William R Lowry
Biographic Data
| ID | 960169 |
|---|---|
| NAME | William R Lowry |
| GIVEN NAMES | William R |
| FAMILY NAME | Lowry |
| SIGNATURE | LOWRY W R |
| AFFILIATIONS | Washington University in St. Louis |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 26 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 202 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 26 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1972 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2019 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
The polarisation of energy policy in the US Congress
Although energy policy used to be a nonpartisan issue in Congress, partisan conflicts over energy policies are intense these days. To examine how a nonpartisan issue became a highly partisan one, we create and use a new measure of energy policy positions of members of Congress. Our analyses of member behaviour show that, in addition to partisan realignment in the South, energy policy-specific factors – rising oil prices, the climate change debate…
The Exceptionalism of the Open Space Issue in American Politics
Objective Our objective is to illustrate the need to differentiate specific issue types within broad policy categories by showing the exceptional support in American politics for open space issues. Methods We test this assertion with econometric analyses of outcomes from over 600 state ballot measures on environmental and energy issues. Results We find exceptional support for open space ballot measures in simple comparisons and in fuller models o…
Coalitions and Conservation: Conditional Impacts of Coalitions on Ballot Measures for Open Space
Social scientists have long debated the impact of interest group coalitions on public policies. While views on coalition impacts range from dominance to impotence, an emerging perspective suggests that coalitions have impacts under certain conditions. In this paper, we join and expand that perspective by arguing that coalitions have a conditional impact on public policies through ballot measures. Specifically, we argue that coalitions will have g…
The Determinants of Salience of Energy Issues
Studies show that salience of an issue influences the behavior of political elites, policy responses, and the attitudes of the public. Yet while the effects of salience are given considerable attention, less is known about the factors that produce salience. Specifically, what are the determinants of an issue's salience? We examine salience of energy issues in the U nited S tates over the past six decades and make two contributions. First, we prov…
How Preferences Change Institutions: The 1978 Energy Act
In this article, we advance a generic theory of institutional change and illustrate it through a study of the Gas Deregulation Act of 1977–78. The passage of the Act provides an informative case study about institutional change as an innovative postcloture filibuster was implemented, and then defeated, in the course of the debate. Contrary to Shepsle's argument that institutions determine outcomes, we argue that the legislative majority shaped th…
Oil Crises and Policy Continuity: A History of Failure to Change
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Policy Changes on Canada's Rivers: Different but not Isolated
I address two questions in this article. First, how do policy changes in Canada differ from those in the United States? Second, are such changes isolated from American influence? I argue that Canadian policy changes will be more driven by subnational bureaucrats, more dependent upon fortuitous alignments of interests and institutions, and less quickly emulated by other jurisdictions than policy changes in the United States. I will also argue that…
Can Bureaucracies Change Policy
In the 1990s, policymakers at Yellowstone and Banff National Parks enacted two of the most controversial programs in the history of protected lands. At Yellowstone, the U.S. National Park Service ( nps ) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ( fws ) personnel reintroduced wolves into the Yellowstone ecosystem. This program restored a crucial element to the park ecosystem that had been eliminated decades before and not returned since exterminatio…
Disentangling Energy Policy from Environmental Policy
Objectives. I attempt to disentangle energy policy from environmental policy in order to explain the shifting politics surrounding the former. I can then explain why energy policies have historically provided distributive benefits but also the implications of the fact that energy proposals have in recent years become more regulatory in nature. Methods. I use a range of methods. These include qualitative accounts of the evolution of energy policy,…
Potential Focusing Projects and Policy Change
Why do policies change dramatically? Most prominent theories and many empirical studies of policy change address that question with attention to external shocks to policy systems or focusing events. These shocks or events are usually described as unplanned, unpredicted jolts such as global crises or natural disasters. I assert a role for focusing projects. These planned activities continue traditional priorities in an issue but do so to a degree …
Unbuilt Dams: Seminal Events and Policy Change in China, Australia, and the United States
Specific events can occasionally be described as turning points in the evolution of a par ticular public policy. Classic examples include the 1964 Civil Rights Act in American civil rights policy and the 1989 decision by Hungarian authorities to allow East Germans safe transit through Hungary into Austria, which culminated in the fall of the Berlin Wall. Why do such seminal events occur? How comparable are explanations in very different political…
Policy Reversal and Changing Politics: State Governments and Dam Removals
Does the type of policy being considered determine the politics surrounding it? In this article, I examine how policy reversals may produce different politics than initial policy adoptions in the context of state river management policy. Traditionally, dam building was the dominant management policy, but in recent decades, efforts to restore rivers to their natural conditions through the removal of dams have become more prominent. I find that the…
Party Differentiation in Congress
At times, the American political parties are so close in terms of policy positions that critics denounce the lack of a “dime's worth of difference” between them. At other times, the gap between them on a left‐right dimension is huge. How can we explain this variation? We argue that parties can behave rationally as collective units, and that shifts in divergence and convergence can be explained as rational responses to changes within governmental …
The Impact of Reinventing Government on State and Federal Parks
Over the last dozen years of the twentieth century, one major change affecting many American public policies consists of increased demands for efficiency. As a result, the demands on bureaucratic agencies responsible for delivery of public goods and services are daunting. Political authorities prescribe economic goals of efficiency and self-sufficiency for agencies while not reducing demands for attainment of political goals like efficacy and equ…
Environmental Policy and Party Divergence in Congress
The question of whether parties converge or diverge over time has attracted a great deal of theoretical and empirical attention. In this article we make two contributions to this literature. First, rather than looking at general measures of ideology, we examine a specific policy area-environmental policy to see whether the parties have diverged or converged. We utilize ratings produced by the League of Conservation Voters to obtain measures of co…
Places of Quiet Beauty: Parks, Preserves, and Environmentalism
Journal Article Places of Quiet Beauty: Parks, Preserves, and Environmentalism. By Rebecca Conard. (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1997. xvi, 382 pp. Paper, $15.95, ISBN 0-87745-558-9.) Get access William R. Lowry William R. Lowry Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 85, Issue 4, March 1999, Pages 1612–1613, https://doi.org/10.…
Comparative Analyses of Canadian and American Environmental Policy: An Introduction to the Symposium
Canada and the United States offer an intriguing basis for comparative analysis in environmental policy.Canadian and American policymakers often face the same challenges and pursue similar, if not identical, goals.Yet, the pursuit of those goals and the final outcomes can differ dramatically.Given all the dimensions on which these two countries are comparable, we thus are left with a puzzle.How can we explain the different experiences of the two …
Providing Intergenerational Goods: Implementation of National Park System Plans in Canada and the United States
The provision of inter generational goods is a challenging task for democratic governments in that benefits arrive in the future but costs are borne in the present. Public agencies usually are assigned responsibility for providing such goods, but implementation of their long‐term plans often is constrained by the short‐term focus of other political actors. This argument is illustrated through a comparison of Canadian and American efforts to expan…
Federalism and Environmental Policy: Trust and the Politics of Implementation
Public Provision of Intergenerational Goods: The Case of Preserved Lands
Theory: As with other goods and services, the provision of intergenerational goods is determined by the interaction of demand and supply conditions. The major conditions affecting provision of intergenerational goods are supportive advocacy coalitions and the impact of a relevant public agency. Hypotheses: (1) The more evident the supportive advocacy coalitions, the higher the level of intergenerational good provided. (2) The more durable the pre…
The Green Rainbow: Environmental Groups in Western Europe. Russell J. Dalton Environmental Deceptions: The Tension between Liberalism and Environmental Policymaking in the United States. Matthew Alan …
Paved With Political Intentions: The Impact of Structure on the National Park Services of Canada and the United States
The structural allocation of decisionmaking power between political authorities and career civil servants influences agency policy behavior. I propose and examine this argument in the context of the national park service agencies of Canada and the United States. Centralization of power to political authorities increases agency attention to electoral concerns such as visitor service. Empowerment of careerists enhances attention to long‐term agency…
Land of the Fee: Entrance Fees and the National Park Service
Land of the Fee: Entrance Fees and the National Park Service
What are the implications of increasing a public agency's ability to generate its own revenue for political control of the bureaucracy? This article uses historical cases of public land user fees to argue that, under certain conditions, such a change, rather than increasing agency autonomy, actually facilitates congressional intervention and control. Specifically, if the revenue increase carries no guarantees of increased appropriations and maint…
A Cross-Sectional Study of the Effects of Lafta and Cacm on Latin American Trade
Environmental Policy and Party Divergence in Congress
The question of whether parties converge or diverge over time has attracted a great deal of theoretical and empirical attention. In this article we make two contributions to this literature. First, rather than looking at general measures of ideology, we examine a specific policy area-environmental policy to see whether the parties have diverged or converged. We utilize ratings produced by the League of Conservation Voters to obtain measures of co…
Party Differentiation in Congress
At times, the American political parties are so close in terms of policy positions that critics denounce the lack of a “dime's worth of difference” between them. At other times, the gap between them on a left‐right dimension is huge. How can we explain this variation? We argue that parties can behave rationally as collective units, and that shifts in divergence and convergence can be explained as rational responses to changes within governmental …
Unbuilt Dams: Seminal Events and Policy Change in China, Australia, and the United States
Specific events can occasionally be described as turning points in the evolution of a par ticular public policy. Classic examples include the 1964 Civil Rights Act in American civil rights policy and the 1989 decision by Hungarian authorities to allow East Germans safe transit through Hungary into Austria, which culminated in the fall of the Berlin Wall. Why do such seminal events occur? How comparable are explanations in very different political…
Policy Reversal and Changing Politics: State Governments and Dam Removals
Does the type of policy being considered determine the politics surrounding it? In this article, I examine how policy reversals may produce different politics than initial policy adoptions in the context of state river management policy. Traditionally, dam building was the dominant management policy, but in recent decades, efforts to restore rivers to their natural conditions through the removal of dams have become more prominent. I find that the…
Federalism and Environmental Policy: Trust and the Politics of Implementation
Potential Focusing Projects and Policy Change
Why do policies change dramatically? Most prominent theories and many empirical studies of policy change address that question with attention to external shocks to policy systems or focusing events. These shocks or events are usually described as unplanned, unpredicted jolts such as global crises or natural disasters. I assert a role for focusing projects. These planned activities continue traditional priorities in an issue but do so to a degree …
The Determinants of Salience of Energy Issues
Studies show that salience of an issue influences the behavior of political elites, policy responses, and the attitudes of the public. Yet while the effects of salience are given considerable attention, less is known about the factors that produce salience. Specifically, what are the determinants of an issue's salience? We examine salience of energy issues in the U nited S tates over the past six decades and make two contributions. First, we prov…
Coalitions and Conservation: Conditional Impacts of Coalitions on Ballot Measures for Open Space
Social scientists have long debated the impact of interest group coalitions on public policies. While views on coalition impacts range from dominance to impotence, an emerging perspective suggests that coalitions have impacts under certain conditions. In this paper, we join and expand that perspective by arguing that coalitions have a conditional impact on public policies through ballot measures. Specifically, we argue that coalitions will have g…
Disentangling Energy Policy from Environmental Policy
Objectives. I attempt to disentangle energy policy from environmental policy in order to explain the shifting politics surrounding the former. I can then explain why energy policies have historically provided distributive benefits but also the implications of the fact that energy proposals have in recent years become more regulatory in nature. Methods. I use a range of methods. These include qualitative accounts of the evolution of energy policy,…
The polarisation of energy policy in the US Congress
Although energy policy used to be a nonpartisan issue in Congress, partisan conflicts over energy policies are intense these days. To examine how a nonpartisan issue became a highly partisan one, we create and use a new measure of energy policy positions of members of Congress. Our analyses of member behaviour show that, in addition to partisan realignment in the South, energy policy-specific factors – rising oil prices, the climate change debate…
How Preferences Change Institutions: The 1978 Energy Act
In this article, we advance a generic theory of institutional change and illustrate it through a study of the Gas Deregulation Act of 1977–78. The passage of the Act provides an informative case study about institutional change as an innovative postcloture filibuster was implemented, and then defeated, in the course of the debate. Contrary to Shepsle's argument that institutions determine outcomes, we argue that the legislative majority shaped th…
Comparative Analyses of Canadian and American Environmental Policy: An Introduction to the Symposium
Canada and the United States offer an intriguing basis for comparative analysis in environmental policy.Canadian and American policymakers often face the same challenges and pursue similar, if not identical, goals.Yet, the pursuit of those goals and the final outcomes can differ dramatically.Given all the dimensions on which these two countries are comparable, we thus are left with a puzzle.How can we explain the different experiences of the two …
A Cross‐sectional Study of the Effects of Lafta and Cacm on Latin American Trade
To summarize briefly, the study results showed that neither CACM nor LAFTA have had a significant trade diversion effect on the trade of other Latin American countries, but that both communities have had a statistically significant effect on member country trade. The results showed that the GTC of CACM has increased progressively throughout the integration period 1961–67. On the other hand, while the LAFTA countries showed a persistent growth in …
Can Bureaucracies Change Policy
In the 1990s, policymakers at Yellowstone and Banff National Parks enacted two of the most controversial programs in the history of protected lands. At Yellowstone, the U.S. National Park Service ( nps ) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ( fws ) personnel reintroduced wolves into the Yellowstone ecosystem. This program restored a crucial element to the park ecosystem that had been eliminated decades before and not returned since exterminatio…
Public Provision of Intergenerational Goods: The Case of Preserved Lands
Theory: As with other goods and services, the provision of intergenerational goods is determined by the interaction of demand and supply conditions. The major conditions affecting provision of intergenerational goods are supportive advocacy coalitions and the impact of a relevant public agency. Hypotheses: (1) The more evident the supportive advocacy coalitions, the higher the level of intergenerational good provided. (2) The more durable the pre…
The Exceptionalism of the Open Space Issue in American Politics
Objective Our objective is to illustrate the need to differentiate specific issue types within broad policy categories by showing the exceptional support in American politics for open space issues. Methods We test this assertion with econometric analyses of outcomes from over 600 state ballot measures on environmental and energy issues. Results We find exceptional support for open space ballot measures in simple comparisons and in fuller models o…
Oil Crises and Policy Continuity: A History of Failure to Change
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Providing Intergenerational Goods: Implementation of National Park System Plans in Canada and the United States
The provision of inter generational goods is a challenging task for democratic governments in that benefits arrive in the future but costs are borne in the present. Public agencies usually are assigned responsibility for providing such goods, but implementation of their long‐term plans often is constrained by the short‐term focus of other political actors. This argument is illustrated through a comparison of Canadian and American efforts to expan…
Paved With Political Intentions: The Impact of Structure on the National Park Services of Canada and the United States
The structural allocation of decisionmaking power between political authorities and career civil servants influences agency policy behavior. I propose and examine this argument in the context of the national park service agencies of Canada and the United States. Centralization of power to political authorities increases agency attention to electoral concerns such as visitor service. Empowerment of careerists enhances attention to long‐term agency…
The Impact of Reinventing Government on State and Federal Parks
Over the last dozen years of the twentieth century, one major change affecting many American public policies consists of increased demands for efficiency. As a result, the demands on bureaucratic agencies responsible for delivery of public goods and services are daunting. Political authorities prescribe economic goals of efficiency and self-sufficiency for agencies while not reducing demands for attainment of political goals like efficacy and equ…
Land of the Fee: Entrance Fees and the National Park Service
What are the implications of increasing a public agency's ability to generate its own revenue for political control of the bureaucracy? This article uses historical cases of public land user fees to argue that, under certain conditions, such a change, rather than increasing agency autonomy, actually facilitates congressional intervention and control. Specifically, if the revenue increase carries no guarantees of increased appropriations and maint…
A Cross-Sectional Study of the Effects of Lafta and Cacm on Latin American Trade
A Cross‐sectional Study of the Effects of Lafta and Cacm on Latin American Trade
To summarize briefly, the study results showed that neither CACM nor LAFTA have had a significant trade diversion effect on the trade of other Latin American countries, but that both communities have had a statistically significant effect on member country trade. The results showed that the GTC of CACM has increased progressively throughout the integration period 1961–67. On the other hand, while the LAFTA countries showed a persistent growth in …
Land of the Fee: Entrance Fees and the National Park Service
Land of the Fee: Entrance Fees and the National Park Service
What are the implications of increasing a public agency's ability to generate its own revenue for political control of the bureaucracy? This article uses historical cases of public land user fees to argue that, under certain conditions, such a change, rather than increasing agency autonomy, actually facilitates congressional intervention and control. Specifically, if the revenue increase carries no guarantees of increased appropriations and maint…
Paved With Political Intentions: The Impact of Structure on the National Park Services of Canada and the United States
The structural allocation of decisionmaking power between political authorities and career civil servants influences agency policy behavior. I propose and examine this argument in the context of the national park service agencies of Canada and the United States. Centralization of power to political authorities increases agency attention to electoral concerns such as visitor service. Empowerment of careerists enhances attention to long‐term agency…
The Green Rainbow: Environmental Groups in Western Europe. Russell J. Dalton Environmental Deceptions: The Tension between Liberalism and Environmental Policymaking in the United States. Matthew Alan …
Federalism and Environmental Policy: Trust and the Politics of Implementation
Public Provision of Intergenerational Goods: The Case of Preserved Lands
Theory: As with other goods and services, the provision of intergenerational goods is determined by the interaction of demand and supply conditions. The major conditions affecting provision of intergenerational goods are supportive advocacy coalitions and the impact of a relevant public agency. Hypotheses: (1) The more evident the supportive advocacy coalitions, the higher the level of intergenerational good provided. (2) The more durable the pre…
Places of Quiet Beauty: Parks, Preserves, and Environmentalism
Journal Article Places of Quiet Beauty: Parks, Preserves, and Environmentalism. By Rebecca Conard. (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1997. xvi, 382 pp. Paper, $15.95, ISBN 0-87745-558-9.) Get access William R. Lowry William R. Lowry Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 85, Issue 4, March 1999, Pages 1612–1613, https://doi.org/10.…
Comparative Analyses of Canadian and American Environmental Policy: An Introduction to the Symposium
Canada and the United States offer an intriguing basis for comparative analysis in environmental policy.Canadian and American policymakers often face the same challenges and pursue similar, if not identical, goals.Yet, the pursuit of those goals and the final outcomes can differ dramatically.Given all the dimensions on which these two countries are comparable, we thus are left with a puzzle.How can we explain the different experiences of the two …
Providing Intergenerational Goods: Implementation of National Park System Plans in Canada and the United States
The provision of inter generational goods is a challenging task for democratic governments in that benefits arrive in the future but costs are borne in the present. Public agencies usually are assigned responsibility for providing such goods, but implementation of their long‐term plans often is constrained by the short‐term focus of other political actors. This argument is illustrated through a comparison of Canadian and American efforts to expan…
The Impact of Reinventing Government on State and Federal Parks
Over the last dozen years of the twentieth century, one major change affecting many American public policies consists of increased demands for efficiency. As a result, the demands on bureaucratic agencies responsible for delivery of public goods and services are daunting. Political authorities prescribe economic goals of efficiency and self-sufficiency for agencies while not reducing demands for attainment of political goals like efficacy and equ…
Environmental Policy and Party Divergence in Congress
The question of whether parties converge or diverge over time has attracted a great deal of theoretical and empirical attention. In this article we make two contributions to this literature. First, rather than looking at general measures of ideology, we examine a specific policy area-environmental policy to see whether the parties have diverged or converged. We utilize ratings produced by the League of Conservation Voters to obtain measures of co…
Party Differentiation in Congress
At times, the American political parties are so close in terms of policy positions that critics denounce the lack of a “dime's worth of difference” between them. At other times, the gap between them on a left‐right dimension is huge. How can we explain this variation? We argue that parties can behave rationally as collective units, and that shifts in divergence and convergence can be explained as rational responses to changes within governmental …
Policy Reversal and Changing Politics: State Governments and Dam Removals
Does the type of policy being considered determine the politics surrounding it? In this article, I examine how policy reversals may produce different politics than initial policy adoptions in the context of state river management policy. Traditionally, dam building was the dominant management policy, but in recent decades, efforts to restore rivers to their natural conditions through the removal of dams have become more prominent. I find that the…
Potential Focusing Projects and Policy Change
Why do policies change dramatically? Most prominent theories and many empirical studies of policy change address that question with attention to external shocks to policy systems or focusing events. These shocks or events are usually described as unplanned, unpredicted jolts such as global crises or natural disasters. I assert a role for focusing projects. These planned activities continue traditional priorities in an issue but do so to a degree …
Unbuilt Dams: Seminal Events and Policy Change in China, Australia, and the United States
Specific events can occasionally be described as turning points in the evolution of a par ticular public policy. Classic examples include the 1964 Civil Rights Act in American civil rights policy and the 1989 decision by Hungarian authorities to allow East Germans safe transit through Hungary into Austria, which culminated in the fall of the Berlin Wall. Why do such seminal events occur? How comparable are explanations in very different political…
Can Bureaucracies Change Policy
In the 1990s, policymakers at Yellowstone and Banff National Parks enacted two of the most controversial programs in the history of protected lands. At Yellowstone, the U.S. National Park Service ( nps ) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ( fws ) personnel reintroduced wolves into the Yellowstone ecosystem. This program restored a crucial element to the park ecosystem that had been eliminated decades before and not returned since exterminatio…
Disentangling Energy Policy from Environmental Policy
Objectives. I attempt to disentangle energy policy from environmental policy in order to explain the shifting politics surrounding the former. I can then explain why energy policies have historically provided distributive benefits but also the implications of the fact that energy proposals have in recent years become more regulatory in nature. Methods. I use a range of methods. These include qualitative accounts of the evolution of energy policy,…
Policy Changes on Canada's Rivers: Different but not Isolated
I address two questions in this article. First, how do policy changes in Canada differ from those in the United States? Second, are such changes isolated from American influence? I argue that Canadian policy changes will be more driven by subnational bureaucrats, more dependent upon fortuitous alignments of interests and institutions, and less quickly emulated by other jurisdictions than policy changes in the United States. I will also argue that…
Oil Crises and Policy Continuity: A History of Failure to Change
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
The Determinants of Salience of Energy Issues
Studies show that salience of an issue influences the behavior of political elites, policy responses, and the attitudes of the public. Yet while the effects of salience are given considerable attention, less is known about the factors that produce salience. Specifically, what are the determinants of an issue's salience? We examine salience of energy issues in the U nited S tates over the past six decades and make two contributions. First, we prov…
How Preferences Change Institutions: The 1978 Energy Act
In this article, we advance a generic theory of institutional change and illustrate it through a study of the Gas Deregulation Act of 1977–78. The passage of the Act provides an informative case study about institutional change as an innovative postcloture filibuster was implemented, and then defeated, in the course of the debate. Contrary to Shepsle's argument that institutions determine outcomes, we argue that the legislative majority shaped th…
Coalitions and Conservation: Conditional Impacts of Coalitions on Ballot Measures for Open Space
Social scientists have long debated the impact of interest group coalitions on public policies. While views on coalition impacts range from dominance to impotence, an emerging perspective suggests that coalitions have impacts under certain conditions. In this paper, we join and expand that perspective by arguing that coalitions have a conditional impact on public policies through ballot measures. Specifically, we argue that coalitions will have g…
The Exceptionalism of the Open Space Issue in American Politics
Objective Our objective is to illustrate the need to differentiate specific issue types within broad policy categories by showing the exceptional support in American politics for open space issues. Methods We test this assertion with econometric analyses of outcomes from over 600 state ballot measures on environmental and energy issues. Results We find exceptional support for open space ballot measures in simple comparisons and in fuller models o…
Political science (24 works) · Politics (16 works) · Law (15 works) · Economics (14 works) · Public Administration (14 works) · Law (12 works) · Public Administration (11 works) · Business (10 works) · Electoral Systems and Political Participation (10 works) · Public economics (9 works)