Suchergebnisse

AbstractAs climate change continues to increase both the frequency and intensity of environmental hazards and disasters, the need for a cohesive national mitigation policy grows. As the environmental federalism scholarship indicates, the inherent tension in federal, state, and local policy implementation highlights that despite a national need, environmental quality is a local public good. To complicate matters, there is disagreement about the optimal level of decision‐making regarding the adoption and implementation of environmental policy. This study addresses this gap by considering the role of policy ambiguity and conflict in policy implementation. The analysis relies on primary qualitative data collected from open‐ended interviews with 22 local government officials in 12 municipalities following Hurricane Harvey. Through the lens of policy ambiguity and conflict, we find confirmatory support for the idea that policies with less ambiguous goals are more likely to be implemented. Furthermore, we find that policy conflict arises when local governments perceive there is little for the community to gain by implementing the federal program. Thus, the level of protection afforded to citizens varies greatly between communities and is influenced heavily by politics. This research supports the Ambiguity‐Conflict Model of policy implementation, an oft‐cited but rarely tested theoretical framework for assessing the intergovernmental politics of policy implementation. It also demonstrates the barriers to local implementation of federal environmental policy in a nested system of government.

Policy learning is an important part of the policy process that crosscuts multiple frameworks. However, policy learning is difficult to model and predict, and even less is known about the extent to which community characteristics affect policy learning. This article examines the contextual factors that promote and constrain policy learning in local government by identifying factors that promote learning. The central theory is that community characteristics, experience with a policy problem, and the type of subnational government will be important factors. We examine this in the context of primary data collected after Hurricane Harvey from open-ended interviews with 22 local government officials across Southeast Texas. Using a mixed methodology, we leverage the results of content analysis and Poisson regression. We find that cities with higher median incomes and larger populations are more likely to experience policy learning. Experience is not an important predictor of policy learning, suggesting possible maturation effects in the learning process. Given the long-term challenges posed by natural hazards and disasters, this puts smaller and less affluent communities at higher risk. If equitable risk and recovery is the goal of disaster policy, efforts must be made to either increase capacity or provide more resources to local governments with less capacity.

AbstractIt is well‐established that experience with a disaster can heighten risk perception, initiate policy learning, and ultimately enhance preparedness and mitigation. This experience can make stakeholders more amenable to mitigating risk, but disasters are sporadic, dangerous, and costly. At the same time, the importance of differences in epistemic communities that manage public agencies and departments has received little attention in the context of policy learning, preparedness, and mitigation. This study investigates whether it is possible for simulated disasters, such as tabletop exercises, to influence risk perception and encourage learning in a way that is consistent with the effects of experiencing an actual disaster. To test this idea, we analyze survey data collected from an Environmental Protection Agency workshop of drinking water officials and public health stakeholders from southeast Michigan and northwest Ohio, including Detroit, Flint, and Toledo. A pre and posttest survey captured participants' beliefs before and after a tabletop exercise designed to simulate a large‐scale drinking water disaster. Results suggest that epistemic communities matter in these exercises but professional experience is less important than what previous studies have shown about experience with a policy problem and policy learning.