Doctoral Dissertation Research: Situating the Effects of Public US Environmental Policy Making

影响我们生活的政府法规经常受到一种被称为“非正式规则制定”或“通知和评论”的法律程序的影响。这一程序允许公众在政策成为法律之前提出批评意见。它在参与治理方面的有效性取决于提交评论后会发生什么。本研究项目调查了官僚行为体在规则制定和规则实施中构建和回应“公众”感知的方式，特别是在环境治理方面。政府官员如何解读评论者关于环境是什么以及如何评价环境的观点？而有着自己的经历和信仰的政府官员，又是如何通过日常工作生活中的行为和社会实践来创造这一法律程序的细节？研究计划包括13个月在环境保护署的现场，包括该机构批准的参与者观察和对其员工的采访。此外，研究人员将与评论者进行访谈，并分析他们的意见，以了解他们如何体验和重视环境和参与非正式规则制定。这项研究将有助于理解政府官员的日常工作如何证明有关如何实施公众参与机制的政策决定是合理的，以及官员的公民身份、治理和公众参与观念对国家制定的影响。

Government regulations that shape our lives are often influenced by a legal procedure known as "informal rulemaking," or "notice and comment." This procedure allows members of the public to submit comments critiquing policies before they become law. Its effectiveness in terms of participation in governance hinges on what happens to comments once they are submitted. This research project investigates the way bureaucratic actors construct and respond to perceptions of "the public" in rule-creation and rule-implementation, specifically around environmental governance. How do government officials interpret commenters' ideas of what the environment is and how it is valued? And how do government officials, who have their own experiences and beliefs, create the details of this legal process through behaviors and social practices carried out in their day-to-day work lives? The research plan involves 13 months on site in the Environmental Protection Agency, including agency approved participant observation and interviews with its employees. In addition, the researcher will conduct interviews with commenters and analyze their submissions to learn how they experience and value the environment and participation in informal rulemaking. This research will contribute to understanding of both how government officials' everyday work justifies policy decisions about how to implement public participation mechanisms and the effects on state-making of officials' notions of citizenship, governance, and public participation.