Abstract
The essence of policy conflicts remains largely underdeveloped, both theoretically and empirically. We explore policy conflict and explain its cognitive and behavioral characteristics using data from a survey administered to policy actors involved in oil and gas politics in Colorado, USA. The analysis begins with a description of the cognitive and behavioral characteristics of policy actors and then combines them into a single index to depict varying intensities of conflict. Cognitive characteristics are comprised of three dimensions: disagreement on public policy, perceived threats from opponents, and an unwillingness to compromise. Behavioral characteristics include engagement by policy actors in a range of activities, from mobilizing opponents to providing information to the media. Ordered Logit models are used to associate the attributes of policy actors with cognitive and behavioral characteristics and an index of conflict intensity that combines these two characteristics. The conclusion offers questions and recommendations for future research.
Highlights
Conflicts over policy decisions – or what government should or should not do – pervade phenomena relating to politics and government
We explore policy conflict and explain its cognitive and behavioral characteristics using data from a survey administered to policy actors involved in oil and gas politics in Colorado, USA
The summary statistics for both the cognitive and behavioral characteristics of conflict indicate that the policy actors in the oil and gas subsystem in Colorado fall on a spectrum of conflict
Summary
Conflicts over policy decisions – or what government should or should not do – pervade phenomena relating to politics and government. For instance, may lead to innovative policy decisions and learning. More intense levels of conflict, may reflect an inability of policy actors to compromise, an entrenchment of beliefs, or a demonization of opponents. Despite the importance of policy conflict to society and to policy processes, policy scholars often neglect to describe and explain the underlying characteristics of policy conflicts. To help address this limitation, we offer theoretical and empirical insights into policy conflicts by examining the cognitive and behavioral characteristics of the policy actors involved
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