Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The role of the family in creating rules that mediate any effects that media exposure may have on children and other family members, it is important to examine the factors that impact family rulemaking. This study looks at the relationship between family communication pattern, perceived media influence, media use patterns, and family rulemaking as reported by middle school and college students using a comprehensive medialog. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the ability of perceived media influence, family communication pattern, and current media use to predict home media rule making. The results suggest that these variables are limited in their explanation of family media regulation. As predicted, family communication pattern was a small but significant predictor of media regulation. The authors provide suggestions for further research.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper focuses on the impact of new technology on citizen participation in the rulemaking process. It argues that the centralization of rulemaking practice on the web and the shift to point-and-click commenting is as likely to transform citizen participation into "notice-and-spam" as to democratize it. The paper argues, in the wake of technological change, for a shift away from an emphasis on the mere right to participation and toward examination of actual participative practices, the how-tos of participation, and how they might be successfully mapped onto new technical architectures. The paper offers concrete technical, methodological and policy innovations to render citizen participation more manageable and effective at providing information and, at the same time, to give rise to deliberative civic communities of interest around regulatory issues.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: As I argued in my book, Jewish Liturgy as a Spiritual System (Aronson 1997), Jewish liturgical laws were devised by rabbinic authorities largely to promote the function of prayer as a series of prods and aids to motivate the worshipper to comply with religious laws and divine commandments. Islamic liturgical rules - al-Salat - mandate a sequence of both postures and words, and in the Quran are ascribed the function of divine service. This article will examine the structure and function of liturgical rules and rulemaking in both religions, psychological research on motivation, and the efficacy of ritual in obtaining compliance with law.
Imagine if a state enacted a 55-mph speed limit, but appended to the legislation a requirement that all licensed drivers every morning stand, face east and recite, "I will not drive over 55 mph." Next, imagine if, instead, the state law mandated drivers each morning to feel the fear experienced by a speeding driver in a near-miss, and to recite the words uttered by a famous driver when she narrowly avoided an accident. Finally, imagine that the state requires drivers to place themselves into a calm state of mind before driving, through visualizations prompted by singing poetry. The article will explore these and other scenarios.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: For more than a half century, the
Administrative Procedure Act has laid out the fundamental process
through which the public participates in rulemaking by agencies of the
federal government. In recent years, however, the notice-and-comment
approach to rulemaking has come under fire as inherently adversarial
and problematic, leading to unnecessary delay and unsatisfactory
outcomes. At the same time, a highly touted and controversial
alternative has emerged. Under negotiated rulemaking, agencies and
stakeholders jointly bargain over the substance of proposed rules in a
search for consensus among interested parties. The ongoing, vigorous
debate over the relative merits of these two competing visions of
public involvement misses an important point, that much rulemaking
entails modes of participation that are between commenting and
negotiation. For example, many rules are developed in part through
public hearings, advisory committee proceedings, and online interactive
forums.
Despite the prevalence of this “middle ground” in rulemaking, little is
known about the prevalence of different forms of public participation
and the conditions under which these forms are used. As a result, there
is much uncertainty over the role that stakeholders play in the making
of many of the policy decisions that come out of the federal
bureaucracy. With this in mind, the paper addresses two fundamental
questions: (1) How often are various forms of public participation
used? (2) Under what conditions are particular modes of participation
most likely to be part of the rulemaking process?
The paper will investigate these questions from two distinct empirical
perspectives. First, an inventory of public involvement will be
assembled for hundreds of rulemakings completed by the Department of
Transportation (DOT) over the past five years. In the late 1990s, the
DOT began placing all of its dockets on the Internet. Dockets are the
full written records of rulemakings and include Federal Register
documents, comments on proposed rules, transcripts of public hearings,
and memorandums reporting on meetings, phone calls, and outside
interactions that take place while rules are being developed. Because
these records are increasingly online, it is for the first time
feasible to lay out the contours of public participation, in all of its
forms, for a large number of rulemakings. In the end, our understanding
of public participation will be greatly enhanced, beyond the case
studies of particularly salient rulemakings from which most of our
existing wisdom has been drawn.
Second, the paper will report on a series of interviews conducted with
DOT officials who were involved in the development of a sample of the
rulemakings being studied. These interviews will focus on the factors
that entered into the decisions about how specifically to reach out to
the public. For example, to what extent did agency officials have
discretion over the venues through which the public participated in the
rulemaking? What kinds of decision rules governed the exercise of this
discretion? In addressing the use of public participation mechanisms in
this way, the paper will bring new evidence to bear on an ongoing
debate in political science regarding the efficacy of procedural
arrangements, like outside involvement, in fostering political control
of the bureaucracy. Little yet is known about how agency officials
respond to the structural and procedural constraints that are placed on
them by politicians. One of the paper’s ultimate aims is to break new
ground in studying agency strategy and responsiveness to political
constraints.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper develops a model of political control of the federal rule making agenda. I test the model using ten years of data from the semiannual regulatory agenda of the EPA from both the Clinton administration and the second Bush administration.