Attitudes and Perspectives of Front-line Workers in Environmental Policy: A Case Study of Ohio EPA and Wisconsin DNR
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2-2013
Publication Source
Journal of Public Affairs
Abstract
This research is an effort to focus on frontline regulators with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. An online survey was conducted of frontline regulators in these agencies to explore their knowledge, attitudes, and perspectives on policy implementation. More specifically, we endeavor to answer how frontline workers implement environmental policy. To analyze these data, we use two categorizations of factors (knowledge and attitudes, and contextual factors) offered by May and Winter (2009) to examine what influences the decision making of frontline regulators in their regulatory interactions. We find that despite common presumptions of adversarialism in the environmental regulatory arena, the frontline environmental inspectors in these states generally have positive attitudes of their regulatory colleagues and cope well with external contextual factors. While our findings are exploratory and descriptive, we argue that they are important for the next generation of environmental policy in the USA.
Inclusive pages
111-122
ISBN/ISSN
1479-1854
Volume
13
Issue
1
Peer Reviewed
yes
eCommons Citation
Rinfret, Sara R. and Pautz, Michelle C., "Attitudes and Perspectives of Front-line Workers in Environmental Policy: A Case Study of Ohio EPA and Wisconsin DNR" (2013). Political Science Faculty Publications. 10.
https://ecommons.udayton.edu/pol_fac_pub/10
