Enlighten Publications

In this section

Mapping the ideological networks of American climate politics

Fisher, D. R., Leifeld, P. and Iwaki, Y. (2013) Mapping the ideological networks of American climate politics. Climatic Change, 116(3), pp. 523-545. (doi: 10.1007/s10584-012-0512-7)

Preview

Text
121299.pdf - Accepted Version
1MB

Abstract

How do we understand national climate change politics in the United States? Using a methodological innovation in network analysis, this paper analyzes discussions about the issue within the US Congress. Through this analysis, the ideological relationships among speakers providing Congressional testimony on the issue of climate change are mapped. For the first time, issue stances of actors are systematically aggregated in order to measure coalitions and consensus among political actors in American climate politics in a relational way. Our findings show how consensus formed around the economic implications of regulating greenhouse gases and the policy instrument that should do the regulating. The paper is separated into three sections. First, we review the ways scholars have looked at climate change policymaking in the United States, paying particular attention to those who have looked at the issue within the US Congress. Next, we present analysis of statements made during Congressional hearings on climate change over a four-year period. Our analysis demonstrates how a polarized ideological actor space in the 109th Congress transforms into a more consensual actor landscape in the 110th Congress, which is significantly less guided by partisan differences. This paper concludes by discussing how these findings help us understand shifting positions within American climate politics and the implications of these findings.

Item Type:	Articles
Keywords:	Climate change, Policy, Ideology, Congress, USA, Network
Status:	Published
Refereed:	Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:	Leifeld, Professor Philip
Authors:	Fisher, D. R., Leifeld, P., and Iwaki, Y.
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) H Social Sciences > HM Sociology J Political Science > JA Political science (General) J Political Science > JK Political institutions (United States) Q Science > Q Science (General)
College/School:	College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences
Journal Name:	Climatic Change
Publisher:	Springer
ISSN:	0165-0009
ISSN (Online):	1573-1480
Published Online:	21 July 2012
Copyright Holders:	Copyright © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
First Published:	First published in Climatic Change 116(3):523-545
Publisher Policy:	Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher

University Staff: Request a correction | Enlighten Editors: Update this record

Funder and Project Information

Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
0	1	Social Networks as Agents of Change in Climate Change Policy Making	Dana R. Fisher	National Science Foundation	0826892

References

Arimura, Toshi H., Dallas Burtraw, Alan Krupnick, and Karen Palmer. 2007. "U.S. Climate Policy Developments." Resources for the Future Discussion Paper RFF DP 07-45, Washington, DC.October. Bang, G., C. B. Froyn, J. Hovi, and F. C. Menz. 2007. "The United States and international climate cooperation: International "pull" versus domestic "push"." Energy Policy 35:1282-1291. Baumgartner, F. R. and Jones, B. D. 1993. Agendas and Instability in American Politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Burstein, Paul and C. Elizabeth Hirsh. 2007. "Interest Organizations, Information, and Policy Innovation in the U.S. Congress." Sociological Forum 22:174-199. Christiansen, Atle Christer. 2003. "Convergence or Divergence? Status and prospects for US climate strategy."Climate Policy 3:343-358. Clifton, Brett M. 2004. “Romancing the GOP: Assessing the Strategies Used by the Christian Coalition to Influence the Republican Party.” Party Politics. Vol. 10, No. 5: 475-498. DeGregorio, Christine 1998. "Assets and Access: Linking Lobbyists and Lawmakers in Congress." Pp. viii, 376 p. in The interest group connection : electioneering, lobbying, and policymaking in Washington, edited by P. S. Herrnson, R. G. Shaiko, and C. Wilcox. Chatham, N.J.: Chatham House Publishers. Esterling, Kevin M. 2004. The Political Economy of Expertise. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press. Evans, Peter B., Harold Karan Jacobson, and Robert D. Putnam. 1993. Double-edged diplomacy : international bargaining and domestic politics. Berkeley: University of California Press. Fisher, Dana R. 2004. National governance and the global climate change regime. Lanham, Md.: Rowman& Littlefield Publishers. —. 2006. "Bringing the material back in: Understanding the US position on climate change." Sociological Forum 21:467-494. Fisher, Dana R. Forthcoming. “Understanding the Relationship Between Sub-National and National Climate Change Politics in the United States: Toward a Theory of Boomerang Federalism.” Environment & Planning C: Government & Policy. Fletcher, Amy Lynn. 2009. "Clearing the air: the contribution of frame analysis to understanding climate policy in the United States." Environmental Politics 18:800-816. Freeman, L. C. 1978. “'Centrality in Social Networks: Conceptual Clarification.”, Social Networks1(3), 215-239. Gelbspan, Ross. 1997. The Heat Is On. Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc. Gormley, William T. Jr. 1998. “Witnesses for the Revolution.” American Politics Quarterly. Vol. 26, No. 2 April: 174-195. Harris, Paul G. 2000.Climate Change and American Foreign Policy.New York: St. Martin’s Press. Hoffman, Andrew J. 2011. "Talking Past Each Other? Cultural Framing of Skeptical and Convinced Logics in the Climate Change Debate."Organization & Environment. 24(1): 3-33. Hovi, Jon and Tora Skodvin. 2008. "Which Way to US Climate Cooperation? Issue linkage versus a US-based agreement."Review of Policy Research 25, Number 2:129-148. Jacques, P. J., R. E. Dunlap, and M. Freeman. 2008. "The organisation of denial: Conservative think tanks and environmental scepticism." Environmental Politics 17:349-385. Jain, A. K. and Dubes, R. C. 1988. Algorithms for Clustering Data, Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ. Jones, Bradford S. 1991. "State Responses to Global Climate Change."Policy Studies Journal 19:73-82. Jones, B. D. and Baumgartner, F. R. 2005. The Politics of Attention: How Government Prioritizes Problems. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Kingdon, J. W. 1995. Agendas, alternatives, and public policies. New York: HarperCollins. Kraemer, R. Andreas and Miranda A Shchreurs. 2007. "Federalism and Environmentalism in the United States and Germany." Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD. Krane, Dale. 2007. "The middle tier in American federalism: State government policy activism during the Bush presidency." Publius-the Journal of Federalism 37:453-477. Laumann, Edward O. and David Knoke. 1987. The organizational state : social change in national policy domains. Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press. Leggett, Jeremy. 1999. The Carbon War. London: Allen LaneThe Penguin Press. Leifeld, Philip. 2012. 'Discourse Network Analyzer (DNA) Manual', Available at http://www.philipleifeld.de. Leifeld, Philip and Sebastian Haunss. 2012. “Political Discourse Networks and the Conflict over Software Patents in Europe.” The European Journal of Political Research. 51(3): 382-409. Lisowski, Michael. 2002. "Playing the Two-Level Game: US President Bush's Decision to Repudiate the Kyoto Protocol." Environmental Politics 11, Number 4:101-119. Liu, Xinsheng, Eric Lindquist, and Arnold Vedlitz. 2011. “Explaining Media and Congressional Attention to Global Climate Change, 1969-2005: an empirical test of agenda-setting theory.” Political Research Quarterly. 64 (2): 405-419. Lutzenhiser, Loren. 2001. "The Contours of U.S. Climate Non-Policy." Society and Natural Resources 14:511-523. McCright, Aaron M. and Riley E. Dunlap. 2000. "Challenging Global Warming as a Social Problem: An Analysis of the Conservative Movement's Counter-Claims." Social Problems 47:499-522. —.2003."Defeating Kyoto: The conservative movement's impact on U.S. climate change policy."Social Problems 50:348-373. Norgaard, Kari Marie. 2011. Living In Denial: Climate Change, Emotions, and Everyday Life. Boston, MIT Press. Park, Hyung Sam, Xinsheng Liu, and Arnold Vedlitz. 2010. “Framing Climate Policy Debates: science, network, and US Congress, 1976-2007.” Conference Proceedings of the Policy Networks Conference 2010. Available at http://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/pnconfs_2010/41 (Accessed 22 March 2011). Paterson, Matthew. 2009. "Post-Hegemonic Climate Politics?" British Journal of Politics & International Relations 11:140-158. Putnam, Robert D. 1988. "Diplomacy and Domestic Politics: The Logic of Two-Level Games." International Organization 42:427-60. Rabe, Barry George. 2004. Statehouse and greenhouse : the emerging politics of American climate change policy. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press. Rabe, Barry. 2007. "Environmental policy and the Bush era: The collision between the administrative presidency and state experimentation." Publius-the Journal of Federalism 37:413-431. Rabe, Barry G. 2009. "Second-Generation Climate Politics in the States: Proliferation, Diffusion, and Regionalization” pp 67-86 in Selin and VanDeveer, editors.Changing Climates in North American Poltiics: institutions, policymaking, and multilevel governance. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Rabe, Barry G. 2010. “The Aversion to Direct Cost Imposition: Selecting Climate Policy Tools in the United States.” Governance: An International Journal of Policy, Administration, and Institutions. Volume 23 (4): 583-608. Rudel, Tom K. 2001 "Introduction to controlling climate change: Sociological perspectives." Society & Natural Resources 14:489-489. Sabatier, P. A. and Weible, C. M. 2007.“The Advocacy Coalition Framework,”in Paul A. Sabatier, ed.,'Theories of the Policy Process', Westview Press, Boulder, CO, pp. 189—220. Scott, J. 2000. Social Network Analysis: A Handbook, Sage Publications, London. Selin, Henrik and Stacy D. VanDeveer. 2007. "Political Science and Prediction: What's Next for US Climate Change Policy?" Review of Policy Research 24, Number 1:1-27. Selin, Henrik and Stacy D. VanDeveer. 2009. Changing Climates in North American Poltiics: institutions, policymaking, and multilevel governance. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Skodvin, Tora and Steinar Andresen. 2009. “An Agenda for Change in U.S. Climate Policies? Presidential Ambitions and Congressional Powers.” International Environmental Agreements. Volume 9: 263-280. Vasi, I. B. 2006. "Organizational environments, framing processes, and the diffusion of the program to address global climate change among local governments in the United States." Sociological Forum 21:439-466. Victor, David G. and Council on Foreign Relations. 2004. Climate change : debating America's policy options. New York, N.Y.Washington, D.C.: Council on Foreign Relations; Distributed by Brookings Institution Press. Ward Jr, J. 1963. “Hierarchical Grouping to Optimize an Objective Function.”Journal of the American Statistical Association58(301), 236-244. Ward, Matt, Michelle Wyman, Ken Brown, and Andrew Seth. 2008. "US Climate Action--From the Ground Up: A white paper for the Presidential Climate Action Partnership." ICLEI-USA and Climate Communities, Washington DC.

Deposit and Record Details

ID Code:	121299
Depositing User:	Professor Philip Leifeld
Datestamp:	25 Jul 2016 14:55
Last Modified:	13 Jun 2018 08:44
Date of acceptance:	22 May 2012
Date of first online publication:	21 July 2012
Date Deposited:	23 July 2016
Data Availability Statement:	No