Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: States as Experimental Policy Laboratories: A Comparative State Analysis of Environmental Policy Innovation

对州环境政策的研究，除了少数例外，都集中在州执行联邦授权上，而忽视了州环境政策的创新。 本研究旨在解释国家环境政策创新的变化。 从1980年到1993年，国家在四个环境政策领域的政策创新将被审查：危险废物，地下水保护，空气污染和固体废物回收。 将系统地检验从关于政策创新和传播的文献中得出的重要理论命题。 从对50个州的州行政官员的调查以及对联邦环保局官员的采访中获得的数据将用于测试政策网络和企业家、区域决定因素和联邦参与的重要性。 对现有联邦环境法的国会听证会的内容分析也将为分析提供信息。

Studies of state environmental policy, with few exceptions, have concentrated on state implementation of federal mandates and have ignored state environmental policy innovations. This research seeks to explain variations in state environmental policy innovation. State policy innovations from 1980 to 1993 in four environmental policy areas will be examined: hazardous waste, groundwater protection, air pollution, and solid waste recycling. Critical theoretical propositions derived from the literature on policy innovation and diffusion will be systematically tested. Data drawn from a fifty state survey of state administrative officials as well as from interviews with federal EPA officers will be used to test the importance of policy networks and entrepreneurs, regional determinants, and federal involvement. A content analysis of congressional hearings on existing federal environmental laws will also inform the analysis.