Citizens, Political Communication, and Interest Groups : Environmental Organizations in Canada and the United States

This intriguing book investigates the technical information quandary created by post-industrial changes, which have produced demands for citizen involvement in public policy processes while complex scientific and technical issues increasingly make public involvement difficult. Authors Pierce, Steger, Steel, and Lovrich address the degree to which interest groups might serve to bridge the knowledge gap between public policy processes and the citizenry in U.S. and Canadian settings.

The focus of the study is on acid rain policy in Michigan and Ontario, an area of considerable scientific and technical complexity as well as political and public interest. The authors examine how the U.S. and Canadian publics acquire, process, and communicate policy-relevant information so that it can influence policymaking. Do interest groups play the information dissemination role in a manner that could address the technical information quandary? Are interest groups playing the same or different roles in the United States and Canada? What different factors cause U.S. and Canadian interest groups to behave as they do in the political arena? Recommended for scholars of Political Science, Communication, Environmental Studies, and Comparative Public Policy.

JOHN C. PIERCE is Professor of Political Science and Dean of the College of Sciences & Arts in the Division of Humanities and Social Sciences at Washington State University.

MARY ANN E. STEGER is Associate Professor of Political Science at Northern Arizona University.

BRENT S. STEEL is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Washington State University, Vancouver.

NICHOLAS P. LOVRICH is Associate Professor of Political Science at Washington State University.

The four authors have collaborated for eight years in the research of issues in environmental politics involving Canadians and Americans. They have co-authored over a dozen articles in reference journals, and they have received two grants from the Canadian government (U.S. Canadian Embassy Faculty Research Grant Program) to support their work.