Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Introduction

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Policy Debates on Hydraulic Fracturing

Abstract

Hydraulic fracturing is one of the most contentious issues in environmental and energy politics today. This chapter offers an introduction to the nature of this debate, the rationale for studying the coalitions and public policies surrounding hydraulic fracturing from a comparative perspective, and a description of how the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) can guide such a comparison. In doing so, it provides a discussion of key features of the ACF, including policy subsystems, policy actors and coalitions, and policy change or continuation. Finally, this chapter presents an overview of the hydraulic fracturing subsystems from North America and Europe, which the remainder of this book explores through the lens of the ACF.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Cairney, Paul, and Tanya Heikkila. 2014. A Comparison of Theories of the Policy Process. In Theories of the Policy Process, 3rd ed, eds. Paul A. Sabatier and Christopher M. Weible, 363–389. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dahl, Robert A. 1998. On Democracy. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • de Melo-Martín, Immaculada, Jake Hays, and Madelon L. Finkel. 2014. The Role of Ethics in Shale Gas Policies. Science of the Total Environment 470: 1114–1119.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Elgin, Dallas, and Christopher M. Weible. 2013. Stakeholder Analysis of Colorado Climate and Energy Issues Using Policy Analytical Capacity and the Advocacy Coalition Framework. Review of Policy Research 30(1): 116–134.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Feldman, Elliot J. 1978. Comparative Public Policy: Field or Method? Comparative Politics 10(2): 287–305.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fischer, Manuel. 2014. Coalition Structures and Policy Change in a Consensus Democracy. The Policy Studies Journal 42(3): 344–366.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fischer, Manuel, Karin Ingold, Pascal Sciarini, and Frédéric Varone. 2016. Dealing with Bad Guys: Actor- and Process-level Determinants of “Devil Shift” in Policymaking. Journal of Public Policy 36: 309–334.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fisk, Jonathan M. 2013. The Right to Know? State Politics of Fracking Disclosure. Review of Policy Research 30(4): 345–365.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gupta, Kuhika. 2012. Comparative Public Policy: Using the Comparative Method to Advance Our Understanding of Policy Process. Policy Studies Journal 40(s1): 11–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gupta, Kuhika. 2014. A Comparative Policy Analysis of Coalition Strategies: Case Studies of Nuclear Energy and Forest Management in India. Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis 16(4): 356–372.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Han, Heejin, Brendon Swedlow, and Danny Unger. 2014. Policy Advocacy Coalitions as Causes of Policy Change in China? Analysing Evidence from Contemporary Environmental Politics. Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis 16(4): 313–334.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heclo, Hugh. 1972. Policy Analysis. British Journal of Political Science 2(1): 83–108.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heintz, Jr, H. Theodore, and Hank C. Jenkins-Smith. 1988. Advocacy Coalitions and the Practice of Policy analysis. Policy Sciences 21(2–3): 263–277.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heidenheimer, Arnold J., Hugh Heclo, and Carolyn Teich Adams. 1990. Comparative Public Policy: The Politics of Social Choice in America, Europe, and Japan, 3rd ed. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Henry, Adam Douglas, Karin Ingold, Daniel Nohrstedt, and Christopher M. Weible. 2014. Policy Change in Comparative Contexts: Applying the Advocacy Coalition Framework Outside of Western Europe and North America. Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis 16(4): 299–312.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holahan, Robert, and Gwen Arnold. 2013. An Institutional Theory of Hydraulic Fracturing Policy. Ecological Economics 94: 127–134.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Howarth, Robert W., Anthony Ingraffea, and Terry Engelder. 2011. Natural Gas: Should Fracking Stop? Nature 477(7364): 271–275.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Howarth, Robert W., Renee Santoro, and Anthony Ingraffea. 2012. Venting and Leaking of Methane from Shale Gas Development: Response to Cathles et al. Climatic Change 113(2): 537–549.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hughes, J. David. 2013. Energy: A Reality Check on the Shale Revolution. Nature 494(7437): 307–308.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ingold, Karin. 2011. Network Structures within Policy Processes: Coalitions, Power, and Brokerage in Swiss Climate Policy. Policy Studies Journal 39(3): 435–459.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ingold, Karin, and Federic Varone. 2012. Treating Policy Brokers Seriously: Evidence from the Climate Policy. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 22(2): 319–346.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jackson, Robert B., Vengosh Avner, J. William Carey, Richard J. Davies, Thomas H. Darrah, Francis O’Sullivan, and Gabrielle Pétron. 2014. The Environmental Costs and Benefits of Fracking. Annual Review of Environmental Resources 39: 327–362.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jenkins-Smith, Hank. 1982. Professional Roles for Policy Analysts: A Critical Assessment. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 2(1): 88–100.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jenkins-Smith, Hank. 1990. Democratic Politics and Policy Analysis. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jenkins-Smith, Hank, Gilbert St. Clair, and Brian Woods. 1991. Explaining Change in Policy Subsystems: Analysis of Coalition Stability and Defection over Time. American Journal of Political Science 35(November): 851–872.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jenkins-Smith, Hank, Daniel Nohrstedt, Christopher M. Weible, and Paul A. Sabatier. 2014. The Advocacy Coalition Framework: Foundations, Evolution, and Ongoing Research. In Theories of the Policy Process, 3rd ed, eds. P.A. Sabatier and C.M. Weible, 183–224. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kahneman, Daniel, Paul Slovic, and Amos Tversky. 1982. Judgment Under Uncertainty. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Krauss, C., and E. Lipton. 2012. U.S. Inches Toward Energy Independence. New York Times, March 22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lasswell, Harold D. 1956. The Decision Process: Seven Categories of Functional Analysis. College Park, MD: University of Maryland Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leach, William D., and Paul A. Sabatier. 2005. To Trust an Adversary: Integrating Rational and Psychological Models of Collaborative Policymaking. American Political Science Review 99(4): 491–503.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lijphart, Arend. 1999. Patterns of Democracy: Government Forms and Performance in Thirty-Six Countries. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McDougal, Myres S. 1952. The Comparative Study of Law for Policy Purposes: Value Clarification as an Instrument of Democratic World Order. The American Journal of Comparative Law 1(1/2): 24–57.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mooney, Chris. 2011. The Truth about Fracking. Scientific American 305(5): 80–85.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nohrstedt, Daniel. 2008. The Politics of Crisis Policymaking: Chernobyl and Swedish Nuclear Energy Policy. Policy Studies Journal 36(2): 257–278.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nordhaus, Ted, and Michael Shellenberger. 2014. Fracking’s War on Coal: Why Tech Innovation Matters Far More to the Environment than Regulations. The Breakthrough, June 4. http://thebreakthrough.org/index.php/voices/michael-shellenberger-and-ted-nordhaus/frackings-war-on-coal.

  • O’Sullivan, Francis, and Sergey Paltsev. 2012. Shale Gas Production: Potential Versus Actual Greenhouse Gas Emissions. Environmental Research Letters 7(4): 044030.

    Google Scholar 

  • Osborn, Stephen G., Avner Vengosh, Nathaniel R. Warner, and Robert B. Jackson. 2011. Methane Contamination of Drinking Water Accompanying Gas-Well Drilling and Hydraulic Fracturing. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108(20): 8172–8176.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ostrom, Elinor. 2005. Understanding Institutional Diversity. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ostrom, Elinor. 2007. Institutional Rational Choice: An Assessment of the Institutional Analysis and Development Framework. In Theories of the Policy Process, ed. Paul A. Sabatier, 21–64. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pierce, Jonathan J., Jennifer Kagan, Tanya Heikkila, Christopher M. Weible, and Samuel Gallaher. 2013. A Summary Report of Perceptions of the Politics and Regulation of Hydraulic Fracturing in Colorado. Published October 25, 2013 by the School of Public Affairs University of Colorado Denver.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ripberger, Joseph, Hank Jenkins-Smith, and Kerry Herron. 2011. How Cultural Orientations Create Shifting National Security Coalitions on Nuclear Weapons and Terrorist Threats in the American Public. PS: Political Science & Politics 44(4): 715–719.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rochefort, David A., and Roger W. Cobb (eds.). 1994. The Politics of Problem Definition: Shaping the Policy Agenda. Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sabatier, Paul A. 1988. An Advocacy Coalition Framework of Policy Change and the Role of Policy-Oriented Learning Therein. Policy sciences 21(2–3): 129–168.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sabatier, Paul A., and Hank C. Jenkins-Smith. 1993. Policy Change and Learning: An Advocacy Coalition Approach. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sabatier, Paul A., and Hank Jenkins-Smith. 1999. The Advocacy Coalition Framework: An Assessment. In Theories of the Policy Process, ed. P. Sabatier and H. Jenkins-Smith, 117–168. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sabatier, Paul A., Susan Hunter, and Susan McLaughlin. 1987. The Devil Shift: Perceptions and Misperceptions of Opponents. Western Political Quarterly 40: 51–73.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schattschneider, Elmer E. 1960. The Semi-Sovereign People: A Realist’s View of Democracy in America. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmitt, Sophie. 2012. Comparative Approaches to the Study of Public Policy-Making. In Routledge Handbook of Public Policy. eds. E. Araral Jr., S. Fritzen, M. Howlett, M. Ramesh, and X. Wu, 29–43. New York, NY: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scott, Ian. 2012. Analyzing Advocacy Issues in Asia. Administration & Society 44(6s): 4–12.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shanahan, Elizabeth A., Michael D. Jones, and Mark K. McBeth. 2011. Policy Narratives and Policy Processes. Policy Studies Journal 39(3): 535–561.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simon, Herbert A. 1985. Human Nature in Politics: The Dialogue of Psychology with Political Science. American Political Science Review 79(June): 293–304.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stevens, Paul. 2010. The ‘Shale Gas Revolution’: Hype and Reality. London: Chatham House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stevens, Paul. 2013. Shale Gas in the United Kingdom. London: Chatham House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tilly, Charles. 2007. Democracy. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Tilly, Charles, and Sidney Tarrow. 2007. Contentious Politics. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tsebelis, George. 2002. Veto Players – How Political Institutions Work. New York/Princeton: Russell Sage Foundation/Princeton University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • U.S. Energy Information Administration. 2015. Drilling Productivity Report for Key Tight Oil and Shale Gas Regions. Washington, DC: U.S. Energy Information Administration. http://www.eia.gov/petroleum/drilling/pdf/dpr-full.pdf.

  • United States Energy Information Administration. 2013. Technically Recoverable Shale Oil and Shale Gas Resources: An Assessment of 137 Shale Formations in 41 Countries Outside the United States. http://www.eia.gov/analysis/studies/worldshalegas/.

  • Weible, Christopher M.2014. Introducing the Scope and Focus of Policy Process Research and Theory. In Theories of the Policy Process, 3rd edn, eds. P.A. Sabatier and C.M. Weible, 3–21. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weible, Christopher M., and Daniel Nohrstedt. 2012. The Advocacy Coalition Framework: Coalitions, Learning, and Policy Change. In Handbook of Public Policy, ed. E. Araral, S. Fritzen, M. Howlett, M. Ramesh, and X. Wu, 125–137. New York, NY: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weible, Christopher M., Paul A. Sabatier, Hank C. Jenkins-Smith, Daniel Nohrstedt, and Adam Douglas Henry. 2011a. A Quarter Century of the Advocacy Coalition Framework: An Introduction to the Special Issue. Policy Studies Journal 39(3): 349–360.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weible, Christopher M., Saba N. Siddiki, and Jonathan J. Pierce. 2011b. Foes to Friends: Changing Contexts and Changing Intergroup Perceptions. Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis 13(5): 499–526.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zoback, Mark, Saya Kitasei, and Brad Copithorne. 2010. Addressing the Environmental Risks from Shale Gas Development, vol. 21. Washington, DC: Worldwatch Institute.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Public Affairs, University of Colorado Denver, Denver, CO, USA

    Christopher M. Weible & Tanya Heikkila

  2. Institute for Political Science, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

    Karin Ingold & Manuel Fischer

  3. Department of Environmental Social Sciences, Eawag, Dübendorf, Switzerland

    Karin Ingold & Manuel Fischer

Authors
  1. Christopher M. Weible
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Tanya Heikkila
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Karin Ingold
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Manuel Fischer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Colorado - Denver , Denver, Colorado, USA

    Christopher M. Weible

  2. University of Colorado - Denver , Denver, Colorado, USA

    Tanya Heikkila

  3. University of Bern and Eawag, Bern / Dübendorf, Switzerland

    Karin Ingold

  4. Eawag and University of Bern, Dübendorf / Bern, Switzerland

    Manuel Fischer

Copyright information

© 2016 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Weible, C.M., Heikkila, T., Ingold, K., Fischer, M. (2016). Introduction. In: Weible, C., Heikkila, T., Ingold, K., Fischer, M. (eds) Policy Debates on Hydraulic Fracturing. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59574-4_1

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation