Michelle C. Pautz

Pursuing Trust in Environmental Regulatory Interactions The Significance of Inspectors’ Interactions With the Regulated Community

In environmental policy, the interactions of frontline environmental regulators and their counterparts in the regulated community constitute environmental protection in the United States. The authors offer a framework of the different types of interactions these actors may have with one another based on trust. Kettl and Fiorino, among others, have indicated that trust is a fundamental problem in environmental regulation. Building on these assertions, the authors delve into the extant trust literature and offer a definition of trust and, argue that trust is positive and should be sought in these relationships. The authors develop a framework of relationships between inspectors and facility personnel based on varying degrees of trust and offer testable hypotheses.

Policymaking from Below: The Role of Environmental Inspectors and Publics

Discussions of policymaking frequently focus on officials operating at the upper echelons of the process and rarely consider individuals on the ground level, despite them having great potential to contribute to the policymaking process. In particular, this paper focuses on environmental compliance inspectors and participatory publics. We argue that the marginalization of these two groups is detrimental to our thoughtful collective understanding of environmental policy and protection in the U.S. Our argument is grounded in a discussion of deliberative democracy and the public sphere. We maintain that greater inclusion of these two groups could be achieved by considering their important roles in boundary spanning and social capital development.

'Argo' and 'Zero Dark Thirty': Film, Government, and Audiences

With the prevalence and accessibility of film today, we must wonder how film affects its audience. In particular, how does film influence an audience’s perceptions of the government? Regardless of the content, research demonstrates that film has the power to shape perceptions of its moviegoers on a range of subjects. In this study, two recent films, Argo and Zero Dark Thirty , were chosen as case studies to explore how Hollywood portrays the intelligence community in film and shapes opinions about the government more broadly. This research found that about 25% of viewers of the two films changed their opinion about the government after watching one of the movies. Additionally, many of those changes are reflected in an improvement in the sentiments about the government and its institutions. This exploratory research provokes interesting discussions about the ability of film to influence the perceptions of an audience.

Environmental Reviews & Case Studies: Next-Generation Environmental Policy and the Implications for Environmental Inspectors: Are Fears of Regulatory Capture Warranted?

With renewed emphasis on environmental protection and growing scholarly consensus on the need to move beyond the traditional command-and-control approach to environmental regulation, the “window” may be opening for significant changes in environmental policy in the United States. Much of the dialogue focuses on next-generation environmental policies that are cooperative instead of confrontational, comprehensive rather than fragmented, and flexible instead of rigid. This pending transition invariably raises questions about regulatory enforcement and, most notably, fears of regulatory capture. Accordingly, this article explores the discussion of next-generation environmental policies and their implications for environmental inspectors in the context of regulatory enforcement. The transition to next-generation policies is likely to have significant impacts on inspectors; however, I argue that concerns of regulatory capture are overstated, based on a survey of existing research on regulatory enforcement.

Government on the Silver Screen: Contemporary American Cinema's Depiction of Bureaucrats, Police Officers, and Soldiers

Movies continue to be the most accessible art form to Americans and that reach allows films to have a tremendous effect on moviegoers. With more than a billion movie tickets sold annually in the United States, the ability of movies to influence the perceptions of moviegoers is pronounced. Frequently, the government is part of those depictions. Although film is routinely studied in a host of disciplines, a focus on the portrayal of government generally and government officials more specifically, remains elusive. Instead of using a case-study approach, we examine recent, popular films to investigate how government is portrayed generally and how individual governmental characters are depicted. For our sample, we use the top-10 box office grossing films from 2000 to 2009 to assess how government is depicted in the films most likely seen by the majority of movie-watching Americans. Perhaps unsurprisingly, we found that films generally have a mixed view of government with more negative depictions than positive. However, in examining bureaucrats, police officers, soldiers, and politicians, we found a much more positive depiction of these individual government characters. Americans may view government negatively, but in film they see positive depictions of individual civil servants.

Sarbanes-Oxley and the Relentless Pursuit of Government Accountability: The Perils of 21st Century Reform

In the wake of the corporate financial scandals of the late 1990s, Congress responded by passing the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act of 2002 to improve accountability of both the private sector and of government. Although discussions of accountability and Sarbanes‐Oxley are pertinent to both the public and private sectors, the authors focus on the attempts of the act to encourage government accountability through the creation of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. In a broader context, the passage of Sarbanes‐Oxley fits within public administration’s constant emphasis of reform—particularly those reforms under the rubric of New Public Management that are intended to promote accountability. The authors’ purpose in this article is twofold. First, public administration literature is largely silent on Sarbanes‐Oxley despite its implications for the field. Second, and perhaps more importantly, Sarbanes‐Oxley illustrates the perils of modern government reform efforts. Using Koppell’s five conceptions of accountability, the authors demonstrate how Sarbanes‐Oxley, like many reforms before it, may actually hinder accountability despite its explicit promises to promote it.

Undergraduate Research Needs: Faculty-Librarian Collaboration to Improve Information Literacy in Policy Papers

Abstract To improve the quality of semester-long policy projects of upper-division political science students, a faculty member and research librarian collaborated to reframe the assignment in hopes of improving students’ research skills and information literacy, revising the traditional one-way model of faculty sending students to the library to get information. The outcomes over the course of two semesters have been promising. Citations in two sets of student papers showed a remarkable increase in the number and quality of sources used. This suggests that when faculty work with librarians throughout the semester, such collaboration can improve students’ information literacy and thus their coursework and overall learning.

Understanding the Regulatory Thicket: Interactions Among State Environmental Regulators and Regulatees

ABSTRACT Research exploring state-level regulatory interactions in the U.S. often employs survey methodology to ask front-line actors about their experiences. While these efforts are noteworthy, we argue that it is important to investigate these interactions utilizing a different approach. In this exploratory study, we use randomized vignettes, to which a respondent can react without fear of revealing practices or succumbing to social desirability. Our results are in concert with a growing body of literature that suggests cooperation between the regulator and regulatees is essential for future interactions in order to achieve compliance, yet each party’s perceptions may not be completely congruent.

Understanding Public Policy Making through the Work of Committees: Utilizing a Student-Led Congressional Hearing Simulation

In an effort to help students better understand the complexity of making environmental policy and the role of policy actors in this process, we developed a mock congressional hearing simulation. In this congressional hearing, students in two environmental policy courses take on the roles of members of Congress and various interest groups to examine the issue of hydraulic fracturing (or fracking). Here, we describe the details of the mock congressional hearing and discuss some of our reflections about the simulation. Our students have responded well to the inclusion of this simulation and we have found it very effective in achieving the learning outcomes for the students. We argue that this simulation could be easily replicated in various policy courses on a variety of topics.

Cops on Film: Hollywood’s Depiction of Law Enforcement in Popular Films, 1984–2014

With numerous recent incidents in which law-enforcement officers played a role in the deaths of citizens, there is a renewed focus on cops and their actions. Part of that discussion is related to the nation’s preconceived notions of cops and where those ideas might originate. Popular culture contributes to those images; this study explores one source of those images: film. More specifically, it investigates the image of law enforcement on the silver screen from 1984 through 2014. With a sample of 34 films and more than 200 cop characters, this study finds a mixed general depiction of law enforcement in movies but a positive depiction of individual cop characters. The prevalent descriptor of those characters was good, hard-working, and competent law-enforcement officers. This exploratory study informs broader discussions about the images of cops found in popular culture.