Science in Environmental Policy: The Politics of Objective Advice (Politics, Science, and the Environment)

293 Pages·2009·0.72 MB·English

by  Ann Campbell Keller

Science in Environmental Policy
Politics, Science, and the Environment
Peter M. Haas and Sheila Jasanoff, editors
Peter Dauvergne, Shadows in the Forest: Japan and the Politics of Timber in
Southeast Asia
Peter Cebon, Urs Dahinden, Huw Davies, Dieter M. Imboden, and Carlo C.
Jaeger, eds., Views from the Alps: Regional Perspectives on Climate Change
Clark C. Gibson, Margaret A. McKean, and Elinor Ostrom, eds., People and
Forests: Communities, Institutions, and Governance
The Social Learning Group, Learning to Manage Global Environmental Risks.
Volume 1: A Comparative History of Social Responses to Climate Change,
Ozone Depletion, and Acid Rain. Volume 2: A Functional Analysis of Social
Responses to Climate Change, Ozone Depletion, and Acid Rain
Clark Miller and Paul N. Edwards, eds., Changing the Atmosphere: Expert
Knowledge and Environmental Governance
Craig W. Thomas, Bureaucratic Landscapes: Interagency Cooperation and the
Preservation of Biodiversity
Nives Dolsak and Elinor Ostrom, eds., The Commons in the New Millennium:
Challenges and Adaptation
Kenneth E. Wilkening, Acid Rain Science and Politics in Japan: A History of
Knowledge and Action Toward Sustainability
Virginia M. Walsh, Global Institutions and Social Knowledge: Generating
Research at the Scripps Institution and the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Com-
mission, 1900s–1990s
Sheila Jasanoff and Marybeth Long Martello, eds., Earthly Politics: Local and
Global in Environmental Governance
Christopher Ansell and David Vogel, eds., What’s the Beef? The Contested
Governance of European Food Safety
Charlotte Epstein, The Power of Words in International Relations: Birth of an
Anti-Whaling Discourse
Ann Campbell Keller, Science in Environmental Policy: The Politics of Objective
Advice
Science in Environmental Policy
The Politics of Objective Advice
Ann Campbell Keller
The MIT Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
© 2009 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any
electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or informa-
tion storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher.
For information on quantity discounts, email [email protected].
Set in Sabon by SNP Best-set Typesetter Ltd., Hong Kong. Printed and bound
in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Keller, Ann Campbell.
Science in environmental policy : the politics of objective advice / Ann
Campbell Keller.
p. cm.—(Politics, science, and the environment)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-262-01312-3 (hardcover : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-262-51296-1
(pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Environmental policy. 2. Science and state. 3. Scientists—Political activity.
I. Title.
GE170.K453 2009
363.7'0561—dc22
2008044256
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
for David and Cole

Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction 1
1 Theories of Science in Policy Making 27
2 Scientists and Agenda Setting 45
3 Scientists and Legislation 85
4 Scientists and Implementation 139
Conclusion 169
Appendix A: A Primer on the Roots of a Constructivist View of
Science in Society 185
Appendix B: Methodology for Analyzing Scientists’ Participation in
Legislative Settings 191
Appendix C: Acid Rain Hearings Included in Qualitative
Analysis 195
Appendix D: Climate Change Hearings Included in Qualitative
Analysis 199
Appendix E: Interviews (Dates and Organizations) 205
Notes 207
Bibliography 247
Index 275

Acknowledgements
This book began as my PhD dissertation at the University of California
at Berkeley under the guidance of Todd LaPorte, Gene Rochlin, and the
late Nelson Polsby. Without their intelligent guidance and mentorship,
which continued far past the dissertation stage, I would not have been
able to bring the manuscript to successful completion.
A central portion of this book is based on interviews I conducted in
Washington from the summer of 1997 through the fall of 1998. I owe
particular thanks to all the people I interviewed for taking time away
from their busy schedules to talk to me. These interviews opened my
eyes to the complexity of drawing science into policy making and dem-
onstrated to me how dedicated civil servants working on environmental
issues are to creating good public policy.
As a graduate student at the Institute of Governmental Studies at
UC Berkeley, I was surrounded by a number of faculty and graduate
students who created a stimulating and supportive intellectual environ-
ment. First and foremost were my committee members—Todd, Gene,
and Nelson. I also want to thank Jack Citrin for encouraging me to
pursue this topic, Bruce Cain for stepping in with a research position
when my commitment to graduate school was at its most tenuous, and
a number of graduate student colleagues who provided endless encour-
agement, including Mark Brown, Samantha Luks, Jonathan Marshall,
Khalid Medani, Anshu Chatterjee, Adam Stone, Andrew Wiedlea,
Nathaniel Persily, Astrid Scholz, and Jennifer Lynn Miller. I am also
enormously indebted to Elizabeth Boles, who provided two invaluable
gifts: an intellectual home for me while I was in Washington and her
friendship.
While at the University of Colorado at Boulder, I relied upon a
research grant provided to new faculty to extend my data-collection