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Evaluating Stakeholder Participation and Influence on State‐Level Rulemaking
Author(s) -
Crow Deserai A.,
Albright Elizabeth A.,
Koebele Elizabeth
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
policy studies journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.773
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1541-0072
pISSN - 0190-292X
DOI - 10.1111/psj.12314
Subject(s) - rulemaking , stakeholder , legislature , state (computer science) , legislation , political science , regulatory state , scholarship , stakeholder engagement , public administration , business , public relations , public economics , economics , law , politics , algorithm , computer science
Despite sustained attention to the role of stakeholders in policymaking—both in legislative and regulatory venues—we lack a systematic understanding of whether and when stakeholders wield influence over decisions. This is particularly true regarding state‐level rulemaking in the United States, which has become an important venue of policy action as federal policymaking is increasingly stymied. Although the specifics of the rulemaking process vary to some degree across states, determining whether common patterns of stakeholder influence exist across states and issue areas can advance our understanding of regulatory institutions more broadly. This study contributes to the growing body of scholarship on state‐level rulemaking by analyzing the ways in which stakeholders participate in rulemaking processes and the effects on rulemaking decisions of such participation in three policy domains across five states. We find that while industry may be influential during rulemaking across cases, consequential opportunities for non‐industry stakeholders to influence regulatory decisions also exist.