Attitudes and perspectives of frontline workers in environmental policy: A case study of Ohio's environmental protection agency and wisconsin's department of natural resources

Sara R. Rinfret, Michelle C. Pautz

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Scopus citations

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.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)111-122
Number of pages12
JournalJournal of Public Affairs
Volume13
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 2013
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Environmental policy
  • Frontline regulator
  • OEPA
  • WI DNR

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Public Administration
  • Political Science and International Relations

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