Abstract
We investigate how grassroots stakeholder engagement in municipal meetings shapes the decision making of local elected officials (LEOs) by examining the choices LEOs in New York State made on how to regulate high-volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF) or fracking. We analyzed the content of 216 meeting minutes and 18 policy documents for 13 municipalities in New York. Our observations suggest that government responsiveness to local activism is shaped by the level of contestation between grassroots stakeholders. They reveal that contestation among grassroots stakeholders encourages LEOs to try to deflect responsibility for regulating fracking. When this contestation is high, LEOs tend to pursue actions which may limit but not prohibit HVHF within their jurisdiction. In contrast, when there is no contestation, LEOs more actively pursue substantive policy actions that prohibit HVHF. Generally, we find that that the level of contestation among grassroots stakeholders about HVHF impacts the political actions LEOs take.
Highlights
Scholars are increasingly interested in municipal government forays into environmental policymaking
To test the proposition that contestation impacts local elected officials (LEOs) choices, we examine how LEOs in New York responded to stakeholder engagement around the issue of high-volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF), a new technique for recovering hydrocarbons trapped in deep underground shale deposits (Rahm 2011)
We offer a nuanced account of patterns that arise when publics engage with local elected officials
Summary
Scholars are increasingly interested in municipal government forays into environmental policymaking. LEOs are increasingly tasked with regulating environmental concerns that do not conventionally lay within the purview of local government, and for which local governments do not typically command the practical, material, and political resources critical for problem resolution (Agranoff and McGuire 2001; Lemos and Agrawal 2006; Marshall 2008) This lack of familiarity and capacity is challenging for LEOs who already balance numerous concerns while negotiating and coordinating with diverse stakeholders, including peers from local government; municipal employees; county, state, and national-level public officials; private citizens; businesses; and civil society actors (Arnold and Nguyen Long 2018; Boin and t’Hart 2003; Howlett 2014a). Grassroots stakeholder participation may improve LEO accountability and knowledge about how to tackle environmental governance challenges (Devas and Grant 2003; Vigoda 2002)
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