Abstract
We know relatively little about the conditions that encourage people to jump into the political fray as policy entrepreneurs, advocates who devote substantial time, energy, and resources to campaigning for a policy goal. This paper aims to fill that gap by investigating the catalysts of policy entrepreneurship in municipalities across the State of New York, where between 2008 and 2012, hundreds of local jurisdictions passed measures opposing or supporting high-volume hydraulic fracturing (fracking). These local policy actions were often enthusiastically encouraged and, in some cases, vociferously opposed, by enterprising advocates. I propose a threat-centered theory of policy entrepreneurship, emphasizing the role of loss aversion in pushing actors toward advocacy. The empirical analysis shows that oppositional advocacy within a polity draws would-be policy entrepreneurs into battle.
Highlights
Policy science is centrally concerned with how, when, and why policy change occurs
Moratoriums prohibited fracking locally for periods that varied between three months and multiple years, bans preventive fracking entirely, zoning policies restricted fracking to certain locations, and resolutions sought to communicate local policy preferences to state policymakers and thereby influence their choices (Arnold and Nguyen Long, 2018)
In battles over local government policymaking, the salient threat of a potential policy loss appears to catalyze the emergence of a policy entrepreneur with opposing aims
Summary
Policy science is centrally concerned with how, when, and why policy change occurs. One or a small number of key actors be helping achieve change by acting as “policy entrepreneurs... willing to invest their resources—time, energy, reputation, money—to promote a [policy] position in return for anticipated future gain in the form of material, purposive, or solitary benefits” (Kingdon, 1984, 3). The limited existing scholarship on policy entrepreneur emergence draws on transaction cost and collective action theorizing to argue that resources, both to be gained by and in support of advocacy, spur people to spearhead efforts for policy change, while obstacles (e.g., lack of support from key constituencies) hinder their engagement. This account is incomplete: People considering engaging in politics do not necessarily or only make rational, rent-seeking calculations; they are driven by deeply held beliefs and the desire to see those beliefs effectuated in policy. I test this proposition in the context of local high-volume hydraulic fracturing (fracking) policymaking in the State of New York, where between 2008 and 2012, hundreds of localities passed policies opposing or supporting fracking, often spurred on by anti- and pro-fracking advocates.
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