Sagebrush Rebellion

Thesis/Dissertation · Thu Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1981

OSTI ID:7092341

Cawley, R M

In 1979, the Nevada Legislature passed a bill that asserted the State's claim to Bureau of Land Management administered lands within its boundaries. Thus began what has come to be called the Sagebrush Rebellion. This study offers an explanation of the forces that gave rise to the Sagebrush Rebellion, and an interpretation of the goals and strategies of that movement. The three basic arguments raised in this study are: (1) that natural resource policy is the product of a continuing conflict between a development propensity and a preservation propensity; (2) that the Sagebrush Rebellion is an attempt to mobilize the development propensity in order to realign public-land policy; and (3) that the demand raised by the Sagebrush Rebels - that the public lands be transferred to the states - is most likely a bargaining tactic used to deemphasize environmental values in public-land policy. In assessing these questions, this study considers the history of natural-resource policy and finds that the development and preservation propensities offer a useful hueristic device for explaining the development of that policy.

• OSTI ID: 7092341
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
290400* -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Energy Resources
GOVERNMENT POLICIES
LAND USE
NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
PUBLIC LANDS
RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
STATE GOVERNMENT