Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

What drives a policy maker’s perspective of who should make policy decisions? Traditionally, there have been two contrasting approaches with regard to this question: technocracy versus democracy. But what causes a policy maker to assume one perspective over the other? In this paper, we take a Cultural Theory (CT) approach to examine how intrinsic value predispositions pertaining to preferences for social structuring shape a policy maker’s preferences for the procedural component of the policy making process. Specifically, we utilize original data collected from a recent statewide Internet survey of 420 local policy elites in Arkansas to examine how their propensity for hierarchism, egalitarianism, individualism, and fatalism impinge upon their perspectives on the broad issue of governance in energy policymaking process, while considering other factors claimed by previous studies (e.g., political ideology, religiosity, demographics, etc.). We discuss implications of this research vis-à-vis policymaking theories and practices.