Mark K. McBeth

The Science of Storytelling: Measuring Policy Beliefs in Greater Yellowstone

ABSTRACT This study of Greater Yellowstone interest groups uses a mixed methodology that addresses methodological criticisms of narrative policy analysis. Three research questions guide the research: (1) Is it possible to connect narratives found in public consumption documents to interest group policy beliefs? (2) Can narratives be made falsifiable? (3) Does a quantified method add to the usefulness and explanatory power of narrative policy analysis? Seventy-five public consumption documents from the Greater Yellowstone Coalition and the Blue Ribbon Coalition were content analyzed for policy beliefs. The results indicate statistically significant differences between the two groups for all three policy beliefs: federalism, science, and the relationship between humans and nature. Despite these statistically significant results, some of the findings run counter to expectations. The implications of the studys methodological approach are explored.

COMMUNITY ENCOURAGEMENT: RETURNING TO THE BASIS FOR COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

This paper first presents a brief philosophical and theoretical critique of community developments transformation into economic development. The history of community development parallels sociologys community/society dichotomy of human associations. The acceptance of societal domination at the expense of community explains the movement away from community in favor of the larger society. This paper rejects the notion of the existence of the community/society typology and rather views both types of human associations as fundamental to rural life. Using these theoretical points, the paper uses a case study to introduce a successful rural revitalization process termed “community encouragement.” Using community input, a broad based local economic development team, and the resources of a regional university, the process integrates a communitys traditional values with progressive revitalization plans.

Trash or treasure: recycling narratives and reducing political polarisation

Recycling is an increasingly important tool in global and national efforts for sustainability. Yet, particularly in the United States, there remains disconnect between those who view recycling as a necessity and those who see it as a waste: many conservatives do not support recycling activities, while many liberals do. However, recycling can be framed in language that draws support from both conservatives and liberals. Data from a survey sample of 429 individuals shows that conservative frames of recycling are supported by both conservatives and liberals, whereas liberal frames are supported only by liberals. Similarly ‘duty-based’ citizenship frames are supported by both duty-based and engaged citizens, while ‘engaged’ citizenship frames are supported mainly by engaged citizens. The implications for researchers, educators, administrators, and others involved in recycling are detailed.

Introducing the Narrative Policy Framework

You will stir up little controversy by asserting that human beings are storytelling animals. We all have at least a rough accounting of what a story is. Stories progress from beginnings, through middles, and have endings. They are composed of characters. There is a plot situating the story and characters in time and space, where events interact with the actions of the characters and the world around them to make the story worthy of telling in the first place. We have all told stories. We have all listened to stories. Indeed, even our thoughts and emotions seem bound by the structure of story. It is not surprising then that whole academic disciplines have been devoted to the study of story and that whole careers have been largely dedicated to a single story or a single storyteller such as William Shakespeare or Mark Twain. We are thus, in a sense, homo narrans, and there is something about story—or narrative—that feels uniquely human. Consider this: pause for a moment and try to imagine communication without story….

From protests to litigation to YouTube: A longitudinal case study of strategic lobby tactic choice for the Buffalo Field Campaign

Abstract Interest group scholars have long explored under what circumstances interest groups choose lobby tactics to influence policy. While most studies focus on well-funded national interest groups, this study uses a newly formed interest group, Buffalo Field Campaign (BFC), in order to qualitatively analyze changes in lobby tactic choice from its inception and empirically assess these changes with traditional measures of lobby choice. Additionally, this study employs an innovative methodology by proposing a new typology of lobby strategy and using the interest groups political narratives as the data source. Thus, the research questions addressed in this study are: (1) does the BFC evolve over a ten year period in terms of lobby typologies and if so, how?; (2) qualitatively, what are these lobby activities?; and (3) how does choice of lobby typology relate to age of the group, issue saliency, financial resources, and external political context? The results indicate that BFC has gone through three distinct lobbying stages since its inception from indirect-unconventional to direct-conventional to indirect-conventional. Significantly correlated with these stages are age, financial resources, and governing coalition; interestingly, there are no statistically significant associations between lobby tactic choice and issue salience or external political context measured in the number of bison deaths. The implications of the findings for the study of other interest groups are explored.

The New West in the Context of Extractive Commodity Theory: The Case of Bison Brucellosis in Yellowstone National Park.

Abstract Extractive commodity theory suggests that rural communities’ transformation from “Old West” to “New West” economies should produce populations that are supportive of environmental initiatives and trusting of environmental groups. Using the Yellowstone-area bison-brucellosis conflict as a case, we explore this possibility as well as the influence of age, sex, percent of life lived in the community and perception of Montana’s economic composition on the New West’s support for environmental initiatives and trust of information sources. Surveys were sent to two New West communities in Montana that were embroiled in the 1996–1997 bison controversy. One hundred and twenty-four of 225 surveys were returned (55%). The results indicate that respondents were supportive of protecting bison, trusting of information sources associated with the ranching industry, and that only perception of the economic composition of Montana was consistently related to these variables. The theoretical implications of this study are explored.

Understanding the Role of Policy Narratives and the Public Policy Arena: Obesity as a Lesson in Public Policy Development

As witnessed by recent national policy battles over health care and climate change, the policy environment in the United States (U.S.) is increasingly politically polarized. U.S. public policy is progressively driven by divisive symbols and dominated by morality debates often articulated in the form of emotional narratives. One such issue that has gained attention in the U.S., partially due to efforts of First Lady Michelle Obama, is the increasing levels of obesity. Obesity policy advocates warn that the U.S. is facing a crisis that impacts not only our health, but our national competitiveness; not only our military preparedness, but our national security. Our goal is not to get involved in the scientific debate over obesity and its costs to society but rather to explore the role that policy narratives and causal attribution play in determining attitudes toward obesity and obesity policy. We contend that an individuals view of obesity is shaped by their view of individual rights and responsibilities and of individual morality; and determined more by stories (especially narratives that “fit” with those views) than by science. Our paper seeks to test whether science or other factors primarily shape ones view of governments appropriate role relative to the obesity issue and to examine which of two foundational moral narratives is more convincing in the obesity policy realm. Using a sample of 172 respondents at two institutions of higher education in the United States, we find that a “Strict Father Morality” narrative was more convincing than a science statement in influencing an individuals view of obesity. Respondents believed that obesity was a serious problem, but they were deeply divided over governments role in addressing the obesity issue. Female respondents were the most supportive of governmental efforts to address obesity. We explore the potential impact of our findings for public policy development and future research.

Urban-rural influences in U.S. environmental and economic development policy

Abstract Despite the fact that rural communities have the most to gain and lose in matters involving economic development and environmental preservation, they often are given the least voice in the political processes that create policies in these areas. Agendas are set, policies formulated and implemented by policy-makers, administrators, and practitioners in urban areas. These outside policies may not be consistent with how rural communities view the tradeoffs between the environment and the economy. We call for decentralization of economic and environmental policy. It is understood, however, that such an approach may involve risk. What if rural-based policy-makers and practitioners are, for instance, aggressively antienvironmental and pro-economic growth? Using results from a national sample of rural development officials, this study examines the environmental and economic development attitudes of development officials based on a population continuum. The findings suggest that rural-based development officials often have a greater appreciation of rural environmental quality of life features compared to their urban counterparts. The implications of the findings are detailed and suggestions for future research are provided.

Rural Environmental and Economic Development Attitudes: An Empirical Analysis

Environmental preservation and economic development are two issues that divide the rural community. Rural areas are often viewed as expressing anti-environmental and pro-growth attitudes; this study calls into question this latter assumption. The findings suggest that environmental and economic values are equally salient in the rural value structure. The rural development professional must possess accurate knowledge of environmental concerns.

Introduction to American Government: What is it Good for? Absolutely Everything

For those times when political science is again confronted with questions about its usefulness, we suggest that the classroom is a central arena for our discipline to reassert its relevance to the society in which we live. In particular, given the existence of our open and accessible political system, we argue that the introductory course taught as a general education requirement by nearly every political science department provides unique advantages for political science to justify itself as a relevant and necessary endeavor in comparison with most other academic disciplines. However, to truly take advantage of the unique position of political science we need to reevaluate some of our most basic assumptions about the reasons we have for teaching these introductory classes. Incorporating the latest research in teaching methods and theories of learning, we totally redesigned an introductory course from the ground up, basing this course around semester-long group projects geared towards enhancing the internal efficacy of our students as a means of increasing their comprehension of the material. In this article, we discuss the results from our implementation of this course design in the fall of 2009, demonstrating the effectiveness of the teaching model in both increasing the political efficacy of our students while simultaneously improving their knowledge of our political system. We conclude with a discussion of just how powerful this method of teaching our introductory classes can be as a justification for the entire edifice of political science itself.