The Tension Between Policy Science and Politics: Addressing Cancer Incidence and Environmental Contamination in Michigan |
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| Authors: | Pamela J Edwards-Ham |
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| Institution: | the director of academic assessment at Delta College. She has a Ph. D. in political science from the University of Maryland, College Park. Her research interests focus on the use of data and information in the decisionmaking processes of higher education and governmental organizations. |
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| Abstract: | The Internet and related innovations in information and communications technologies now enable individuals and groups from across a state to easily access and analyze data on public health and environmental contamination. In Michigan, will this improve the policy attention given to rural, as well as urban and suburban, areas of the state? Will better‐informed citizen voices result in policy decisions that take longer‐term considerations into account and are more representative of the interests of all areas of the state? This article suggests not. The recent adoption of lifetime legislative term limits in Michigan and the complexity of and public misunderstandings about the research process and data analysis likely will make legislative work on environmental policy more difficult and contentious. |
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