Presidential Administration and the Environment ─ Executive Leadership in the Age of Gridlock

After the sweeping environmental legislation passed in the 1970s and 1980s, the 1990s ushered in an era where new legislation and reforms to existing laws were consistently gridlocked. In answer, environmental groups became more specialized and professional, learning how to affect policy change through the courts, states, and federal agencies rather than through grassroots movements. Without a significantly mobilized public and with a generally uncooperative Congress, presidents since the 1990s have been forced to step into a new role of increasing presidential dominance over environmental policies. Rather than working with Congress, instead presidents have employed unilateral actions such as executive orders to get environmental legislation passed.

The Post-Environmental President offers a detailed examination of the transformation of policy networks and the shift in strategies and tools used by US presidents to get environmental legislation passed. Using primary sources from presidential libraries such as speeches and staff communications, David M. Shafie is able to analyze how presidents such as Clinton and Bush have used alternative executive approaches to pass environmental policies. From there, Shafie uses a number of in-depth interviews with interest group leaders and agency personnel to form the basis of his case studies in land management, water policy, toxics, and climate change. He analyzes the roles that both executive leadership and environmental advocacy groups have played in passing policies within these four areas, explains how these roles have changed over time, and concludes by investigating how Obama’s policies compare thus far with those of his predecessors.

Shafie’s combination of qualitative content analysis and topical case studies offers scholars and researchers alike important insights for understanding the interactions between environmental groups and the executive branch and its implications for future policy-making in the United States.

David M. Shafie is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Chapman University.