Stuart W. Shulman

Rigor and flexibility in computer-based qualitative research: Introducing the Coding Analysis Toolkit

Abstract Software to support qualitative research is both revered and reviled. Over the last few decades, users and skeptics have made competing claims about the utility, usability and ultimate impact of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) software packages. This paper provides an overview of the debate and introduces a new web-based Coding Analysis Toolkit (CAT). It argues that knowledgeable, well-designed research using qualitative software is a pathway to increasing rigor and flexibility in research.

Democracy and the Environment on the Internet Electronic Citizen Participation in Regulatory Rulemaking

We hypothesize that recent uses of the Internet as a public-participation mechanism in the United States fail to overcome the adversarial culture that characterizes the American regulatory process. Although the Internet has the potential to facilitate deliberative processes that could result in more widespread public involvement, greater transparency in government processes, and a more satisfied citizenry, we argue that efforts to implement Internet-based public participation have overlaid existing problematic government processes without fully harnessing the transformative power of information technologies. Public comments submitted in two United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) rulemaking processes—the National Organic Program’s organic standard and the Forest Service’s Roadless Area Conservation Rule—compose our data. We conclude that the Internet provides an arena for playing out three types of conflicts that have long plagued environmental decision-making processes: conflicts over trust of federal agencies, the use of science, and the role of public values.

Democracy and E-Rulemaking: Web-Based Technologies, Participation, and the Potential for Deliberation

Abstract Deliberative democratic theorists and public participation scholars have become increasingly interested in institutionalized forms of citizen discourse with the state, including those facilitated by information technology. However, there have been very few empirical studies of the claims that the Internet will make public participation more inclusive and deliberative. We report the results of an exploratory survey of 1,556 citizen participants in regulatory public comment processes in the United States. Our analysis focuses on the differences in deliberative indicators between those who submitted their comments using newly available electronic tools and those who postal mailed or faxed letters on paper. We also examine differences between those who submitted an original letter and those who submitted a version of a mass-mailed form letter. Overall, the data found modest evidence of the presence of deliberative democratic practices. More interesting are the apparently fundamental differences between citizens who submit original comments and those who submit form letters. We discuss the implications of these findings as they relate to the use of information technology to increase government-citizen deliberation.

Multidimensional text analysis for eRulemaking

To support rule-writers, we are developing techniques to automatically analyze large number of public comments on proposed regulations. A document is analyzed in various ways including argument structure, topics, and opinions. The individual results are integrated into a unified output. The experiments reported here were performed on comments submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency in response to their proposed rule for mercury regulation.

eRulemaking: Issues in Current Research and Practice

Abstract A rich and challenging dialogue about the shape of eRulemaking is underway. While in its infancy, an interdisciplinary research community has formed to assess and inform the development of information technologies that serve the public and rule writers. To date, little is actually known about whether this transition is likely to benefit or degrade the role of public participation. As with all policy innovation, particularly technologically determined innovation, the risk of unintended consequences is present. While the Internet may usher in a new era of more inclusive, deliberative, and legally defensible rulemaking, it may be just as likely to reinforce existing inequalities, or worse, create new pitfalls for citizens wishing and entitled to influence the decision-making process. This article examines the origin of Regulations.Gov, a federal Web portal, in the context of recent literature on public participation, and federally funded research into impact of eRulemaking. It draws on workshop, interview, and focus group experiences that have fed into a multiyear dialogue between researchers, regulators, and the regulated public. It argues this dialogue is a fruitful and necessary part of the development of a standard architecture for eRulemaking that is consistent with the intent of public participation in the regulatory rulemaking process. “We have been as welcoming and joyous about the Net as the earthlings were about the aliens in Independence Day; we have accepted its growth in our lives without questioning its final effect. But at some point, we too will come to see a potential threat.” [2]

Electronic rulemaking: a public participation research agenda for the social sciences

This article proposes a social science research agenda that will reflect on and inform the development of new information technology-based approaches to the electronic collection, distribution, synthesis. and analysis of public commentary in the regulatory rulemaking process. It identifies one critical area of an ongoing governance transformation: the use of web-based programs to collect public commentary on proposed agency rules. In the tradition of reflexive modernization, this article calls for deeper social science reflection during the development of a technological design in order to tap its democratic potential.

An experiment in digital government at the United States National Organic Program

Digital communications technology isreconfiguring democratic governance. Federalagencies increasingly rely on Internet-basedapplications to improve citizen-governmentinteraction. Early efforts in the area ofdigital government have created newparticipatory opportunities as well asformidable governance challenges. Federalagencies are working within and across theirboundaries to find an e-rulemaking format thatis cost-effective, legally appropriate,user-friendly, and well suited to diverse modesof rulemaking activities. One of the overridingissues emerging from this process is thedefinition of meaningful public participationin rulemaking. An examination of an early caseinvolving the USDAs National Organic Programproposed rule summarizes comments related togenetic engineering, biosolids, irradiation,and the role of the National Organic StandardsBoard. The USDAs experience suggests a numberof complex challenges that must be met toeffectively integrate Web-based communicationsinto the federal rulemaking process.

Whither Deliberation? Mass E-Mail Campaigns and U.S. Regulatory Rulemaking

Abstract Mass e-mail campaigns are the organizational tool of choice for environmental activists seeking to inform and mobilize their constituencies. Some democratic theorists and reformers pin their hopes for more responsive and informed government policy on Internet-enhanced dialogue and debate. Electronic advocacy campaigns and action alerts are changing the nature and scope of public deliberation in contentious federal rulemaking. This paper examines the new digital landscape of electronic rulemaking through a case study of the recent mercury rulemaking at the US Environmental Protection Agency. Results are presented from an effort to code a sample of 1,000 e-mails selected at random from a dataset of approximately half a million. Particular attention is paid to the unique additions made to form letters.

Lost in cyberspace: barriers to bridging the digital divide in e-politics

In our analysis of e-political participation among a 2003-random sample survey of 478 respondents drawn from Iowa, Pennsylvania and Colorado, six blocks of variables were entered: (1) socio-demographic (2) place effects, (3) voting, (4) technology use (VCR, cell phone, etc.) and computer apathy, (5) attitudes toward technology and (6) specific uses of the internet. In the final block, younger and White respondents are more apt to be e-citizens. Computer training apathy decreases, and IT advantages increase, support for e-citizenry. Seeking medical e-information and making e-purchases increases engagement in e-politics. No main effects of place are found. For Colorado and Iowa residents, less-engaged voters reported less online political engagement, while those who are more likely to vote are also more likely to be advocates of e-politics. The final model explains 56% of the variation in e-government participation.

The Internet and Environmental Decision Making

A growing number of “digital democracy” theorists (see Alexander & Pal, 1998; Hague & Loader, 1999) argue that easy and cheap access to information and participatory opportunities available through the Internet can be a boon for democracy. A more informed citizenry, the optimists report, can take advantage of the technology to enter, and expand their role in, once exclusive domains of decision making. Many democratic theorists also acknowledge the potential hazards of digital democracy, including the reproduction of inequalities through the digital divide (Malina, 1999; Wilhelm, 2000). Others point out the improbability that an already fragmented and nondeliberative populace will capitalize on information made more easily available by the Internet (Alexander & Pal, 1998). One theorist suggests that it is problematic to assume that technological innovation itself can lead to greater public control of the agenda-setting process in government (Davis, 1999). To date, there is only enough empirical evidence to suggest that many questions remain unanswered. Dimaggio, Hargittai, Neuman, and Robinson’s (2001) summary of research on the social implications of the Internet points to the split between utopians and doomsayers, with the empirical evidence so far suggesting the reality is somewhere in the middle. More important, they warned that drawing conclusions about the Internet’s democratic potential at this stage of its development and integration into decisionmaking is risky. It requires disentangling unique characteristics of early adopters from the inherent and manipulable characteristics of the Internet. It also requires parsing the limitations of the Internet in its current form from its fully developed potential (p. 319). Although the debate over the potential of the Internet as a public participation mechanism continues, the U.S. government is increasingly committing itself to Internet-based public participation strategies for the future (Clinton, 1999; National Research Council, 2000; National Science and Technology Council, 1999; President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee, 1999). For example, Senator Joseph Lieberman cosponsored the “e-Government Act of 2001,” which if passed would require federal agencies to begin conductingmuch of their business over the