building consensual institutions_networks and the national estuary program

Building Consensual Institutions: Netw orks and the National Estuary Program Mark Schneider State University of New Y ork, Stony Brook John Scholz Florida State University Mark Lubell University of California, Davis Denisa Mindruta State University of New Y ork, Stony Brook Matthew Edwardsen State University of New Y ork, Stony Brook Currently, many approaches to solving policy problems seek to create community-based, less coercive solutions that are cre atin g the con dit ion s forthe bir th of newregion al gov ernmen tal ins tit utions. We arg ue tha t net wor ks for m thecore of these emergent structures and that federal programs can play a positive role in developing local networks. Our empirical work compares networks in estuaries included in National Estuary Program with networks in comparable estuaries that were not. We ﬁnd that the networks in NEP areas span more levels of government, integrate more experts into policy discussions, nurture stronger interpersonal ties between stakeholders, and create greater faith in the procedural fairness of local policy, thus laying the foundation for a new form of cooperative governance. A wide range of policydomai ns arecharacterized by political and administrative jurisdictions that are poorly suited for solving many emerging problems. This is particularly true in the area of environmental policy , where the physi cal boundaries of water sheds, airsheds, fishing grounds, and other natural systems typ- ically cross local political and administrative boundaries. The need to deal with problems that transcend estab- lish ed gov ernment al structures has int ens ifie d at the same time that the zeitgeist of American politics has increas- ingl y spurned anythi ng tha t sma cks of “big gov ernment .” In turn, approaches that rely on hierarchical command- and-co ntr ol arebeing replac ed by pol ici es tha t seekto create more community-based and less coercive solutions to policy problems. This has created the conditions for the birth of new region algovernmental instit ution s thatdiffer dramatically from traditional large-scale governmental organizations. Mark Schneider is Professor of Political Science, State University of New York, Stony Brook, NY 11794-4392 (mark.schneider@stonybrook. edu). John Sch olz is the Fra nci s Eppes Pr ofe sso r of Po lit ica l Sci enc e, Flo rida St ate Univ ers ity , T all aha ssee, FL 323 06- 223 0 ([email protected]). Mark Lubell is Assistant Professor of Environmental Science and Policy, One Shields Avenue, University of California, Davis, CA 95616. Denisa Mindruta is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Political Science, State University of New York, Stony Brook, NY 11794-4392. Matthew Edwardsen graduated with his BA degree from the Department of Political Science, State University of New Y ork, Stony Brook, NY 11794-4392 and is now serv ing in the Peace Corps. This research was supported by NSF (Grant SBR97295905) and NSF/EPA (Grant SBR9815473). We would also like to acknowledge the extensive support given to our work by the staff of the National Estuary Program and many of the local NEPs, especially Tampa Bay. Wh ile pol iti cal sci entists oft en defi ne gov ernment institutions by the formal structures that determine the au- thorita tiv e all ocation of res our ces, we arg ue tha t networks form the core of these new governing structures. These purpose ful network s evolv e across admi nistrat ive and political boundaries and provide a potential alternative to more formalized, hierarchical coordination mechanisms (Bardach1998).Our perspectivefollowsHeclo, who notes tha t: “. . .it is throughnetwork s of peo pl e who regard each otherasknowledgeable,oratleastneedingtobeanswered, that public policy issues tend to be refined, evidence de- bated , and alterna tive opti ons work ed out—t hough rarely in any controlled, well-organized way” (Heclo 1978; also see Bardach 1998). Network-based structures are characterized by high levels of interdependence involving multiple organizations, where formal lines of authority are blurred and where diverse policy actors are knitted together to focus American Journal of Political Science , V ol. 47, No. 1, January 2003, Pp. 143–158 C 2003 by the Midwest Political Science Association ISSN 0092-5853 143

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