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，几乎没有例外，都集中在州执行联邦命令上，而忽视了州环境政策创新。这项研究试图解释国家环境政策创新的差异。将考察1980至1993年间国家在四个环境政策领域的政策创新：危险废物、地下水保护、空气污染和固体废物回收。来自政策创新和扩散文献的关键理论命题将得到系统的检验。从50个州对州行政官员的调查以及对联邦环境保护局官员的采访中获得的数据将被用来测试政策网络和企业家、地区决定因素和联邦参与的重要性。国会就现有联邦环境法举行的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.