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The world has surpassed three million deaths from COVID-19, and faces potentially catastrophic tipping points in the global climate system. Despite the urgency, governments have struggled to address either problem. In this paper, we argue that COVID-19 and anthropogenic climate change (ACC) are critical examples of an emerging type of governance challenge: severe collective action problems that require significant individual behavior change under conditions of hyper-partisanship and scientific misinformation. Building on foundational political science work demonstrating the potential for norms (or informal rules of behavior) to solve collective action problems, we analyze more recent work on norms from neighboring disciplines to offer novel recommendations for more difficult challenges like COVID-19 and ACC. Key insights include more attention to 1) norm-based messaging strategies that appeal to individuals across the ideological spectrum or that reframe collective action as consistent with resistant subgroups’ pre-existing values, 2) messages that emphasize both the prevalence and the social desirability of individual behaviors required to address these challenges, 3) careful use of public policies and incentives that make individual behavior change easier without threatening norm internalization, and 4) greater attention to epistemic norms governing trust in different information sources. We conclude by pointing out that COVID-19 and climate change are likely harbingers of other polarized collective action problems that governments will face in the future. By connecting work on norms and political governance with a broader, interdisciplinary literature on norm psychology, motivation, and behavior change, we aim to improve the ability of political scientists and policymakers to respond to these and future collective action challenges.

Environmental threats increasingly entail important risks from government responses. In considering the risks of a new vector-borne disease, for example, decision-makers must also grapple with potential risks from responses such as the aerial spraying of pesticides. In communicating about these complex risks, public officials often choose different “frames” that promote different conceptualizations of the issue. Yet prior research has paid limited attention to how public officials frame the related risks of the environmental threat and the public response. This paper starts to fill that gap by conducting a content analysis of statements by public officials regarding risks from the threat of a local outbreak of the Zika virus in South Florida in 2016, as well as risks from the response of aerial pesticide spraying. Based on limited prior research, we hypothesize that public officials are likely to have adopted a “risk maximization” frame that stressed the high risks from exposure to Zika, but a “risk trade-off” frame when discussing aerial spraying. In actuality, we find that officials strongly favored a “reassurance” frame that downplayed both types of risks. Based on this analysis, we suggest framing strategies for disease outbreaks and other threats with potentially risky government responses may vary significantly depending on local contexts and that the South Florida experience was a missed opportunity to test the strategy of trade-off framing.

Experimental and case study research has highlighted the importance of issue framing to the adoption of state renewable energy and climate change policies. Yet this relationship has not been tested within broader models of state policy adoption. We fill this gap by exploring the relationship between issue‐framing patterns and climate/renewable energy policy activity across the 50 U.S. states, controlling for other well‐known determinants of state environmental policy choice. Our results confirm that framing patterns for these issues vary markedly between states and regions and that a higher proportion of frames highlighting the economic benefits of climate change and renewable energy policies is positively associated with state policy activity. These results further confirm the importance of new issue frames related to economic benefits in subnational climate and renewable energy politics. 实验研究和案例研究强调了议题建构对州级可再生能源及气候变化政策采纳的重要性。不过，这一关系还未在更广的州级政策采纳模式中加以验证。通过探究美国50州的议题建构模式和气候/可再生能源政策活动之间的关系，同时控制州级环境政策选择的其他决定因素，我们填补了该研究空白。研究结果证实了两点，第一，议题建构模式在各州和区域之间差异显著；第二，更高比例的、强调气候变化和可再生能源政策的经济利益的议题建构，与州政策活动呈正相关。该研究结果进一步证实了强调次国家气候和可再生能源政治的经济利益的新议题建构的重要性。 La investigacion experimental y de estudios de caso ha destacado la importancia del encuadre de problemas para la adopcion de politicas estatales de energia renovable y cambio climatico. Sin embargo, esta relacion no ha sido probada dentro de modelos mas amplios de adopcion de politicas estatales. Cubrimos este vacio explorando la relacion entre los patrones de encuadre de problemas y la actividad de politicas de energia renovable / clima en los 50 estados de EE. UU., Controlando otros determinantes bien conocidos de la eleccion de politicas ambientales estatales. Nuestros resultados confirman que los patrones de encuadre para estos temas varian notablemente entre estados y regiones y que una mayor proporcion de marcos que destacan los beneficios economicos del cambio climatico y las politicas de energia renovable se asocia positivamente con la actividad de las politicas estatales. Estos resultados confirman aun mas la importancia de los nuevos marcos tematicos relacionados con los beneficios economicos en el clima subnacional y las politicas de energia renovable.

Carbon pricing policies face growing threats from populist attacks citing increased costs for consumers. This paper explores the potential for different strategies to protect carbon pricing policie...

An emerging literature on the evolution of culture can offer new explanations for how norms encourage or obstruct sustainable practices. In particular, dual-inheritance theory describes how interactions between genetic and cultural evolution give rise, in part, to prosociality. Based on this theory, we identify the concept of normative motivation — internalized desires to follow and enforce norms. We discuss the utility of this concept in progressing two major research agendas across the social and behavioural sciences: the impact of motivation on cognition and normative behaviour, and the influence of norms on the policy process. Key contributions from considering norms from this evolutionary perspective include: (1) an improved model of the motivations that lead individuals to follow norms, (2) clarification of how and when incentives successfully generate motivations favouring sustainability and (3) new ideas for leveraging the influence of norms in public policy beyond financial incentives and education campaigns. Theories of cultural evolution can help explain how norms that are externally enforced are internalized to become intrinsic motivations to behave sustainably. This knowledge is useful for developing interventions for behavioural change.

Issue frames portraying climate science as uncertain are cited as a key impediment to new climate change and energy policies. However, some have recently argued that the debate over policy impacts,...

By defining the essence of a policy problem, an issue frame shapes how individuals think about a political issue. In this research, we investigate framing effects among domain experts, an understudied yet increasingly important set of individuals in the policymaking process. Because domain experts have extensive and highly structured knowledge on a particular topic, they are likely to actively process issue frames to which they are exposed. Consequently, we hypothesize that frames consistent with experts' values will be particularly influential, whereas frames inconsistent with their values will lead to contrast effects. We test our hypotheses on a unique set of domain experts by examining professional farmers' attitudes toward no-till agriculture. Using an experimental design, we find evidence that environmental values interact with frames to influence farmers' interest in no-till, especially when farmers are exposed to a novel frame.

Indiana’s climate and its manufacturing-heavy economy make it a prime user of energy. In fact, Indiana is the ninth-most energy intensive state per capita in the country. Nearly three-quarters of Indiana’s electricity comes from coal, and 5 percent is generated by renewable sources, though the wind energy sector is growing and coal use is declining. This energy mix makes the Hoosier State the eighth-largest emitter of climate-changing gases, at 183 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted per year. As global and local climates continue to shift, it is important to know how Indiana’s future energy profile will be affected and what those changes mean for Hoosier families and businesses. This report from the Indiana Climate Change Impacts Assessment (IN CCIA) looks at projected changes to Indiana’s residential and commercial energy demands as the state warms, and to Indiana’s energy supply over the coming century.

This paper estimates changes in future energy demand and supply for Indiana due to projected climate change impacts. We first estimate demand changes under both the business-as-usual emissions scenario (RCP 8.5) and a scenario based on reduced emissions consistent with a 2-degree increase in global mean temperature (RCP 4.5), on both a statewide basis and for major urban areas. We then use our adjusted statewide energy demand projections as an input to a comprehensive model of Indiana’s energy system, to project expected changes in the state’s energy supply under both scenarios. Finally, we consider the potential impacts of two policy scenarios—a carbon pricing scheme and a renewable energy investment tax credit—on emissions and future energy supply choices. Our results suggest that climate change will have a relatively modest effect on energy demand and supply in Indiana, slightly increasing commercial demand and decreasing residential demand but having little effect on energy supply choices. In addition, our results suggest the potential for policy proposals currently being adopted in other states, such as a relatively small carbon price or investment credits for renewable energy sources, to have a larger impact on the state’s future energy mix, increasing production from low or zero carbon energy sources and reducing emissions.

Although the power of elite issue frames to shape public attitudes toward different policies is well established, the relative influence of different types of frames in competitive framing environments remains uncertain. For example, we do not fully understand the relative influence of economic versus normative frames on the public's policy attitudes, despite the common use of both types of frames to promote the same policy in many settings. Using data from a 2010 national Internet survey, this paper investigates the relative influence of economic versus normative frames on public attitudes toward the contentious policy issue of biofuels. The results indicate the importance of normative frames in shaping public attitudes on this issue, suggesting the relevance of normative frames more generally in shaping public opinion beyond the narrow confines of typical “morality” policies such as abortion or gambling.

We investigate how different framing of climate change impacts affects public opinion on the issue. Using an experimental design, we examine the influence of frames presenting local versus global climate impacts and frames discussing projected losses versus those also discussing possible benefits of climate change, on individual perceptions of the severity of climate change, behavioral intentions to address climate change, and attitudes toward climate change policies. The results indicate that our impact frames influence public opinion, although the effects sometimes differ based on individuals’ partisan predispositions. Specifically, our study shows that local frames increase perceptions of the severity of the problem and support for local (sub-national) policy action for all subjects, as well as behavioral intentions for subjects who are Independents or Republicans. Presenting subjects with information on the potential benefits and losses of climate change weakens perceptions of problem severity for all subjects at the local and national level, decreases support for local policy action among Democrats, and has no effect on behavioral intentions. Overall, these results are consistent with policy research suggesting that perceptions of local vulnerability are an important factor in the adoption of sub-national climate change policies. The findings also imply that the effectiveness of particular climate change impact frames will vary from one state to another depending on a state's partisan leanings.

How can governments build political support for carbon pricing? This question has challenged policy designers since the earliest programs imposing new prices on pollution, and remains a vital question today. This perspective offers insights on strategies for building greater political support for carbon pricing, based on previous experiences with long-running “auction and invest” programs in the U.S. and abroad, including the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), California's carbon pricing system, and the EU emissions trading system (ETS). Three key insights can be derived from those experiences. First: cap and trade with an auction of allowances is an important option for carbon pricing with distinctive advantages. Second, it is important to generate tangible public benefits from a carbon price that are distributed among citizens in a way that is broadly perceived as fair and addresses potential concerns about higher consumer costs for energy. Third, the most effective form of those public benefits should vary predictably across a few clearly defined categories according to local circumstances.

Research across multiple disciplines has shown that personal moral norms can play an important role in shaping individuals' attitudes and behaviour. Despite this, we know relatively little about patterns of support among landowners for either a personal moral norm favouring a strong, 'intrinsic' right of private ownership, or a moral duty to prevent extinction. In addition, we know even less about the ability of such norms to predict attitudes toward species protection on private lands, especially for non-charismatic species with few qualities that typically generate positive attitudes for conservation. Results from a mail survey of central Indiana landowners suggest broad support for a personal moral norm favouring a strong, 'intrinsic' right of ownership as well as a personal moral norm to prevent extinction, and that these norms are better predictors of attitudes toward endangered species policies than partisan identification, identification as an environmentalist, strong religious beliefs, or several other demographic factors. The results suggest that those seeking to influence landowner attitudes toward species protection policies should pay closer attention to the influence of these personal moral norms.

This paper identifies and describes two new norm-based strategies for institutional change to address intractable social problems. In both strategies, advocates “foreground” and criticize norms supporting the institutional status quo before either promoting an alternative existing norm via normative reframing of the issue, or creating and promoting an entirely new norm via normative innovation to build support for new institutional arrangements. Drawing on examples of institutional change addressing the problems of climate change and violence against women, the analysis illustrates how these strategies are especially effective in the face of opposition from vested interests or problematic existing norms.

In this paper, framing effects are investigated in a new context: farmer decision making about conservation tillage practices. Primary hypotheses include the following: (1) frames (i.e., different arguments about or conceptions of an issue) portraying conservation tillage as “profitable” will generate more interest in the tillage technique among farmers than a control frame presenting only basic information; (2) frames discussing potential payments for “environmental benefits” will generate more positive attitudes than frames discussing payment for “storing carbon (C)” to limit climate change; and (3) framing effects will vary based on subjects9 prior beliefs and experiences. These hypotheses were tested using a survey-based experiment administered to a national sample of row-crop farmers. Contrary to expectations, the profit frame and both payment frames had no effect on farmers9 interest in conservation tillage across our entire sample. Consistent with the third hypothesis, however, a negative framing effect was found for the profit frame on nonadopters who reported no use of no-till in the past two years. These results support the argument regarding the importance of prior beliefs in reactions to frames. They also suggest the possibility of modest financial payments “crowding out” intrinsic motivations for contributions to public goods such as soil conservation. From a policy perspective, these findings also suggest the relative inefficacy of offers of modest conservation payments or profitability frames in promoting no-till farming, especially among nonadopters, and the need to find alternative frames that avoid reinforcing an argument that nonadopters appear to have already considered and rejected.

Media framing and public opinion on the issue of biofuels - transportation fuels made from plants, animal products, or organic waste - is investigated. Through a detailed content analysis of newspaper coverage, the paper documents an increase in negative frames between 1999 and 2008, especially frames focusing on the negative economic effects of biofuels on consumers. Next, using data from a 2010 Internet survey of a random sample of the U.S. public, the paper analyzes the relative influence of these new media frames on public attitudes toward biofuels compared with other common predictors of public opinion, such as party ID, regional economic interests, and personal identity as an environmentalist. In general, the results confirm that public attitudes toward biofuels appear to be shaped by these new media frames, especially among those who indicate a high degree of attention to the media. This suggests the relative importance of framing effects on policy attitudes for environmental and energy policies in general.

In this paper we argue that greater diversity in state legislatures makes them more likely to address environmental justice because greater diversity improves problem solving on complex tasks and better represents the perspectives of marginalized and excluded groups who are most likely to be affected by these problems. Taking diversity in state legislatures into account helps us to understand why some legislatures are more active on these important problems than others, providing insight into state policymaking as well as the role of diversity in enable groups better to grapple with pressing public problems. It also applies arguments about the impact of descriptive representation to a new area (EJ) and in a new way (focusing on the collective impact of diversity, rather than the distinctive behavior of individual legislators).

This chapter reviews the theory of normative reframing that is at the heart of the book’s explanation for sudden policy change, and the evidence of normative reframing’s role in the unprecedented policy shift toward auctioning emissions allowances from 2008-2015. It then offers some concluding thoughts on the wider implications of the expansion of auctions since RGGI, and the theory of normative reframing for climate and environmental policymaking, as well as for understanding sudden policy change in general. In particular, the chapter concludes that the choice of how to distribute benefits from future climate policies will be the most important factor determining the political success of those policies, and that policies such as cap and trade with auction using public benefit framing remain the most promising policy option going forward.

This chapter provides a detailed analysis of the multi-year design process leading to the implementation of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) in 2008. It considers the question: How did RGGI’s policy designers succeed in auctioning virtually all of the program’s emissions allowances, wheresimilar efforts to promote auctions failed? After reviewing the limits of existing explanations of RGGI’s decision to auction allowances that are grounded in the interest group politics model, the chapter offers a detailed analysis of the RGGI design process to demonstrate the central role of the new public benefit model in making auctions politically viable. Public and private accounts confirm the prominence of this new normative framing for auctions from the very beginning of the process, and its influence over the political choice to make this policy change.

Reclaiming the Atmospheric Commons explains recent changes in emissions trading policy to address climate change with a new theory of sudden policy change. The new theory of “normative reframing” argues that policy change advocates can draw on the unique power of social norms to undermine support for existing policies and successfully promote new alternatives, even in the face of resistance from vested economic interests. The book uses this theory of “normative reframing” to explain the surprising and unexpected political decision to make large power companies pay for the rights to emit greenhouse gases for the first time under a so-called “cap and trade” policy, as implemented in the 2008 Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). The book provides evidence that a new “public benefit” frame was critical to making allowance auctions possible in RGGI, by going beyond typical polluter pays norms in environmental policy to also include norms regarding the fair distribution of public resources such as the atmosphere. The book also argues that the public benefit frame offers promising option for promoting new climate change policies in other contexts, including the EU ETS, California’s cap and trade policy, and the EPA’s new Clean Power Plan. The book also describes the wider implications of normative reframing as a strategy for creating policy change in many contexts beyond climate policy, including improving the ability of policy theories to predict which policies are likely to change suddenly in the future.

This chapter describes the “old” model of cap-and-trade policy design that largely controlled emissions trading policy from its origins in the 1970s through the 1990s, under which emissions trading programs were adopted reluctantly, and “grandfathered” emissions allowances to current emitters at no cost. It also describes some important events starting in the 1990s that helped lay the groundwork for the sudden switch to auctions in RGGI, including: greater attention to allocation rules by political actors, new precedents such as spectrum rights auctions and severance taxes on some nature resources, new political and economic pressures from electricity deregulation, and the emergence of “public benefit” charges and programs to improve energy efficiency for consumers. In addition, this period saw the emergence of new polluter pays and public ownership normative frames in the context of emissions allowances. At the same time, the chapter documents how these initial changes were insufficient to successfully promote allowance auctions in the development of two prominent cap and trade programs: the initial phase of the EU ETS from 1998-2005, and the NOx Budget emissions trading program from 1994-2005.

Policy scholars acknowledge that norms affect policy choice, but have not fully articulated a theory of how norms can serve as a catalyst for sudden policy change. After reviewing existing efforts to theorize non-incremental policy change, the chapter offers an initial account of a theory of norm-driven policy change that could better predict policy change as well as stability in the future. The crux of the theory is based on the new idea of normative reframing, or using a new issue frame to portray an issue in terms of an alternative norm that supports a new policy alternative. This idea of new normative frames draws on and expands ideas from Baumgartner and Jones’ Punctuated Equilibrium Theory in trying to improve our ability to explain and predict sudden policy change. The chapter concludes with a conceptual overview of how the process of normative reframing helps explain the sudden change toward auctions in emissions trading policies related to climate change, and allows for better predictions of other specific policy changes in general.

This chapter introduces the main argument of the book: that the decision in RGGI to “reclaim the atmospheric commons” on behalf of the public by auctioning emissions allowances for the first time was possible due to a new normative frame promoted by environmental advocates. This new “public benefit” frame incorporated polluter pays and egalitarian norms to create a new policy design for auctions that paid greater attention to the distribution of the value of those allowances to the public at large. Taken together, this new frame and associated policy design constituted a new “public benefit model” for climate policy stressing the importance not only of making polluters pay, but also of dedicating those revenues to programs that benefit the public directly, such as subsidies for energy efficiency improvements or direct bill rebates. Using this new public benefit frame and policy design, change advocates were able to promote auctions successfully in RGGI in a surprising policy reversal from long-standing practice of giving such allowances away for free to powerful economic interests.

After RGGI’s implementation in 2008, a series of political set backs led some to declare cap and trade “dead.” This chapter rejects the asserted demise of cap and trade, arguing that the public benefit model for climate policies offers the best hope for political progress. The chapter reviews post-2008 climate policies, noting thatdespite a few prominent failures,cap and trade with auction has become the most common approach to addressing climate change. In addition, the chapter documents how three policies—the EU ETS, California’s cap and trade program, and RGGI—used the public benefit frame to resist political challenges and strengthen their emissions goals. The chapter then describes additional potential applications for the public benefit model, including carbon tax policies and the new Clean Power Plan regulations promulgated by the U.S. EPA in 2015. As uses of the public benefit frame expand, the chapter notes, a key question for the future will be what types of policy designs will be perceived as “fitting” with the norms that constitute the frame. Finally, the chapter discusses how normative framing could improve the ability to understand and predict other sudden policy changes beyond the topic of climate change.

Scientific research shows that deforestation can drive climate not only through changes in carbon stocks but also through biophysical feedbacks. These can alter the climate effectiveness of emission reductions and will thus have important implications for REDD+. Explored here are the implications for motivating tropical developing country participation, and for motivating efforts to measure integrated biophysical–carbon climate impacts of land use change. In the tropics, biophysical impacts of deforestation are found to enhance local warming, which suggests that REDD+ participants benefit from a locally concentrated good in the form of local climate impacts, in addition to the global public good in the form of emissions reductions. To capture the breadth of climate impacts of land use change, composite biophysical–carbon indices have been proposed, but are hampered by issues of scale and uncertainty. These issues must at least be acknowledged in policy discussions to allow land-based initiatives to move f...

Early emissions trading programs have obtained a very high rate of compliance, in part by using continuous emissions monitors (CEMs) that automatically record emissions data on a 24-hour basis. As they expand into a wider range of pollutants and sources, however, such policies will have to rely on less automated forms of self-reporting. This article asks if improved “affirmative motivations” for compliance based on perceptions of a policy's fairness could reduce the likelihood of underreporting, thereby lowering verification costs without unduly jeopardizing environmental integrity. Using a computerized laboratory emissions trading market, we find that many subjects reported emissions honestly in situations where dishonest reporting would have been more profitable, as well as a statistically significant association of affirmative motivations based on perceptions of a policy's fairness with honest reporting. These results suggest that designing an emissions trading program to increase its perceived fairness among users has the potential to increase honest emissions reporting and reduce monitoring costs.

This article introduces a new method, qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), to the study of state policy choice and the role of ideas in politics. The authors hypothesize an important role for normative beliefs in state policy choice even for policies that go beyond traditional subjects of “morality” policy. Specifically, the authors find that “precautionary norms” are influential determinants of recent state environmental policies regulating chemicals, even in the face of significant economic impacts. They conclude that these results offer new theoretical ideas relevant to the state innovation and diffusion literature as well as the study of ideas in the policy process.

Hulme, Mike. 2009. Why We Disagree About Climate Change: Understanding Controversy, Inaction, and Opportunity. Cambridge University Press.Malone, Elizabeth L. 2009. Debating Climate Change: Pathways through Argument to Agreement. Sterling, VA: Earthscan.Stehr, Nico and Hans von Storch. 2010. Climate and Society: Climate as Resource, Climate as Risk. Hackensack, NJ: World Scientific.

This paper explores detailed public attitudes regarding the expanding range of biofuels technologies and policy options. Subjects from 34 in-depth focus groups in central Indiana were fairly knowledgeable about biofuels technologies, but uninformed about biofuels policies despite being from a state where biofuels are a salient political issue. A narrow majority was supportive of biofuels in general, but expressed greater enthusiasm about “second generation” biofuels. Subject beliefs about biofuels’ economic and environmental impacts were most important in shaping these opinions, rather than concerns about energy independence or other issues. In terms of policy options, subjects were most supportive of an alternative fuels standard and least supportive of a fixed subsidy and a cap and trade policy. In contrast to arguments about technologies, participants primarily framed their attitudes toward policies in terms of fairness. Although discussion did not substantially change aggregate preferences for most policies, it did increase support significantly for at least one policy proposal—a variable subsidy for ethanol. It is particularly noteworthy that subjects generally did not support the most common biofuel technology—corn-based ethanol—or the most prominent biofuels policy option—the fixed subsidy—despite residing in a state hosting a strong corn industry and staunch political advocates for both positions.

Owing to a technical error, this Perspective was originally published without its received and accepted dates; the dates ‘Received: 29 November 2017; Accepted: 9 April 2018’ have now been included in all versions.

The precautionary principle (PP) has gained influence in environmental politics as a ‘policy principle’ – an idea that can spur policy change. Yet, exact definitions of the PP remain elusive, making evaluation of its actual political influence difficult. Given the controversy over the PP's meaning and policy utility, broader empirical analysis of its public formulations is overdue. Elite discourse on the PP is analysed in the search for a dominant formulation among 238 articles in a variety of disciplines. The modal PP formulation is found to be a mix of stronger and weaker elements, broadly resembling Principle 15 of the 1992 Rio Declaration. The data suggest that the principle has become weaker over time, and that its critics formulate it more strongly than proponents. Contrary to some assertions, however, American and European authors do not differ significantly in their interpretations of the PP.

The distinction between ideas and discourse remains ambiguous in ideational theories of political choice. In addition, the role of rhetoric, or the strategic choice of language to represent a given idea, in ideational theories of political decision making is promising but underspecified. To explore these issues, this paper studies the impact of a specific discourse (i.e. an “ensemble of ideas”) about risk—often presented rhetorically as “the precautionary principle”—in a prominent political controversy: the regulation of Brominated Flame Retardants (BFRs). Widely used chemical compounds that improve fire resistance in many commercial products, BFRs have been measured in the fatty tissue of animals and human beings in increasing concentrations. The resulting concern about the safety of BFRs has led to regulatory action in a number of U.S. states. Although some have argued that a discourse of precaution facilitates the enactment of new environmental policies, we find that the rhetoric of the precautionary principle was an impeding factor for these BFR regulations. At the same time, we find that while political actors avoided the precautionary principle by name, they relied on certain ideas often attributed to the principle. Thus, the causal role of specific ideas in politics, we conclude, is significantly contingent on their precise rhetorical presentation.

This article argues that efforts to protect endangered species on private land could benefit substantially from a better understanding of landowners' beliefs and values about conservation and private property rights. Noting that surprisingly little research has been done in this area, the article presents data from a series of in-depth interviews with landowners in a conservation management area in central Indiana. The results illustrate the strength of a belief in ownership as an intrinsic right among landowners, as well as a high level of concern for protecting endangered species, often on moral grounds. The combination of views found in this case suggests a window of opportunity for greater collaboration with private owners to meet species conservation goals.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the significance and pathogenic potential of a highly conserved major type II collagen triple-helical epitope-specific antibody (U1; amino acids 494-504) in vivo and in vitro in patients with early rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and in experimental animal models of collagen-induced arthritis (CIA). METHODS: U1-specific antibodies in sera from patients with early RA (with or without joint erosions) were analyzed. Disease progression in the CIA models in mice and rats with anti-U1 antibodies was compared. The pathogenicity of binding of monoclonal antibodies (mAb) UL1 and CIIF4 to the U1 epitope and the F4 epitope (aa 926-936), respectively, was compared in vivo and on chondrocyte cultures and preformed cartilage in vitro, using Fourier transform infrared microspectroscopy analysis. In addition, UL1-induced proteoglycan depletion in vivo in the presence and absence of the complement factor C5 was analyzed. RESULTS: Increased levels of U1 antibodies were observed in patients with early RA, especially in association with joint erosions. A significant correlation of U1-specific antibodies with disease progression was found in rats and mice with CIA. UL1 mAb induced, whereas CIIF4 mAb inhibited, the progression of arthritis. Similarly, UL1, but not CIIF4, impaired matrix synthesis on chondrocyte cultures and adversely affected preformed cartilage. Furthermore, UL1 induced significant proteoglycan depletion in vivo 3 days after injection, even in the absence of C5. CONCLUSION: Antibody epitope specificity contributes significantly to the development of arthritis, and the early pathogenic events operate independent of inflammation both in vitro and in vivo. (Less)

Ongoing conflict over the fair allocation of greenhouse gas emissions among nations is a significant impediment to progress in international climate change negotiations. This article considers the strengths and weaknesses of a crucial argument within the allocation debate asserting the atmospheric capacity to absorb greenhouse gases should be distributed on an equal per capita basis. While noting the argument's many appealing qualities, the paper argues that the per capita perspective also encompasses important practical and ethical limitations. Besides potentially encouraging population growth and discriminating against those with greater (but still legitimate) energy needs, early evidence suggests that the equal per capita idea may hinder progress in climate change talks by invoking a more absolutist and uncompromising rhetoric of rights. Alternative ideas of fairness, such as the distinction between subsistence and luxury emissions, or the Common Heritage of Mankind idea, offer a more flexible mix of egalitarian and other allocation principles that should be considered carefully, even by those sympathetic to the equal per capita perspective.

Mutual trust among individuals is frequently cited as an important factor in encouraging collective action, particularly in environmental policy settings. Yet the precise role of trust in the collective action process remains uncertain. This article explores the hypothesis that trust is overrated as a cause of cooperation. It initially tests this hypothesis through two case studies of voluntary collective action in a new context: the creation of multiactor Habitat Conservation Plans to protect endangered species. The two cases suggest that institutional mechanisms and political leadership can play an important role in encouraging collective action without relying on trust among cooperators. Besides their theoretical implications, the results suggest policymakers might spend more energy on creating incentives and assurance mechanisms to encourage collaboration, rather than the potentially fruitless task of building of social capital among rival stakeholders.

Some research has posited that while initially damaging to the environment, continued economic growth eventually leads to superior environmental quality. This relationship is often described as an ‘Environmental Kuznets Curve’ (EKC), after a similar hypothesis regarding income inequality made by economist Simon Kuznets. Following such findings, the EKC is sometimes offered as a rationale for encouraging economic growth as the best environmental policy option. This paper reconsiders the policy-relevance of the EKC idea, drawing on a wide range of international data collected in the Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI) project. Specifically, it tests the theoretical arguments advanced by Arrow and others (1995) that EKC relationships are unlikely to hold for environmental problems that are intergenerational in time or spread across national boundaries. The results of this research substantially confirm those arguments, providing more evidence that the EKC idea is an inadequate guide for environmental policy makers around the globe.

Determining the appropriate balance between local and national interests is an enduring issue in public and environmental policy. Study of this issue, however, has been impeded by the theory of agency capture. This paper demonstrates the limitations of capture theory with respect to localism and provides a new perspective on the issue by revisiting the case of the U.S. Division of Grazing, a common example in the literature of a ‘captured’ agency. Until now, the over-extension of capture theory to this case has obscured the division's extensive efforts to balance local and federal influence over range policy and prevent domination by large private interests. At the center of this struggle was a prominent legal dispute over local control involving Colorado sheepherder Joseph Livingston. As a detailed debate over political representation and the merits of localism, the Livingston case holds important lessons for modern community-based conservation efforts seeking similar policy goals.

This paper examines the recurring theme that fisheries management ought to emulate the institutional arrangements governing other natural resources, such as public rangelands. Overly facile comparisons between fisheries and range have been based on a misguided vision of range policy and an obsession with the structure of property rights. The result has been a condition of “structural narcosis” that obscures obvious but important differences between range and fisheries and obstructs more productive and sophisticated attempts at comparative inquiry. This paper provides a more detailed contrast between past range and current fisheries policy in the United States, in pursuit of more realistic lessons for policy makers. Range management, the paper concludes, is evolving in directions that are instructive for fisheries, but the crossing of conceptual boundaries between these two resources must be undertaken with care and greater attention to detail.