The good guys and bad guys in natural resource politics: Content and structure of perceptions of interests among general and attentive publics

Abstract

The political battleground for contesting environmental and natural resource policies can be thought of quite usefully as entailing a mixture of cloistered group politics and direct citizen action. The strong federal mandate for citizen involvement in natural resource policy making of recent heritage, bolstered by American political traditions of citizen activism and easy access to the ballot and political candidacy, make public perceptions of the policy process and its major participants significant phenomena for understanding the dynamics of public policy formation. This article analyzes the content and structure of public perceptions of relevant environmental interests (e.g., environmentalists, developers, timber companies, recreationists, farmers, etc.). The focus of attention is the question of the degree of preferred influence to be accorded each group, with particular attention given to the patterns of relationship to be found among these groups. The findings reported indicate the importance of distinguishing between the “general public” and the “attentive public” in seeking to understand how public input into the natural resource policy-making process is likely to influence the direction of governmental affairs.