TOWSON
UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL
SCIENCE
POSC 421 Politics
and Environmental Policy
101
Instructor:
Dr. Toni Marzotto
Office:
l18J Linthicum Hall
Office Hours:
TuTh 10:30 - 11:00 p.m.
Thurs 2:00 - 3:00 p.m. & by
apt.
Telephone:
Office 410
704-957 (local)
Home 01 593-9669 (long distance)
Students are encouraged to call the instructor at
home if they are having problems with the class work
reading material or other assignments.
e-mail:
tmarzotto@towson.edu
homepg:
http:/pages.towson.edu/marzotto/
TEXTS:
Kraft, Michael E. (eds.) 2004. Environmental Policy and Politics (Third Edition) New York, Pearson Education, Inc.
Kline, Benjamin. 2000. First Along the River: A Brief History of the
U.S. Environmental Movement. Lanham, MD: Acada Books.Marzotto, Toni, Vicky Moshier Burnor, & Gordon Scott Bonham. 2000. The Evolution of Public Policy: Cars and the Environment. Boulder, CO. Lynne Rienner.
Smith, Zachary A. 20004 The Environmental Policy Paradox. (Fourth
Edition)
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Recommended Readings:
The following books and articles will be of interest to students who want
to learn
more about certain topics:
Bryner, Gary C. 1995. Blue Skies, Green Politics: The Clean Air Act of 1990
and Its
Implementation. Washington, DC: CQ Press.
Church, Thomas W. and Nakamura, Robert T. 1993. Cleaning Up The Mess: Implementation Strategies in Superfund. Washington, DC: Brookings.
Davis, Charles 1997 (ed). Western Public Lands and Environmental Politics. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Downs, Anthony. 1972. "Up and Down with Ecology The Issue-Attention
Cycle."
The Public Interest (Summer):38-50.
Dunlap, Riley E, and Scarce Rik. 1991 "The Polls Poll Trends: Environmental Problems and Protection." Public Opinion Quarterly 55 (Winter): 650-72.
Lowry, William R. 1994. The Capacity for Wonder: Preserving National Parks.
Washington, DC: Brookings.
Rosenbaum, Walter A. 1995. Environmental Politics and Policy (Third Edition). Washington, DC: CQ Press.
Switzer, Jacqueline Vaughn. 1997. Green Backlash: The History and
Politics of Environmental
Opposition in the U.S. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.
Recommended Material:
Hot topics today include: the scaling back of environmental regulations by the Bush administration; Marylands governor and his environmental agenda.
You should plan to read a national newspaper regularly. The Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal etc. (Also, Baltimore Sun if you are interested in the local area.) Good examples of environmental issues are often discussed in these papers. Students are encouraged to bring articles to class they find interesting.
Check out the Internet. I have included EPAs web address on my home page. EPA has put up a lot of information on different environmental issues. Most environmental interest groups have their perspective on current problems and policy.
OVERVIEW AND OBJECTIVES OF THE COURSE:
This course introduces students to the analysis and evaluation of environmental problems from a political perspective. My primary goal is to give you an understanding of the political context within which policy makers attempt to solve our most pressing environmental problems. During the semester course participants will explore environmental public policy by focusing on several questions. The first will deal with the question of what the social, cultural and political factors have led to demands that the coercive power of government be applied to deal with environmental issues. Also, the course will examine specific domestic and international governmental reactions to these issues with the intent of studying both the processes of policy formation and the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of various policies.
Objectives:
a. To identify the major political actors involved in the formation of current environmental policy, and to analyze their impact on such policy
b. To explore technology's dual role as both a cause of environmental problems, and as a source of solutions to some such problems.
c. To familiarize students with the background and development of governmental intervention in environmental issues.
d. To examine some of the major areas (e.g. water, air, hazardous waste) in which government makes environmental policy.
e. To examine and to assess the effectiveness of current environmental regulatory activities.
f. To explore the impact of political boundaries and institutions on government's ability to deal with environmental problems.
g. To explore the implications of the assumption that technological innovation offers solutions to environmental problems which do not require changes in individual lifestyles or in patterns of social interaction.
h. To get students involved in the "real world" of environmental policy.. What can you do to make mother earth a better place to live and to leave to future generations. I will also be encouraging all of you to participate in any Earth Day Celebrations April 22, 2004.
REQUIREMENTS AND EVALUATION:
Each student is expected to read the assigned material and be prepared to
participate in class discussion.
Course Requirements POSC 421:*
Exam
I
Thurs. April 3,
2004
20% total grade 100pts
Interest
Group Thurs, March 11,
2004 20% total
grade 100 pts
Papers
& Presentation
Final
Papers
Thurs. May 6,
2004 30%
total grade 150
pts
Participation**
TBA
10% total
grade
50 pts
Final
Exam
Thurs. May 13, 2004 20%
total grade 100 pts
6:00 - 8:40 LI 115
Friday, April 2th is the last day to withdraw or to change to or from the pass or audit grading.
*Graduate Students must accompany their paper with an annotated bibliography of at least 20 citations.
** Thoughtful discussion and news article presentation at beginning of classes. At the beginning of every class period (up to 3 students) can sign up to tell us about a news article that they read dealing with an environmental issue. The first three students who put their name on the board at the beginning of each class period (excluding exam day or interest group presentation days), can tell the class (2 min or less) about article. Students can earn up to 5 points per presentation up to a total of 25 points.
General Format for all Exams:
l/2 - short answers this consists of concepts, authors, important books. You will be asked to discuss briefly the concept and why it is important in understanding public policy.
l/2 - essays taken from discussions, text and any additional assigned reading. You are expected to use logical statements, complete sentences, proper punctuation, and correct spelling. Most likely one essay with include a news article from Washington Post that you will be asked to discuss.
FINAL EXAM -- THE FINAL EXAM IS CUMULATIVE. IT WILL COVER THE ENTIRE COURSE. ALL THE READING MATERIAL, LECTURE MATERIAL, VIDEO, ETC.
Interest Group Papers & Presentations:
Beginning March 11th students will make individual 5 minute presentations (I will have a stop watch), on a particular environmental interest group. Students may select any group they like including some that may be considered anti-environmental. You are encouraged but not required to -- attend one of the groups meetings or interview some of their members or leaders etc. The best place to start might be the internet. Most of these groups have internet web pages with some basic information. Also, most will probably have Washington, DC offices (at least the big ones) and you may want to call them to get information about the groups stand on environmental issues.
Smaller local or regional groups may not have internet sites. However, these groups are usually more accessible and willing to talk to students than the large national or international group. So there is a trade-off.
The presentation and short written report ( 5 pages) should include but not be limited to:
when was the group founded and by whom,
what are they most concerned with,
what is the size and demographic composition of their membership,
at what level (or levels) of government are they most active,
how do they make their demands (protests, letters etc.) on government,
anything else you find interesting.
Research Papers:
Each student will write a 12-15 page paper (excluding title page, tables, figures, citations, etc.), analyzing a public policy response to an environmental problem. You may select any topic you wish. Issues of global, national, regional, and local (so long as such an issue has implications extending beyond the strictly local), are all legitimate. When studying the problem, students should make a good-faith effort to address the following:
1. What is the problem which you are studying? What are its sources and its effects?
2. What policies, if any, currently address this problem? Are they in the form of laws, regulations, treaties, policy statements, or what?
3. What governments and other formal institutions have played a role in making and implementing those policies. (Suggestion: policies may be identified through relevant laws, regulations, treaties, official statements, observed behaviors, and so forth.) How and why did current policy became policy?
4. What and who the major non-governmental actors (e.g. interest groups and other stakeholders) active in this area? What are their interests? What tactics do they use to advance their cause(s)?
5. Is (are) the current policy(ies) effective? Why, or why not?
6. What are your policy recommendations? Should current policy be continued as is? Should modifications be made? Should it be abolished? Why?
Some policies actually make the problem worse. And some policies create new problems which may also be worse for the environment. Unfortunately, in the environmental arena there are no simple solutions.
All Papers:
Papers must be typed, double spaced with margins of no more than one inch
[top, left, right, and bottom]. If I have any doubts, I will get out my ruler. Use standard fonts of 12 pitch (i.e., no stretching text with extra large or extra wide fonts). All pages must be numbered.
Citations must be in APA format. See http://www.apastyle.org/elecref.html. Cook Library also has a web site: see, http://cooklibrary.towson.edu/infotutor/citing/citing1.cfm . I believe that Cook Library also has some hard copy handouts of citation forms. Also, my book uses APA style so you might look at it for guidance.
You must use at least 15 citations of which at least 5 must be different sources. So this means that the Washington Post is 1 source and although you can cite it more than once you must use 4 other, different sources e.g. books, journal articles, news programs, interview with the member or their staff, data off the internet etc. In short, I do not want to read papers extracted from one or two sources. You may NOT use only internet works. Yes, I know, that some items are both hard copy and internet (Washington Post). I will be looking to see that you have looked at journals, books etc. Interviews with individuals who are in the field are also acceptable as sources of information.
Papers:
Will be marked down 10 points per late day beginning at 6:00 p.m. on due date.
Also: 5 misspelled or mistyped words = 5 points off
no title page = 5 points off
no page numbers = 5 points off
You are expected to proof read and edit your paper before turning it in.
GRADING:
Grading is on a numerical curve and plus and minus is used. Students will receive points for each exam. The student who earns the highest number of points out of the total number of points possible will receive an A. No letter grades are kept by the instructor. It is only at the end of the semester when all the assigned work is completed and the points totaled that a final class curve is calculated and a letter grade assigned.. However, after the midterm and the papers the instructor will let students know how they are doing relative to the rest of the class by creating a hypothetical letter grade for numerical distributions.
PLAGIARISM:
Any student found plagiarizing [copying, paraphrasing, taking ideas from a book, magazine, newspaper or any other published or unpublished source] without properly citing the source will receive an "F" for the ENTIRE COURSE.
CHEATING ON EXAMS:
Any student found cheating on his or her exam will receive a grade of "F" for the ENTIRE COURSE. By cheating I mean passing notes to other students, using or looking at study notes or crib notes, talking to others during exams, and looking at and/or copying from a colleagues paper with or without their permission. Moreover, any student who sees someone cheating during an exam should report this to the instructor immediately. Remember your grade is based on how well YOU do.
CLASS ATTENDANCE:
Class attendance is required. Roll will be taken either orally or via a written sign-in sheet. Anyone missing more than 3 unexcused classes will receive a zero for participation even if you have earned points for news article presentations. Participation is part of your evaluation and its hard to participate if you are "not in class."
CLASS BEHAVIOR:
Please try to be courteous and thoughtful. In this class, as in society, we must balance the needs/desires of the individual with the needs/desires of the class. Eating, walking in and out of class, coming late to class, leaving class early and other such behaviors make it hard for your classmates to learn and for the instructor to teach.
Turn off cell-phones and beepers.