PSCI 3201 Environmental Policy 09/06/07

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PSCI 3201 Environmental Policy09/06/07

• The Game of Environmental Policymaking
• gt Players and tools for influence
• B. Agenda setting

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The Game of Environmental Policymaking

• What are the structure rules of
• the game and how do they affect
• the outcome?
• Fragmentation of authority

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The Game of Environmental Policymaking

• Who are the players and what tools do the players
  have to influence the game?
• a. Legislative branch
• b. Chief executive
• c. Federal bureaucracy

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Players in US environmental policymaking

• c. Federal Bureaucracy
• gt Many agencies gt Tools
• Examples --
  Information
• -- EPA
  -- Professional/
• -- Dept of Interior
  analytic staff
• (FWS, NPS, BLM) --
  Implementation
• -- Dept of Agriculture
  power (client contact)
• (Forest Service, SCS)
• gt Agency personnel
• -- Political appointees
• -- Professional staff
  

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Players in US environmental policymaking

• d. Judicial Branch
• gt Courts gt
  Tools
• -- Federal District
  -- Constitutional
• -- Federal Appellate
  authority
• -- US Supreme Court --
  Insulation from
• 
  electoral politics
• 
  -- Case selection
• 
  legal methodology

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Players in US environmental policymaking

• e. States
• gt Duplicate the federal cast of
  characters
• gt States rights to define policy
• gt Federal policy implementation roles
  
• 
  
• 
  

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Players in US environmental policymaking

• f. Non-governmental actors
• gt Interest groups gt
  Tools
• -- Industry trade --
  Membership
• -- Environmental orgs
  organization
• -- Property rights --
  Professional
• Wise Use groups
  analytic staff
• gt Media
  -- Information
• gt Public
  -- Votes
• 
  -- Money

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• Implications for environmental policy in a system
  with many actors
• Many diverse interests and values in the policy
• process
• Many are not directly concerned with
• environmental problem solving
• Decision-making institutions organizations
• are not monolithic
• Information analysis are widely dispersed
• Decision-making influence (or power) tools
• vary among players

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Agenda Settingand the Environment(John Kingdon)
What makes people in and around government
attend, at any given time, to some subjects and
not to others?
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The Policy Agenda

• The list of subjects or problems to which
  government officials, and people outside of
  government closely associated with those
  officials, are paying some serious attention to
  at any given time.

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Three streams (or processes) affecting the
likelihood that a particular issue will arise on
the policymaking agenda

• 1. Problems
• 2. Policies
• 3. Politics

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1. The Problem Stream

• Conditions perceived as problems requiring
  government intervention.

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2. The Policy Stream

• Where do solutions come from?
• The policy stream is comprised of a largely
  hidden group of specialists in government,
  academics and special interests.

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3. The Political Stream

• What kinds of political circumstances are most
  conducive to policy change?