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Urban Studies and Planning

Policy History, Theory, and Methods

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Full-Text Articles in Other Political Science

Nonpunctuated And Sweeping Policy Change: Bhutan Tobacco Policy Making From 1991 To 2009, Michael S. Givel Aug 2012

Nonpunctuated And Sweeping Policy Change: Bhutan Tobacco Policy Making From 1991 To 2009, Michael S. Givel

Michael S. Givel

This paper examines policy outputs associated with the 2004 Bhutan antitobacco law, including 2009 amendments, to determine if the law is congruent with punctuated equilibrium or social policy realism theories of policy change. There was no direct and sudden tobacco policy output change in Bhutan due to a shock to the policy system contrary to what punctuated equilibrium theory would predict. Rather, policy change was sweeping but nonpunctuated. This paper reconfirms prior findings of social policy realism theory that various and complex policy output patterns occur due to a mixture of contingent and complex factors. Under social policy realism, a …


Deconstructing Social Constructionist Theory In Tobacco Policy: The Case Of The Less Hazardous Cigarette, Michael Givel Jan 2011

Deconstructing Social Constructionist Theory In Tobacco Policy: The Case Of The Less Hazardous Cigarette, Michael Givel

Michael S. Givel

Scholars in tobacco control have utilized a social construction approach to test and explain tobacco control policy and advocacy. Some recent tobacco control policy research has contended that Philip Morris's support of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulation of tobacco (including purportedly reducing the harm of cigarettes) is to obtain the social construction goal of a socially responsible company. However, the primary motivation for Philip Morris's support of proposed FDA regulation and harm reduction for cigarettes was to maintain the company's market stability and profitability implemented by U.S. political process and institutions. In tandem with this, Philip Morris …


The Evolution Of The Theoretical Foundations Of Punctuated Equilibrium Theory In Public Policy, Michael S. Givel Feb 2010

The Evolution Of The Theoretical Foundations Of Punctuated Equilibrium Theory In Public Policy, Michael S. Givel

Michael S. Givel

Punctuated equilibrium theory in public policy replicated from biological punctuated equilibrium theory has concluded that public policies alternate between stasis and punctuation. However, recent research on Pacific Northwest forest policy, U.S. state tobacco policy, and U.S federal auto efficiency policy have found no punctuations despite an attempt to do so. What is the efficacy of using biological punctuated equilibrium theory to also explain punctuated equilibrium in public policy? Significant differences exist between biological and public policy punctuated equilibrium theory including time frames for change, what constitutes outside disturbances of equilibrium, venues of punctuated equilibrium, levels of analysis for change, and …


Punctuated Equilibrium In Limbo: The Tobacco Lobby And U.S. State Policy Making From 1990 To 2003, Michael S. Givel Dec 2005

Punctuated Equilibrium In Limbo: The Tobacco Lobby And U.S. State Policy Making From 1990 To 2003, Michael S. Givel

Michael S. Givel

Since the mid-1980s, U.S. tobacco policy has been an intense and acrimonious issue between antitobacco advocates and the tobacco industry. In the United States, the tobacco industry has responded to heightened state antitobacco litigation, adverse public opinion, and public health advocacy by aggressively mobilizing against tobacco taxes and regulations. This article examines whether these tobacco policy trends can be generalized to punctuated equilibrium theory ideas that policy monopolies are stable over long periods and usually change because of sharp and short-term exogenous shocks to the policy system. From 1990 to 2003, there was a sharp mobilization by health advocates in …