Policy Design and the Acceptability of Environmental Risks: Nuclear Waste Disposal in Canada and the United States

This article examines the controversial process of developing high-level nuclear waste disposal policy in Canada, with some comparison to experience in the United States. It argues that a policy design perspective can assist in understanding the difficult social and political issues associated with waste disposal and the environmental and health risks that it poses. I examine several critical questions related to such an endeavor and link them to long-term goals of building a sustainable society. Success in formulating and implementing a nuclear waste policy in Canada will depend on the nation's capacity to create requisite processes of public participation. Particularly important are those actions that can help the public understand and assess environmental risks, including related ethical and social issues, and build public trust and confidence in the siting processes and the implementing agencies.     

Envisioning a Green Energy Future in Canada and the United States: Constructing a Sustainable Future in the Context of New Regionalisms?

A variety of actors in Canada and the United States are actively constructing a vision of a greener society that includes an environmentally sustainable energy future. Canadian provinces and states in the United States share environmental management, corporations collaborate to drive green development and implement local energy projects, and activists on both sides of the border share environmental protest strategies and mobilization frames. A transition to regionalism of greener energy resources along the Vermont–Canadian border is indicative of a larger “new regionalism” of sustainable identity, despite very concrete and pressing external pressures and energy challenges concerning global climate change, resource depletion, and energy sustainability challenges within the larger nations of both Canada and the United States. In this article, we aim to characterize this green visioning of a sustainable energy future, by focusing especially on the Vermont–Canadian border region, and additionally point to the benefits and contradictions that result.     

U.S. Foreign Policy and the Arab Spring: Balancing Values and Interests

The rapid and unpredictable changes in the Middle East collectively known as the “Arab Spring” are posing tremendous challenges to U.S. policy formation and action. This article will explore and evaluate evolving U.S. policy in the Middle East and its potential implications. There has always been a tension in American foreign policy between pursuing American “values” (foreign policy idealism) and protecting American “interests” (foreign policy realism). For decades, the United States has sought to “make the world safe for democracy,” while at the same time often supporting repressive, nondemocratic regimes because of national security or economic self‐interest. The tension between these two fundamentally distinct policy orientations has become even more pronounced as the United States tries to respond to the Arab Spring uprisings. Why did the United States actively support the rebels in Libya but not the protestors in Syria or Bahrain? Is there an emerging, coherent “Obama Doctrine” on intervention in Arab countries, or was Libya just a “one‐off” event? These are some of the questions that this article will attempt to answer.     

Comparing Governance and Local Engagement in the St. Marys River Area of Concern

Under the 1987 revisions to the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement between Canada and the United States, Areas of Concern (AOC) were designated around the Great Lakes to target the remediation of environmental impairments. Local governments have the potential to play an important role in Great Lakes restoration and protection efforts in AOCs, though the scope of their engagement in remediation efforts is not fully understood. This case study investigates the St. Marys River AOC, which spans the border between Canada and the United States. Through the theoretical lens of the ecology of games, the case study explores the strategic choices of local governments to engage in environmental policy networks in Canada and the United States. The case illustrates the importance of intergovernmental aid and collaborative institutions for ongoing environmental remediation efforts and cross-border coordination.     

Wilsonianism: the dynamics of a conflicted concept

Americans have generally seen the principles and objectives proclaimed by President Woodrow Wilson during the First World War as having continued relevance for United States foreign policy. However, they have often differed over their application to specific situations, particularly because there is likely to be a tension between a drive to establish democratic values across the globe and commitment to a universal system of collective security. Rather than seeking a pure, abstract definition of 'Wilsonianism', it is more illuminating to examine its origins and evolution in relation to the development of American foreign policy over the years. Tracing this historical process reveals that Wilson committed himself to a postwar league of nations during the period of American neutrality, but it was only as the United States became a belligerent that the spread of democratic government became a policy objective, and then only in a partial and qualified way. A similar pattern has been discernible in subsequent decades. It has been during conflicts, or the run-up to them, that the more ideological and revisionist aspects of Wilsonian principles have come to the fore, whereas it has been in the aftermath of conflicts that there has been the greatest interest in the potentialities of a universal collective security organization. There has also been a broad shift of emphasis over time. As confidence in America's power position has grown, the core of Wilson's legacy has more often come to be seen as the promotion of democracy rather than the strengthening of international institutions. The persistence of both themes may be seen as reflecting basic and enduring elements of the policy-making context—on the one hand, the interests of the United States as a status quo power, and on the other, the demands of domestic American opinion.     

The Politics of Employee Discharge: Triggering, Representation, and Venue

This article analyzes the failed effort to reform employment termination policy in the United States during the 1980s and early 1990s using the procedures of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws. This effort sought to replace the common law doctrine of employment-at-will with state "just cause" arbitration statutes that would grant limited rights to discharged employees while capping the remedies available to prevailing claimants. The resulting Model Employment Termination Act and the failure of states to adopt it are explained by structural and strategic factors, including movement of the judicial "trigger," the configuration and representation of interests, and the choice of policy venue.     

Mental Health Policy Inquiry, Its Importance, and Its Rewards

This article suggests some characteristics of the field of mental health that might explain why political scientists and public policy analysts have evidenced little interest in the study of mental health policy. Following a brief overview of United States mental health policy, the author makes the case for the importance of menial health policy inquiry on grounds of both pragmatic and theoretical significance.     

Campaign Promises,Democratic Governance,and Environmental Policy in the U.S. Congress

One important criterion for assessing the quality of democratic governance is the extent to which the policy process effectively translates citizen preferences into collective choices. Several scholars have observed a discrepancy between citizen preferences for strong environmental protection and weak policies adopted in the United States, indicating that the United States may fall short on this criterion. We examine one possible mechanism contributing to this discrepancy—legislator defection from campaign promises. Our data indicate that legislators in the U.S. Congress routinely defect from their campaign promises in environmental protection, undermining the link between citizen preferences and policy choice. We also find that legislators are much more likely to defect from pro‐environmental campaign promises, which moves government policy toward less stringent environmental programs. Finally, the propensity of legislators to defect from their campaign promises is systematic, with defection affected by partisanship, constituency influence, the influence of the majority party, and the likely consequences of defection for policy choice. These findings contribute empirical evidence relevant to the “mandate theory” perspective on how citizen preferences are translated into collective choices through the policy process. These findings may also complement research in comparative politics concluding that legislatures selected through single member districts adopt less stringent environmental policies than do legislatures chosen via proportional representation in that the mechanism for this effect may go through legislator defection from campaign promises.     

LIVING WITH THE LONG CYCLE TODAY

There is a need for a new rationale to guide American security policy, including arms control and disarmament. In light of fundamental changes in the external and internal environment, American security policy would appear to have to rest on the following four assumptions: (1) the multiplication of threats, allies, and adversaries; (2) the disparity between greater absolute military power at the disposal of the United States and greater relative impotence in wielding it to influence events abroad; (3) the globalization yet divisibility of American and international security, economic, and political regime interests; and (4) the persistence of divided domestic consensus as the shaky basis from which to project American military power to shape the international environment in ways congenial to often conflicting American preferences.     

Institutional and Policy Responses to Uncertainty in Environmental Policy: A Comparison of Dutch and U.S. Styles

Uncertainties regarding problem definition and policy response are an endemic pan of environmental decisionmaking. Some standard responses to uncertainty in decisionmaking are analyzed and then used to suggest the importance of learning-oriented policy processes in open, flexible, and adaptive institutional environments. The institutional and policy responses to both types of uncertainties are explored in two different institutional settings: the consensus-oriented setting of the Netherlands and the more adversarial and pluralistic context of the United States. The examination displays tensions accompanying learning-oriented environmental policymaking and the complex impact of institutional environments. Conclusions sketch implications for how to accommodate learning-oriented environmental policy processes.     

Widespread Policy Disruption and Interest Mobilization

We consider the involvement of different interests in policymaking following disruptions that affect the agendas of multiple subsystems. The policy process literature suggests that increased policy uncertainty and jurisdictional ambiguity could lead to substantial upheavals in interest involvement. We address these possibilities in studying the mobilization of different interests after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, for eight disrupted policy subsystems. Contrary to expectations derived from the literature, we find limited evidence of interest upheaval or cross-subsystem spillovers in interest involvement. We suggest this is because policymakers sought to reduce policy uncertainty by calling upon those interests that were best equipped to help craft and implement policy solutions. These findings point to the stabilizing influence of policy subsystems in buffering against the effects of widespread disruptions.     

Interest aggregators,not office chasers: evidence for party convergence and divergence in Australia

This paper examines whether Australia’s major political parties continue to fulfil a representational role. This was often the traditional view of the parties, but has been much criticised in recent decades by scholars arguing they have largely converged, moderating their policies and abandoning their links with civil society. Here I outline a theoretical framework – supported with evidence from four empirical tests – that characterises the major parties as interest aggregators representing electoral alliances made up of politicians, activists, financial contributors and voters, united by key economic policy goals. These actors create a centrifugal force, pushing party policies away from each other in salient areas. Using this framework, I theorise that the parties matter for policy outcomes, building on the assumption that cleavages in the social structure are reflected in the political system, with policy implementation the result of the competing demands and interests of the parties’ constituencies.     

1971年印巴危机期间美国的难民政策与美印在难民问题上的角力

1971年印巴危机是冷战时代一次具有重大国际影响的地区危机。危机期间,因受东巴内战与印巴冲突的双重影响,大量东巴居民逃往印度,沦为难民。东巴难民持续涌入印度不仅是东巴危机转变为印巴危机的主要诱因,同时也是导致南亚持续紧张、敌对氛围难以消解的重要根源。为妥善解决难民问题,美国积极谋划,投入大量人力、物力、财力,意图妥善解决难民问题,化解危机。但是美国采取的积极措施并未减缓危机冲突的不断升级。在处理难民问题的过程中,美巴政策协调趋于一致,而印度与美巴在难民问题上的政策倾向却渐行渐远。归根究底,是否应该在难民问题上附加最终促成东巴独立的政治条件是美巴与印度的根本分歧所在。而这一根本分歧的悬而未决最终成为引爆第三次印巴战争的导火索。     

Balto,the Alaskan Dog and his Statue in New York’s Central Park: Animal Representation and National Heritage

This article explores the statue of Balto in New York’s Central Park within a framework of discussion of animal representation in creating national heritages. It discusses the reasons for Balto’s statue being sited in New York with reference to the competing demands for different heritage commemorations within the park’s space. In exploring the role of different interests in promoting this particular commemoration the article questions a simplistic notion of heritage being created by bodies of the state and draws analogies with other national animal ‘symbols’ such as Greyfriars Bobby, and ‘The Dog on the Tucker Box’. The article suggests that animal commemoration in everyday space may help create ongoing interest in animal pasts while noting the disjuncture between the represented animal and Balto’s actual existence.     

Emerging UK Arctic policy

How is the United Kingdom engaging with changing geopolitics of the Arctic in the twenty‐first century? This article considers the UK's contemporary interest(s) in the Arctic at a time of unprecedented change in the northern latitudes of our planet. In particular, it focuses on the ongoing emergence of UK Arctic policy as an assemblage of processes involving various actors—government officials, scientists and other academics, environmental campaigners, journalists and the private sector—which not only define UK interests but also delimit what the term ‘Arctic’ means to, and demands of, the UK. The focus of the article is directed at the recent activities by the Ministry of Defence, the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee and the related work of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to develop an Arctic Policy Framework, drawing on official government documents and a series of interviews conducted between 2010 and 2013 for evidence. The article concludes with the author's thoughts on tensions and contradictions that remain in the UK's policy towards the Arctic and the implications this might have at a time when global interest in the Arctic is growing rapidly.     

American and Canadian Environmental Federalism; A Game-Theoretic Analysis

To understand why environmental federalism is different in Canada and the United States, one might begin with the initial strategic realities that faced the Fathers of Canadian Confederation and the Framers of the Constitution of the United States. This essay examines federalism from a game-theoretic point of view, to integrate and expose the rational properties of the decision to federate and the logical entailments of that choice for environmental policy within two specific strategic contexts. Specifically, I suggest that American environmental federalism has arisen in response to the strategic reality of a Prisoner's Dilemma, while Canadian environmental federalism can be analyzed as an effort to regulate confrontations within a game of Chicken. In addition to the analysis of each federated structure, evidence from five case studies demonstrates the usefulness of games to the study of comparative federalism     

A good international citizen? Australia at the World Summit on Sustainable Development

Australia has often been identified as a middle power in foreign policy terms. This article assesses the worth of the concept in understanding the role of Australia in global environmental governance. Using a case study of the role played at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, it assesses whether Australia conformed to a classic middle power role, building coalitions as a ‘good international citizen’ or whether its role was more like a veto state, preventing positive change. This is done via a reflection of Australia's Summit priorities and an assessment of its impact over the Summit outcomes. The article shows that Australia was able to offer leadership in certain specific areas, but overall domestic policy preferences, a growing mistrust of multilateralism, and a strong defence of the national interest meant that Australia played the role of a veto state, often in coalition with the United States of America.     

后冷战时期马来西亚对美政策评析

后冷战时期,马来西亚与美国展开一连串激烈交锋,两国关系一度非常紧张。马来西亚对美采取强硬政策的原因,包括冷战后国际政治格局变化,美国东南亚政策的改变,以及金融危机后马来西亚的政治和经济安全面临的严重威胁等。但马美经贸关系继续发展,美国还跃升为马来西亚最大的出口市场和外资来源,这与马来西亚成功的外交谋略不无关系。对美政策有效地捍卫了马来西亚的政治和经济利益,提高了马来西亚的国际地位,基本体现了马来西亚当时的国家利益,充分显示了小国外交的智慧。     

Laying Down the Law? Interest Group Influence on State Adoption of Animal Cruelty Felony Laws

Since the late 1960s, the number and types of organized interest groups working at the state level have increased dramatically, but research shows that traditional organized interest groups, such as business and labor unions, are still the most influential in state policymaking ( Thomas and Hrebenar 1996 ). Less is known, however, about the influence of non‐economically focused interest groups in the state policy process. Using pooled cross‐sectional data from the American states, I explore the effect that nontraditional organized interests can have on state policy. Specifically, I examine the influence of the Humane Society of the United States on state adoption of animal cruelty felony laws. Although the Humane Society is not one of the traditional groups expected to have a significant influence in state policymaking, my results suggest that it has played a significant role. However, I also find that the Humane Society's influence on the stringency of these laws is less pronounced.