Political Viability Research Articles

The Political Viability of Carbon Pricing: Policy Design and Framing in British Columbia and California

AbstractThe adoption of climate policies with visible, substantial costs for households is uncommon because of expected political backlash, but British Columbia's carbon tax and California's cap‐and‐trade program imposed such costs and still survived vigorous opposition. To explain these outcomes, this article tests hypotheses concerning policy design, framing, energy prices, and elections. It conducts universalizing and variation‐finding comparisons across three subcases in the two jurisdictions and uses primary sources to carry out process tracing involving mechanisms of public opinion and elite position‐taking. The article finds strong support for the timing of independent energy price changes, exogenous causes of election results, reducing the visibility of carbon pricing, and using public‐benefit justifications, as well as some support for making concessions to voters. By contrast, the effects of the use of revenue, industry exemptions/compensations, and making polluters pay are not uniform, because the effects of revenue use depend on how it is embedded in coalition building efforts and a middle path between exempting or compensating industry and burdening it appears to be more effective than pursuing just one or the other approach.

Public knowledge, contaminant concerns, and support for recycled Water in the United States

Water recycling is one potential solution to meeting the growing global demand for water in an age of dwindling freshwater supplies. However, public opposition has played a key role historically in blunting the broad implementation of water recycling technologies across the United States. Addressing public concerns and overcoming this opposition is critical to the political viability of water recycling programs as a response to growing water insecurity. This analysis builds on existing research on Americans’ attitudes toward water recycling in three ways. First, it explores public understanding of basic elements of water recycling and identifies important gaps in public knowledge. Second, it examines the factors that most concern Americans about water recycling. Finally, it investigates how knowledge, specific concerns, and a range of other factors, including Americans’ environmental priorities, local context, partisan leanings, and demographic characteristics, combine to influence attitudes toward recycled water. The results identify several promising targets for future educational outreach efforts to build public support for water recycling projects. Policy-relevant knowledge is the single most important predictor of support for water recycling. Yet, there is a stark knowledge gap between a highly informed few and an unaware majority. Bridging this gap could greatly increase support for water recycling. Concerns about sewage contamination were most corrosive to support for water recycling, making them a prime target for further outreach. Finally, our results suggest that future educational campaigns may seek to decouple water scarcity and climate change in the public mind to avoid exacerbating existing cleavages.

Political Viability of the Russia-North Korea-South Korea Gas Pipeline Project: An Analysis of the Role of the U.S.

This study analyzes the political viability of the Russia-North Korea-South Korea (RNS) gas pipeline project. This analysis demonstrates that North Korea’s fourth nuclear test in January 2016 changed the dynamic of the project. Before the test, when inter-Korean relations were good, South Korea and Russia could make efforts to secure political support for the project. However, after the fourth nuclear test, this was no longer the case. As North Korea’s nuclear power status became more evident, this nuclear problem began to have profound implications for U.S. security. In response, Washington not only led the UN Security Council to impose very severe sanctions against North Korea, but also placed its own sanctions on the country. These sanctions began to contain provisions that could prevent the implementation of the pipeline project. In addition to these sanctions, the U.S. sanctions against Russia in 2017 over its intervention in the U.S. election and aggression against Ukraine also contained clauses that could hamper it. Therefore, unless the U.S. lifts or eases all of these sanctions, South Korea and Russia are unwilling to take any concrete actions to secure political support for the RNS pipeline project. Based on this analysis, this paper argues that the U.S. now holds the most important key to its political viability.

Implementing an EU opt-in mechanism for GM crop cultivation.

EMBO Reports (2019) e48036 The cultivation of genetically modified (GM) crops in the EU remains a highly polemic issue. The only GM crop event that is currently authorised is the insect‐resistant maize “MON810”. The GM potato variety “Amflora” with improved tuber starch composition was approved for cultivation in 2010, but later withdrawn. One of the main reasons that not more GM crops are authorised for cultivation is a regulatory gridlock with a recurring inability to reach a qualified majority in the designated committee for either approval or rejection [1]. Several EU member states experience domestic pressure against adoption of GM crops [2], [3], [4]. The European Commission (EC) therefore developed legislation—the Directive EU 2015/412, adopted by the European Parliament (EP) in 2015—to give member states the possibility to restrict or prohibit cultivation of authorised GM crops in their territory (opt‐out mechanism). The request to exclude a particular GM event from cultivation may be communicated to the EC after risk assessment, or after authorisation provided that the restriction is in conformity with the EU law, reasoned, proportional, non‐discriminatory and based on compelling grounds (Article 26b(3) of Directive 2015/412). To date, 17 member states and two autonomous regions have used this possibility. In parallel, the EC also proposed an analogous mechanism for the import of GM food and …

Welfare reform and public justification

ABSTRACTThis paper investigates the conditions of political argument with regard to welfare legislation. It connects to the discussion on the role of ideas in political change but develops a new approach by investigating arguments in light of theories of public justification in a democratic society. The paper uses a recent Norwegian law as the case for studying how politicians frame their arguments for “mandatory activation,” meaning the policy that requires recipients to participate in work-oriented activities. The paper finds that Norwegian advocates of activation use a “justificatory narrative” that presents the new law as a form of paternalistic concern for the benefit recipients. It is argued that this justification can be understood as shaped by certain basic conditions of political viability.

Implementation Challenges for Quota Set-Asides: Policy Analysis to Inform Fisheries Management Decision-Making

The implementation of catch share programs can have socio-economic and ecological benefits, yet may also change the distribution of those benefits within a fishery or across communities. Quota set-asides can mitigate the impacts of these changes. During the implementation of the West Coast groundfish trawl catch share program, 10% of the quota was set aside to be used toward five goals in the Adaptive Management Program (AMP). This quota was to serve as an insurance policy during the substantial changes that were expected to occur under the new management regime. However, this program has not yet been fully developed, in part due to delayed decision-making and the controversial nature of allocating quota. Here, we examine and score six policy options for the AMP against four criteria: effectiveness, flexibility, political viability, and implementability. While each of the options has strengths and weaknesses, those that ranked highly include allocating quota pounds (QP) via the status quo and via auction. Our results highlight the drawbacks of delaying contentious decisions, where uncertainty for participants can constrain operational decisions and subsequent economic gains. We demonstrate the utility of this decision-making framework for evaluating tradeoffs between alternatives, especially for a program with multiple, competing objectives.

‘The Torment of Our Powerlessness’: Addressing Indigenous Constitutional Vulnerability through the Uluru Statement’s Call for a First Nations Voice in Their Affairs

This article analyses and explores the Uluru Statement from the Heart’s call for a constitutionally guaranteed First Nations voice in their affairs, as constitutional reform intended to address the ongoing problem of Indigenous constitutional vulnerability and powerlessness. It contends that a First Nations voice is a suitable solution: it coheres and aligns with Australian constitutional culture and design which recognises, represents and gives voice to the preexisting political communities, or constitutional constituencies. The article evaluates, compares and attempts to refine drafting options to give effect to a First Nations constitutional voice, by reference to principles of constitutional suitability, responsiveness to concerns about parliamentary supremacy and legal uncertainty, and assessment of political viability. The article concludes that the proposal for a constitutionally enshrined First Nations voice strikes the right conceptual balance between pragmatism and ambition, for viable yet worthwhile constitutional change. With appropriate constitutional drafting and legislative design, such a proposal offers a ‘modest yet profound’ way of meaningfully addressing Indigenous constitutional vulnerability, by empowering the First Nations with a voice in their affairs.

Political viability of public pensions and education. An empirical application

ABSTRACTPublic intergenerational transfers (IGTs) may emerge from the failure of private arrangements to provide optimal economic resources for the young and old. We investigate the political sustainability of the public system of IGTs by seeking to determine the outcome if the decision to reallocate economic resources per se was put to the vote. Exploiting the particular nature of the data from the National Transfer Accounts data in a political economy application in which generations cooperate under certain conditions, we show that most of the developed countries would vote in favour of a joint public education and pension system.

Antonio Gramsci and the Palabra Verdadera: The Political Discourse of Mexico's Guerrilla Forces

Assessing Democracy in Puebla: The Opposition Takes Charge of Municipal Government Debates about democratization in developing countries have generally emphasized competitive elections, broad participation, and the protection of civil and political liberties. A survey of the first two years of PAN administration in the city of Puebla, Mexico, assesses government capacities and policy responses to social and economic demands. It suggests that excitement over the election of opposition party officials should be tempered pending evidence of the accommodation of such demands. Antonio Gramsci and the Palabra Verdadera: The Political Discourse of Mexico's Guerrilla Forces This article examines the political strategies of the EZLN, or Zapatista army, in Chiapas and the EPR, which operates mostly in Oaxaca and Guerrero, through a content analysis of their communiques. It argues that these two guerrilla movements demonstrate, through their cultural production, significantly different priorities and preferences; and that these differences reflect different strategic choices. Whereas the EZLN has chosen to pursue a revolutionary strategy similar in key respects to the war of position described by Gramsci, the EPR remains closer to the war of movement. NAFTA Coalitions and the Political Viability of Neoliberalism

(Trans)Gressing the Binary: Coalitional Self-Determination for the 'Third Gender' Framework

In National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) v. Union of India, the Supreme Court of India legally recognized the existence of a 'third gender' identity to protect and promote self-determination for persons identifying as 'transgender'. Although the judgment might seem as a breakthrough for the transgender rights movement, I believe that it has glaring contradictions with regards to the socio-political environment where the 'third gender' is situated. The main argument of my paper is to critique such contradictions in the existing policy approach and suggest an inclusive and self-determinative policy framework for persons identifying as transgender. To substantiate, the first chapter of the paper lays the theoretical background by dismantling the heteronormative binary of gender identity and personhood and thereby securing socio-political legitimacy for transgender identities in gender discourse. The following chapter places transgender persons in light of the dismantled gender binary by examining the political viability of a 'third gender' as a framework for legally recognizing an umbrella serial collective of various transgender identities. The succeeding chapter contextualizes the proposed 'third gender' framework by critiquing the existing legislative and judicial policy strategies in India through the lens of coalitional self-determination. In conclusion, I juxtapose Indian policy models with international jurisprudence and sociological studies to arrive at an inclusive and malleable 'third gender' framework for safeguarding the rights and interests of transgender persons.

Political Viability of Intergenerational Transfers. An Empirical Application

Public intergenerational transfers (IGTs) may arise because of the failure of private arrangements to provide optimal economic resources for the young and the old. We examine the political sustainability of the system of public IGTs by asking what the outcome would be if the decision per se to reallocate economic resources between generations was put to the vote. By exploiting the particular nature of National Transfer Accounts data – transfers for pensions and education and total public transfers – and the political economy application proposed by Rangel (2003) we show that most developed countries would vote in favor of a joint public education and pension system. Moreover, our results indicate that a system of total public IGTs to the young and elderly would attract substantial political support and, hence, would be politically viable for most countries in the sample.

On Good Authority: Anna Freud and the Politics of Child Analysis

This article provides a reading of a ‘political Anna Freud’ by analysing how Anna Freud's interwar papers about the clinical technique of child analysis refracted broader political discourses about the function and effects of governmental authority. I claim that, in the interwar period, Anna Freud developed a version of child analysis explicitly interested in the authority the analyst exercised over the child-patient. By working from a developmental conception of the child, Anna Freud argued that the relatively ‘undeveloped’ and ‘immature’ nature of the child's super-ego made it ‘dependent’ on a ballast of external (analytic) authority. Anna Freud theorized this analytic authority as a corollary to pedagogical authority, a discourse that puts her in conversation with many political reformers of her time. Yet, unlike her more leftist colleagues, when it came to the clinic Anna Freud contended that authority was both practically necessary and psychically beneficial for children. As I show, this emphasis on the necessity of authority in the clinic is part of a larger, political conversation throughout interwar Europe about the status of newly minted national democracies like Austria's. While recent scholarship on Anna Freud has mined her post-war, institutional work for a latent democratic ethos, I attend to how her early, specifically clinical prioritization of authority participates in a broader interwar ambivalence about the political viability of democracy and about the ultimate need for the restoration of good authority.

Elements Of Advocacy In Transport Policy Formulation

Public transport policies appear to be extremely important in almost every aspect of the life of a community and a major component of the economy. However, their viability is not conditioned only by technical aspects affecting engineering problems or economic viability, as there are other components that contribute to the decision of the public official to act or not to act. The failure in the implementation of viable transport projects, technically and economically, can often be attributed to the lack of these external components to the engineering environment. One such component occurs in the arena of disputes and negotiations between actors. This paper presents a proposal for actions and resources to work on the political viability of transport projects in addition to the technical and economic justification. It draws its theoretical basis from the Policy Cycle model, which defines the decision-making steps and advocacy, along with the actions and resources that make it possible to convince the stakeholders involved. The proposed test was performed for two public policy projects, a public transport operation project and a change in traffic safety legislation. The first and third phases of the Policy Cycle forecast 100% of the items for advocacy action, the barriers to policy, actions to overcome these barriers, and resources that support these actions. In the second phase, the barriers and actions were also 100% forecast, but for the resources that support the forecast actions were low, about 33% for the transport project and 22% for the draft amendment of the legislation.

Political Voice

Political Voice

On the Optimal Use of Revenues from a CO2 Tax and the Importance of Labor Market Conditions

<em>This paper focuses on the environmental, economic and budgetary impacts of a carbon tax in the presence of mixed recycling strategies and a detailed modelling of labor market conditions, both employment and involuntary unemployment. This focus matches the terms of the policy debate in many small energy-importing economies. The revenue-recycling policies that appear most promising are those that use carbon tax revenue to finance investment tax credits, reductions in social security contributions and reductions in personal income taxes. Although none of these mechanisms would individually lead to simultaneous improvements in the three margins, a mixture of the three would. Our sensitivity analysis suggests that labor markets conditions are a critical factor in determining the possibility of generating these positive effects. Ignoring labor supply responses, employment and unemployment effects leads to systematic underreporting of the three dividends and thereby undermines the political viability of environmental tax reform. </em>

From Top-Down to Bottom-Up Climate Policy: New Challenges in Carbon Market Design

The climate policy debate underwent a profound shift between 2009-2016. Prior to that point, efforts at the domestic and international levels focused on broad, top-down strategies to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, with market-based mechanisms expected to play a key role. The simultaneous breakdown of the congressional climate policy debate and the failure of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to produce a new international agreement at the meeting in Copenhagen raised serious questions about the political viability of carbon markets, as well as the prospects for implementing meaningful near-term emission abatement strategies. A number of bottom-up strategies have since emerged, including subnational experimentation with carbon market design, emissions trading options under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan, and the UNFCCC’s focus on individual emission reduction commitments by member nations. These incremental steps represent important progress, but are incapable of stabilizing or reducing atmospheric GHG concentrations on their own. The ultimate success of the decentralized mitigation approaches currently underway, therefore, depends upon their ability to foster broader action. This Article explores the shift from top-down to bottom-up approaches to carbon market design, focusing on three strategies that have emerged since 2009: the California Cap-and-Trade Program, the Clean Power Plan, and the UNFCCC process. The Article then examines the prospects for broad multilateral markets to emerge under a bottom-up approach and identifies three pathways to streamline market design choices: a coordinated approach; a dominant actor approach; and a common elements approach.

Developing Sustainability in the Brazilian Amazon: Twenty Years of History in the Mamirauá and Amanã Reserves

AbstractThis paper discusses the ability of Sustainable Development Reserves toembed(in Karl Polanyi's sense) the economy into the environment through the development of protocols for the sustainable management of natural resources. Based on two decades of work in the Mamirauá and Amanã Sustainable Development Reserves, we question whether the results are good, fair and viable by comparing two alternatives: unregulated markets and fully protected reserves. We evaluate the interest in sustainability; discuss who benefits and who pays for it; reflect on its potential to reduce inequalities; and discuss its economic and political viability.

The Cms Innovation Center's Expansion Authority and the Logic of Payment Reform through Rulemaking

Many models in the early CMMI portfolio appear not to be amenable to expansion, as their payment component is tenuous. In considering models for expansion, CMS will need to assess their generalizability, codifiability, and political viability as well as whether they saved money. Challenges to CMS in exercising expansion authority include choosing or coordinating among models that target the same beneficiaries, transitioning from distributive mode to potentially contentious rulemaking, and deciding whether APMs will exist as voluntary adjunct payment options alongside traditional fee-for-service payment codes or will supplant certain FFS payment codes on a mandatory basis.

Michael Riordan; Lillian Hoddeson; Adrienne W. Kolb. Tunnel Visions: The Rise and Fall of the Superconducting Super Collider. xiii + 448 pp., illus., maps, bibl., index. Chicago/London: University of Chicago Press, 2015. $40 (cloth).

Michael Riordan; Lillian Hoddeson; Adrienne W. Kolb. <i>Tunnel Visions: The Rise and Fall of the Superconducting Super Collider</i>. xiii + 448 pp., illus., maps, bibl., index. Chicago/London: University of Chicago Press, 2015. $40 (cloth).

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