GO 231
Fall 2011 Midterm Essay Questions
I will give select ONE question from Section I on Agenda Setting and TWO questions from Section II on Institutions. You may bring in a one sided study sheet.
I. Agenda Setting
1. Please explain why and how the nation tackled air pollution in the 1970s first using Kingdon’s model of agenda setting and next, Down’s issue attention cycle. Make sure to identify the key elements of each author’s theory and then apply them to the case. Which theory does a better job of explaining and why?
2. What are the key lessons of Deborah Stone’s theory about causal stories for environmental policy entrepreneurs (EPE) about how to strategically frame issues? Compare the issue framing of an environmental group (Sierra Club’s “False Advertising” or Pralle’s Agenda Setting) with a more pro-business group (Patrick J. Michaels’ “Losing It” , Coal, or Climategate). How do the authors use images and words to frame the issue? Why does each group frame the issue in that way? Which framing more effective and why
3. Why did California change its water policy? What key lessons should environmental policy entrepreneurs (EPEs) learn from this case about how to achieve dramatic changes in environmental policy?
II. Institutions
1. Karen Kellogg and your friends in the Environmental Action Club (EAC) cannot understand why the American political system is not taking more aggressive steps to combat global warming. Please write an essay for them explaining why we have gridlock and why major policy reforms are difficult to enact.
2. In a 7,000 word essay in Rolling Stone, Al Gore blasted Barack Obama’s record on global warming. Gore says Obama has failed to stand up for "bold action" on global warming, meaning make global warming a priority for the American public and pass climate legislation. Please write President Obama’s reply. Make sure you provide an analysis of what he has and has not done in the context of the larger political and economic environment as well as put his actions in a comparative context of other presidents’ abilities to pursue their environmental agenda
3. Identify and analyze the FOUR most important lessons a future environmental policy entrepreneur (EPE) should learn about how Congress makes environmental policy from Congress’s deliberations over the clean fuel provisions of the 1990 Amendments to the Clear Air Act and the Senate debate over cap and trade
4. What does the recent Supreme Court decision in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. EPA reveal about standing, ripeness, defining ambiguous legislation, and standard of review?
5. Are environmentalists’ hopes for the states as a sustained force for environmental innovation justified or not?
-----------------------------
1. I do not like reading poorly structured and argued essays. I give you the questions in advance so that you can prepare a coherent and detailed argument in response to each question. Outline your answers in advance.
2. Use the readings and authors’ names in your answer. (e.g. Stone contends causal stories are …)
3. Use specific examples to support your arguments. The ID terms are a very good place to start. They are the building blocks for the essays.
4. You will be hard pressed to complete your answers during the allotted time period. Your answers should be concise and avoid unnecessary words and fluff. You may also abbreviate. Pay attention to the time allotted per section.
You essay answers will be evaluated based upon
1. the clarity of your argument
2. the use of the readings and lectures
3. the creative use of examples from lectures and readings to make your arguments
4. the clarity of concept definitions.
Below is a list of important concepts and questions drawn from the readings and lectures. They are useful in culling the important ideas from the readings and lecture notes for the Midterm.
challenges facing environmental policy makers
Downs, Anthony, Up and Down with Ecology—the
issue attention cycle
dynamics of
"Issue-Attention Cycle", why do issues rise and fall according to
Downs? What are the strengths and limits
of Downs’ theory, the relationship between objective conditions of the problem
and its importance on the public agenda
Layzer, “The Nation Tackles Pollution,” in The Environmental
Case p. 25-51
Why did the nation “tackle” pollution in the early 1970s? How well does Layzer’s account exemplify Kingdon’s model of agenda setting? Down’s issue attention cycle?
focusing event, salience, redefinition of the pollution problem, Nixon’s motivations, Muskie's motivations , The science and economic analysis behind the clean air and clean water act, Agency capture, Policy window, Scope of conflict, Conditions versus problems, Political entrepreneur
Sarah Pralle, Agenda-setting and climate change
What specific
strategies should the environmental movement should use to keep the
issue of climate change on the decision agendas of governments? What are some of the limits or challenges to
her strategy?
problem stream, policy stream, Criteria for Survivability within the policy community, political feasibility, policy window, policy entrepreneurs, key problem indicators, scientific consensus,
What do the public opinion polls on global warming suggest about
Deborah Stone Causal Stories and
Policy Agendas
Why are causal stories important in defining problems? Why is defining the problem so important? What are the key characteristics of different types of causal stoires? What are the strategic advantages and disadvantages of each type of causal story for advocating for a policy? How should environmentalists frame their causal stories? How should polluters frame their causal stories?
What are some of the limits on Environmentalists' ability to frame issues in ways favorable to their cause (think discussion of Sierra Club framing of miles per gallon)? Compare the issue framing of Sierra Club’s “False Advertising” with Patrick J. Michaels’ “Losing It” using Stone’s analytical framework. How do the authors frame the issue and why do they adopt that frame? Which is more effective and why?
Ingram, Helen and Leah Fraser, Path
Dependency and Adroit Innovation
Why did California change its water policy? What does the California water policy case reveal about theories about how environmental policies change? About the strategies for policies entrepreneurs?
Punctuated equilibrium theories and policy change, path dependence, high exit costs, policy image, institutionalization, professionalization, benefits and risk spreading, new policy image or frames, new management practices, venue shifting, skilled implementation, positive feedbacks for change, role of networks, adept policy design, gestation periods and cascades, environmental water account, adaptive management , Bruce Babbitt; CALFED
What are the three key lessons environmental policy entrepreneurs (EPEs) learn from the California water policy case about how to achieve dramatic changes?
McGrory Klyza and Sousa, Creating the
Current Institutional Landscape of Environmental Policy-Making, Eugene B. Skolnikoff; The Policy
Gridlock On Global Warming
political explanations for gridlock- Checks and balances, Declining liberalism, polarization, ideological and partisan divergence, low salience of environmental issues, lack of public consensus, influence of organized issues
Scientific explanations for gridlock - scientific uncertainties, interaction of ecological and economic factors, time horizons, global nature of crisis, scope of problem
Presidency
Presidential powers, policy goals, environmental strategy, presidential tools, constraints, What are the lessons of the Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush presidencies about how Barack Obama should go about achieving his environmental policy goals? Bush Presidency- New Source Review, ESA, "rewriting the rules"; Obama’s Environmental Record- appointments, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, administrative actions, What should Presidents expect from Congress as they tries to advance their environmental policies? President Obama wants your advice on the how they can most effectively achieve his environmental policy goals. Be very specific in identifying the key dos and don’ts from previous presidents. President's alternative pathways- Rulemaking, implementation, appointments, executive orders, Antiquities Act,
Congress
Key institutional features of congress, Fragmentation, Electoral cycle, Localism, cap and trade voting coalitions, What are the scientific and political implications of requiring a clean fuel to have a minimum oxygen level (2.1% vs 3.7%)? Why does Congress choose to promote “clean fuel” for the Clean Air Act? What were the environmental and political advantages and disadvantages of each of the three main clean fuel alternatives (methanol, ethanol, reformulated gasoline)? What solution does Congress choose and why? What role does science, interest groups, and institutions play in the choice? Were there better policy alternatives than “clean fuels” for reducing air pollution? Why were they not selected? Based on the clean fuel legislation, what is the ability of Congress to pass environmental legislation? As the World Burns- know the senators, interest groups, nature of deal making, competing interests, attentive vs inattentive interests, transparency, magnitude and timing of costs and benefits, coalition leaders, side payments. In considering climate change legislation in the Senate, explain the impact of attentive vs. inattentive publics; the positive and negative impacts of the electoral incentive, the role of the President, and the role of bargaining.,
Appropriation riders for HR 1, Murkowski rider, Alternative pathways for Congress to thwart the president.
Standing and the Citizen Suits, FOE vs Laidlaw Environmental Services, Ripeness and Standard of Review, Standard of Review, Endangered Species Act definition of takings, Regulatory takings -- Lucas versus South Carolina Coastal, Rapanos v. United States and Carabell v. United States Army Corps of Engineers- Commerce Clause, Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. EPA- standing, ripeness, defining ambiguous legislation, and standard of review; Center for Biological Diversity and pygmy owl, American Trucking Association v. EPA and NAAQs, Sue and Settle, Bush judicial appointees,
Should environmentalists continue to look to the courts to defend their policies? What are the advantages and disadvantages of this strategy? What does the recent Supreme Court decision in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. EPA reveal about standing, ripeness, defining ambiguous legislation, and standard of review and the role of the judiciary in making environmental policy?
States
Are states the new heroes of environmental policy innovation? Sources of state innovation, Example of state innovation, limits of state environmental innovation, dependency on federal government , sorting out of environmental federalism