Political Context of Environmental Manag

Many of the decisions we make and actions we take have profound environmental effects, yet economic and political considerations often dominate decision-making in a way that fails to take into account the environmental foundation of our livelihoods. A slow, yet steady extension of environmental imperatives into previously ‘non’ environmental sectors such as agriculture, trade and energy production, provide some movement towards sustainability. This class explores how the political system identifies public issues as problems requiring public action, and creates and implements policy solutions. It assesses what conditions foster change by anticipating likely outcomes and effective points of intervention to achieve policy goals. It emphasizes the politics of environmental policymaking, using energy, agriculture and forestry as cases of global enterprises with local to global scales of inquiry. We will explore the tension between the market and economic models and politics and political models of policymaking; interests and interest-group politics; the connections among expertise, knowledge, and policymaking; and the particular politics of policy issues that cross jurisdictional boundaries, including federalism and globalization. We will start the semester considering two contrasting theories of policymaking: an economic, market-based approach with application in environmental policy issues and a political approach. The latter constitutes a critique of the economic paradigm and sets up the tension between the concerns for policy efficiency and effectiveness stemming from the economic model, and those of equity, representation, and consensus derived from the political model. Participants will develop a sense of the history of environmental activism, relevant actors in environmental politics and management, their roles, sources of power and influence, the effects of formal political processes and the sources of potential conflicts.