Discursive policy processes and the environment lessons from case studies of public range management

This dissertation examines public range management for conclusions about natural resources administration and discursive public policy making. It fits into a broader debate in American government between statist and more democratic policy orientations, using case studies to demonstrate the potential for discursive environmental policy. The dissertation argues against a historic and theoretical academic literature asserting the inevitable rise to dominance of organized interests in delegated forums of policy making, looking specifically at the origins and history of public range management. The dissertation analyzes five of the twenty four regional advisory council cases that grew out of the participatory component of the Bureau of Land Management's program of rangeland reform in 1995---four that produced noteworthy environmental protections, and one that did not. Using field research, regional history, and in-depth interviews, the dissertation develops a list of background conditions that contribute to these environmental successes, and tests the validity of that list against data gathered in the unsuccessful case.