Turmoil in American Public Policy: Science, Democracy, and the Environment

Leslie R. Alm; Ross E. Burkhart; Marc V. Simon

ISBN 10: 031338536X / ISBN 13: 9780313385360

Published by Praeger, Santa Barbara, CA, 2010

About this Item

Authored by Leslie R. Alm, Ross E. Burkhart, and Marc V. Simon, this volume examines how scientific knowledge intersects with democratic governance in shaping environmental policy in the United States. Designed as a textbook for courses in American public policy and environmental studies, it outlines the fundamentals of the policymaking process and applies them to substantive environmental issues. The authors draw on extensive interviews to present the perspectives of scientists, policymakers, and other stakeholders involved in this often contentious relationship. Published by Praeger in 2010, the work addresses persistent tensions between empirical research and political decision-making.

Seller Inventory # NN-251012-shelf-7-040

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Turmoil in American Public Policy: Science, Democracy, and the Environment
• Publisher: Praeger, Santa Barbara, CA
• Publication Date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 031338536X
• ISBN 13: 9780313385360
• Binding: Hardback
• Condition: New
• Dimensions: 14W x 14H x 4D inches 14 inches width by 14 inches height by 4 inches depth
• Weight: 2 pounds

About this title

Synopsis

This book explores the intricacies of the science-policy linkage that pervades environmental policymaking in a democracy.

These are the key questions that this primary textbook for courses on American public policymaking and environmental policymaking addresses and attempts to answer. Turmoil in American Public Policy: Science, Democracy, and the Environment first lays out the basics of the policymaking process in the United States in relation to the substantive issues of environmental policymaking. Drawing on hundreds of interviews, the authors highlight the views and experiences of scientists, especially natural scientists, in their interactions with policymakers and their efforts to harness the findings of their science to rational public policy.

The proper role of science and scientists in relation to environmental policymaking hinges on fundamental questions at the intersection of political philosophy and scientific epistemology. How can the experimental nature of the scientific method and the probabilistic expression of scientific results be squared with the normative language of legislation and regulation? If scientists undertake to square the circle by hardening the tentative truths of their scientific models into positive truths to underpin public policy, at what point may they be judged to have exceeded the proper limits of scientific knowledge, relinquished their role as impartial experts, and become partisan advocates demanding too much say in a democratic setting? Providing students―and secondarily policymakers, scientists, and citizen activists―a theoretical and practical knowledge of the means availed by modern American democracy for resolving this tension is the object of this progressively structured textbook.

About the Author

Leslie R. Alm, PhD, is professor of political science and public administration at Boise State University, Boise, ID.

Ross E. Burkhart, PhD, is associate professor and chair of the Department of Political Science at Boise State University, Boise, ID.

Marc V. Simon, PhD, is associate professor in the Department of Political Science and coordinator of Peace and Conflict Studies at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, OH.