Geography and public policy at the national scale

Conference · Sat Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 1984

OSTI ID:6235056

Wilbanks, T J

In some instances, geography has had a substantial impact on national policymaking, and the potential is far greater yet. Since World War II, geographers have played important roles in a great many federal agencies, and other geographers outside the federal service have been leaders in such arenas as environmental and urban policy. Besides some personal characteristics that make many geographers useful, the main reason is that public policymaking in the United States is exquisitely geographic at the national level. As it is presently structured, however, our policymaking system has a limited capacity to find out the geographic import of the policy options it considers, which complicates interactions between the executive and legislative branches of the government. This means that, at a time when society expects policy to be arrived at pluralistically and a great many of our policy debates involve relationships between one's location and one's legitimate vested interest, geographers have a remarkable opportunity to build roles for their perspectives and skills into new policymaking structures that are evolving.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-84OR21400
• OSTI ID: 6235056
• Report Number(s): CONF-8404194-2; ON: DE85000896
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
293000* -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Policy
Legislation
& Regulation
DECISION MAKING
GEOGRAPHY
GOVERNMENT POLICIES
NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
NORTH AMERICA
PUBLIC POLICY
USA