environmental policy midterm

Question 1

Meadowcroft & Fiorino article - environment

Answer 1

surroundings, and particularly natural surroundings that are threatened by human activities

Question 2

Meadowcroft & Fiorino article - ecology

Answer 2

interdependence of organisms and broader natural resources

Question 3

Meadowcroft & Fiorino article - environmental vs ecojustice

Answer 3

ecojustice places more of an emphasis on justice toward the more non-human natural world (animals, species, or ecosystems); environmental justice stresses human inequalities

Question 4

Meadowcroft & Fiorino article - environmental footprint vs ecological footprint

Answer 4

environmental footprint is used to denote the aggregate of a particular product, practice, or community; ecological footprint is linked to a specific methodology that assess ecological burdens in relation to the land area required to support a particular way of life

Question 5

polluter pays principle

Answer 5

links pollution control with potential economic returns

Question 6

precautionary principle

Answer 6

formulated as a management tool that tells us how we should handle certain kinds of environmental issues

Question 7

the things environmental concepts do

Answer 7

the interactions and interdependence of human societies and natural systems

Question 8

adaptive management

Answer 8

a structured, iterative process of robust decision making in the face of uncertainty, with an aim to reduce uncertainty over time via system monitoring

Question 9

waste hierarchy

Answer 9

suggests an appropriate lexical ordering of waste management approaches; links upward to wider ideas of environmental or resource efficiency

Question 10

6 characterizing solutions to energy/environmental problems

Answer 10

1. alternative energy
2. clean energy
3. green energy
4. low-carbon energy
5. renewable energy
6. sustainable energy

Question 11

critical organizing concepts

Answer 11

this suggests some of the ways concepts link into political controversy; most concepts appear as relatively neutral descriptors

Question 12

factors related to the emergence of individual environmental concepts (2)

Answer 12

1. pollution of air, land, and water through excessive deforestation
2. industrialization and overfilling landfills which emits CO2 and adds to greenhouse gas emissions

Question 13

What are the significant questions Mazmanian & Nijaki raise with respect to the vision of sustainable development?

Answer 13

How can and should environmental and economic resources be governed, given the objective of sustainability?

Question 14

What do Mazmanian & Nijaki claim are the “requisite features of society and governance system in a sustainability epoch?” (4)

Answer 14

water, waste, clean air, and land use

Question 15

What do Mazmanian & Nijaki list as the critical barriers to sustainable development? (4)

Answer 15

1. competing priorities of managers (profit and growth prioritized over environment and human capital)
2. local vs global benefits and costs
3. scope of government authority and responsibility
4. temporal concerns

Question 16

How Pralle defines agenda setting

Answer 16

centers on political elites and the decisions that are made or deferred within the policy-making process

Question 17

a condition vs a problem

Answer 17

a problem is recognized as worthy of attention/action; a condition is a matter perceived as not reasonable open to human efforts to change it

Question 18

the tragedy of the commons

Answer 18

each actor seeks to maximize the short-term benefits of appropriating the common pool resource; pursuit of short-term maximal gain leads to the overuse and long-term deterioration of the resource

Question 19

CPR theory (Vincent and Elinor Ostrom)

Answer 19

recognizes the challenges of common pool resources but doesn’t accept the claim that a tragedy of the commons or privatization is inevitable

Question 20

incrementalism

Answer 20

views public policy as a continuation of past government activities with only incremental modifications

Question 21

key concepts of incrementalism (6)

Answer 21

1. base
2. increment
3. satisficing
4. political feasibility
5. uncertainty
6. conflict minimization

Question 22

incrementalism is unable to… (2)

Answer 22

1. explain unprecedented policymaking
2. predict future policy reforms

Question 23

punctuated equilibrium theory

Answer 23

a theory of the policy process that seeks to explain a simple observation: although generally marked by stability and incrementalism, political processes occasionally produce large scale departures from the past

Question 24

key concepts of punctuated equilibrium (5)

Answer 24

1. policy images and monopolies
2. negative and positive feedback
3. bounded rationality
4. serial and parallel processing
5. venues

Question 25

policy process model (5)

Answer 25

1. agenda setting 2. policy formulation 3. policy legitimation 4. policy implementation 5. policy evaluation

Question 26

making it on the agenda is a function of...(5)

Answer 26

1. visibility/perception 2. scope and scale of the problem 3. degree of complexity or abstractness 4. symbols and framing 5. who is pressing the issue

Question 27

factors related to setting policy goals...(5)

Answer 27

1. what can we actually do? 2. degree and kind of information 3. technical vs political values 4. competing philosophies of government 5. who is actually formulating the goals?

Question 28

types of policy legitimation (3)

Answer 28

1. congressional legitimation 2. executive/bureaucratic legitimation 3. judicial legitimation

Question 29

factors of implementation (3)

Answer 29

1. bureaucratic discretion 2. rule-making 3. adjudication

Question 30

why is issue framing the essence of politics

Answer 30

because problems can be understood in multiple ways, efforts to portray problems and solutions in ways that advance one's policy and political goals is the essence of politics

Question 31

motivated reasoning

Answer 31

elites and non-elites seek information which supports their partisan position and discount information that challenges it

Question 32

Kingdon's multiple streams model

Answer 32

the rise and fall of issues on the agenda as a product of the interplay of 3 streams or policy processes: problems, policies, and politics

Question 33

why is it important to study agenda setting?

Answer 33

helps better understand how or why policies make it on to the agenda

Question 34

what is the first step of solving environmental problems

Answer 34

involves the mobilization of collective attention

Question 35

agenda denial

Answer 35

opponents to policy change have several tools at their disposal when attempting to keep issues off the agenda (deny that a problem exists, treat it as an isolated incident, discredit the group advocating the problem, etc.); if these strategies fail, policymakers may take symbolic action that fails to fundamentally alter political and policy outcomes

Question 36

institutional friction

Answer 36

gaps between the objective state of environmental problems and their place on public and institutional agendas; because of limited agenda space and political systems contain rules and structures that act as issue gatekeepers

Question 37

institutional friction in the US is enhanced by...

Answer 37

the existence of three independent branches of government and by super-majority rules such as the Senate and filibuster, among other features of a political system that is designed to resist rapid and transformational change

Question 38

focusing event

Answer 38

1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill

Question 39

the concept of framing suggests that...

Answer 39

policy actors deliberately draw attention to some aspects of an issue and away from others, helping to define "what the essential issue is" and "how to think about it"

Question 40

examples of critical organizing concepts (sea level rise)

Answer 40

the concept is anchored in scientific understanding of natural processes; scientists may argue about how fast and how far the seal level will rise; this gives rise to disputes about how concerned societies should be about sea level rise and what should be done about it