Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Panel: How Intergovernmental and Financial Fragmentation Shape Local Environmental Sustainability

(Natural Resource Security, Energy and Environmental Policy)

In recent years, local governments have emerged as particularly important actors in the development and implementation of policies aimed at improving environmental quality and sustainability. Compared to other levels of government, however, due to their smaller sizes and physical footprints local jurisdictions often have less internal capacity and simultaneously face greater pressure and challenges to engage in collective action to achieve their environmental objectives. Moreover, being at the bottom of the federal hierarchy means that local governments must often respond and react to both policy and funding decisions made by federal and state governments. These dynamics shape what environmental policies local governments pursue, how they go about pursing them, and the success of the outcomes they attain. The four papers in this panel use novel empirical datasets and rigorous quantitative methods to examine the role that intergovernmental fragmentation has on a variety of local environmental policies and outcomes, including those related to land-use, water quality, energy, and ground level ozone. Moreover, all four papers take a longitudinal perspective, using data collected at multiple periods to evaluate how fragmentation leads to changes in policy outcomes over time. Deslatte and Swann’s paper uses Bayesian analysis to model how changes in state growth management policies affect cities’ land use choices and how these choices influence sustainable development in fragmented metropolitan regions. Greer, Moldogaziev, and Scott examine local governments’ adherence to water quality regulations in environments where fiscal and institutional fragmentation creates considerable unevenness in organizational capacity. Park and Krause’s paper examines how flexibility –or the lack thereof– associated with intergovernmental funding shapes cities’ long-term collaborations with external partners when pursuing environmental and energy initiatives. Ji and Darnall use improvements in county level ozone quality to assess the degree to which local environmental sustainability programs impact this collective regional problem. Together these papers offer new and well-rounded insight into the institutionally fragmented context in which municipal environmental and sustainability policies are made and carried out. In so doing, they contribute to the theoretical understanding of local-level policy processes and practical policy conversations about how to enhance the effectiveness of locally administered initiatives.