Public Policy and Environmental Politics

Catalog description

The course examines the interplay of scientific, political, social, and economic factors in the formation of environmental policy in the United States. It assesses the role of civic concern, political institutions, regulatory agencies, non-governmental organizations, scientific information, financial factors, and technology in environmental affairs. Lectures, readings, and videos enable students to understand the principal issues in the field. The political process that generates environmental laws and regulations is reviewed. Also, real world case studies cover controversial national and international policy issues are explored. The focus is on the role science plays in the policy process and on the sources of conflict among political and policy actors (elected officials, bureaucrats, legislators, and interest groups). At the end of this course the student should be able to: Explain public policy as it relates to environmental concerns; Identify the challenges and opportunities that are associated with various strategies to implement environmental policy; Describe significant changes in environmental perspectives in the United States over the last 50 years; List and define the different social perspectives that influence decision making related to environmental politics; Build environmentally focused arguments based on information gathered from a variety of sources