See also ==
* [[Advocacy group]]
* [[Cause lawyer]]
* [[Cycling advocacy]]
* [[Deep lobbying]]
* [[Disability advocacy]]
* [[Environmental movement]]
* [[LGBTQ advocacy]]
* [[Patient advocacy]]
* [[Public library advocacy]]
* [[Quaxing]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
{{wiktionary}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110719081216/http://advocacy.collegeboard.org/ College Board Advocacy & Policy Center]
* [http://www.publicaffairsworld.com Public Affairs World] – news and information site on the subject of lobbying

[[Category:Advocacy| ]]
[[Category:Activism by type]]