Collaborative Research on Advocacy Group Activity and Legislative Change Concerning the Environment

合作提案SES-0620577苏珊·奥尔扎克斯坦福大学SES-0620358萨拉·索尔亚利桑那大学在全国各地，公民围绕许多问题组织抗议活动是司空见惯的，例如防止空气、土地/土壤和噪音污染，生物多样性丧失，全球气候变化，核电站，促进安全废物处理和有毒化学品处理，促进回收利用，野生动物管理和保护、人口控制、保护和水质、土地、耕作、伐木、砍伐森林和辐照食品。此外，国会通过了一系列保护空气、水和其他环境方面的法律，这表明环境运动是美国政治中的一股力量。 该研究将分析国际和国家环境抗议和社会运动倡导团体对美国国会环境立法的影响。为了解决这个问题，调查人员将收集有关抗议事件，环保组织活动以及环境法案历史的信息，因为这些叙述随着时间的推移而展开。具体而言，他们将收集有关环境立法历史和环境社会运动的信息，以研究国会层面因素，公众舆论，游说活动和社会运动活动的影响都影响政策结果的中心论点，但它们在立法过程的不同阶段这样做。这项研究通过评估公民和组织的抗议和宣传活动对立法改革的影响，为社会学知识做出了贡献。 它强调了立法过程中可能影响到该过程每个阶段成败可能性的事件的具体顺序。该项目的一个更广泛的影响是，它将解决社会科学中关于民主政治进程性质的根本性辩论。特别是，它将探讨支持和反对环境的抗议活动和组织是否对立法结果有影响，政党偏好，投票记录和国会党派多数的影响。此外，由于本项目分析了国内和国际社会运动活动对整个政策过程的影响，研究结果将与那些有兴趣了解全球过程的影响的人相关。最后，通过开发对具有相同目标的法案进行分类的程序，该项目将为其他有兴趣捕捉不同政策提案历史的研究人员提供数据。

Collaborative ProposalsSES-0620577Susan OlzakStanford UniversitySES-0620358Sarah SouleUniversity of Arizona Across the country, it is commonplace to see citizens organizing protests around a multitude of issues, such as protecting against air, land/soil, and noise pollution, loss of biodiversity, global climate change, nuclear power plants, promoting safe waste disposal and treatment of toxic chemicals, promoting recycling, wildlife management and conservation, population control, conservation and water quality, land, farming, logging, deforestation, and irradiated food. Furthermore, Congress has passed a number of laws protecting the air, water, and other aspects of the environment, which suggest that the environmental movement is a force in American politics. The research will analyze the impact of international and national environmental protest and social movement advocacy groups on environmental legislation in the U.S. Congress. To address this question, the investigators will collect information on protest events, activities by environmental organizations, and histories of environmental bills as these narratives unfold over time. Specifically, they will assemble information on environmental legislative histories and environmental social movements, in order to study the central argument that the effects of congressional-level factors, public opinion, lobbyist activities, and social movement activities all influence policy outcomes, but that they do so at different stages in the legislative process. The research contributes to sociological knowledge by assessing the impact of protest and advocacy activities of citizens and organizations on legislative change. It highlights the specific sequence of events in the legislative process that may influence the likelihood of success or failure at each stage of the process. A broader impact of this project is that it will address fundamental debates in the social sciences about the nature of democratic political processes. In particular, it will explore whether or not pro- and anti-environmental protests and organizations matter to legislative outcomes, net of the effects of party preferences, voting records, and partisan majorities in Congress. Moreover, because this project analyzes the impact of domestic and international social movement activity on the entire policy process, findings will have relevance to those interested in understanding the effects of global processes. Finally, by developing procedures for classifying bills with identical goals, the project will provide data for other researchers interested in capturing the histories of distinct policy proposals over time.