Policy Expansion in Local Government Environmental Policy Making

Abstract

Relatively little is known about when, why, and how some jurisdictions “double down” on policy priorities, rapidly adopting multiple measures tackling the same issue. Rapid policy expansion can emerge in fast‐evolving, uncertain, and contested policy arenas in which pressures for policy making are not satisfied, and even may be strengthened, by initial policy innovation. This article analyzes local government policy making on high‐volume hydraulic fracturing by New York State municipalities from 2008 to 2012. Policy path dependence, peer influence, and policy design appear to play a critical role in determining whether public officials respond to these pressures with policy expansion. Initial policy innovations can open windows for policy participants to secure additional measures that strengthen or enlarge the scope of action. Public officials and stakeholders seeking particular policy outcomes should take a long view of the policy process while simultaneously remaining alert for opportunities afforded by pressurized policy dilemmas.

“No Fracking Way” vs. “Drill Baby Drill”: A Restructuring of Who Is Pitted Against Whom in the Narrative Policy Framework

“…During 2008-12, 263 New York towns, cities, and villages passed 419 policies supporting or opposing hydraulic fracturing. We focus on this period because the first local anti-hydraulic fracturing policy was adopted in New York in 2008, and most of the jurisdictions that adopted anti-or pro-hydraulic fracturing policies did so by 2012 (Arnold & Long, 2018;Arnold & Neupane, 2017;Dokshin, 2016). This paper contributes to NPF scholarship by examining some of the central hypotheses of the framework.…”

Rural Landowners, Energy Leasing, and Patterns of Risk and Inequality in the Shale Gas Industry

“…However, procedural disenfranchisement and risk do persist, even if they are not the norm, a clear sign that while we find that property and mineral rights enable greater participation and subsequent benefits, they are not a panacea for the alleviation of harm and inequality. While property and mineral rights may enfranchise a critical set of actors, it is imperative that communities retain and bolster their capacity for democratic self‐determination in navigating environmental and social risk (Brulle ), a capacity that has frequently been exercised by communities across the Marcellus and elsewhere (Arnold, Long, and Gottlieb ; Arnold and Neupane ; Dokshin ).…”

Applying Policy Process Theories to Environmental Governance Research: Themes and New Directions

“…This work extends the ICA to account for economic and environmental policy co‐benefits. Another contribution to innovation‐diffusion research is Arnold et al’s () analysis of “policy expansion,” an understudied phenomenon wherein jurisdictions rapidly adopt multiple measures tackling the same issue. In the context of municipal anti‐fracking policy, they find that policy expansion is more likely when pressures for policymaking are not satisfied by an initial policy innovation and the innovation itself encourages lawmakers and stakeholders to revisit the issue.…”

“…The emphasis on over-time data is sensible for IAD studies because many investigate factors influencing the management of common-pool resources over time, using multiple methods (Blythe et al, 2017;Foster & Hope, 2016). Similarly, time plays an inherently central role in IDM studies (Arnold, Anh, & Long, 2018, Bromley-Trujillo, Butler, Poe, & Davis, 2016. It is more surprising that longitudinal data are less common in ACF studies because a central proposition of ACF is that policy change typically occurs over a decade or longer (Sabatier, 2011).…”