Michelle C. Pautz

A concise, student-friendly guide to the fundamentals of American public policy

US Environmental Policy in Action provides a comprehensive look at the creation, implementation, and evaluation of environmental policy, which is of particular importance in our current era of congressional gridlock, partisanship and polarization, and escalating debates about federal/state relations. With a continued focus on the front lines of environmental policy, Rinfret and Pautz take into account the major changes in the practice of US environmental policy during the Trump and Biden administrations. Providing real-life examples of how environmental policy works rather than solely discussing how congressional action produces environmental laws, this third edition of US Environmental Policy in Action offers a practical approach to understanding contemporary American environmental policy.

US Environmental Policy in Action provides a comprehensive look at the creation, implementation, and evaluation of environmental policy, which is of particular importance in our current era of congressional gridlock, partisanship and polarization, and escalating debates about federal/state relations. With a continued focus on the front lines of environmental policy, Rinfret and Pautz take into account the major changes in the practice of US environmental policy during the Trump and Biden administrations. Providing real-life examples of how environmental policy works rather than solely discussing how congressional action produces environmental laws, this third edition of US Environmental Policy in Action offers a practical approach to understanding contemporary American environmental policy.

Public Policy: A Concise Introduction, Second Edition by Sara R. Rinfret, Denise Scheberle and Michelle C. Pautz, is a student-friendly textbook that connects responsible citizens to the world through a contemporary examination of the fundamentals of American public policy. The authors help both majors and non-majors foster their analytical skills early and then spend the rest of the semester discussing the policy issues, data, and events that matter most to them. The Second Edition has been updated to include how we can collectively use public policy to raise individuals from the margins and address inequities that exist in our system. Recent policy questions include: "How do we shape our country's health care system?", "How do we address increases in costs of tuition?", and "Did the COVID-19 pandemic positively or negatively shape our public education system?"

In the movies, government often finds itself in a variety of roles from villain to supporting cast, and rarely, if ever, the hero. A frequent component of that role is the bureaucracy and as documented in Civil Servants on the Silver Screen: Hollywood’s Depiction of Government and Bureaucrats, bureaucrats are routinely found on screen. This book investigates how government bureaucrats are portrayed in the top ten box office grossing films from 2000 through 2015. Perhaps unsurprisingly, government is generally portrayed poorly, while individual government bureaucrats are typically depicted positively. These images of government on screen are particularly important given the ability of movies to influence the attitudes and perceptions of its audiences. The nature of these depictions and potential implications are considered as bureaucrats in film are categorized.

In the movies, government often finds itself in a variety of roles from villain to supporting cast, and rarely, if ever, the hero. A frequent component of that role is the bureaucracy and as documented in Civil Servants on the Silver Screen: Hollywood’s Depiction of Government and Bureaucrats, bureaucrats are routinely found on screen. This book investigates how government bureaucrats are portrayed in the top ten box office grossing films from 2000 through 2015. Perhaps unsurprisingly, government is generally portrayed poorly, while individual government bureaucrats are typically depicted positively. These images of government on screen are particularly important given the ability of movies to influence the attitudes and perceptions of its audiences. The nature of these depictions and potential implications are considered as bureaucrats in film are categorized.

When we think about environmental policy and regulation in the U.S., our attention invariably falls on the federal level and, more specifically, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Although such a focus is understandable, it neglects the actors most responsible for the implementation and maintenance of the nation's environmental laws - the states. Recognition of the importance of the states still ignores an even smaller subsection of actors, inspectors. These front-line actors in state environmental agencies are the individuals responsible for writing environmental rules and ensuring compliance with those rules. They play an important role in the environmental regulatory state.With data collected from more than 1,200 inspectors across 17 states, Michelle C. Pautz and Sara R. Rinfret take a closer look at these neglected actors to better understand how environmental regulators perceive the regulated community and how they characterize their interactions with them. In doing so, they explore the role these front-line actors play, what it is like to be them, what they think of their place in the environmental regulatory system, and how they interact with the regulated community.An original, timely and unmatched volume advancing the debate on the future of environmental regulation in the U.S.

When we think about environmental policy and regulation in the U.S., our attention invariably falls on the federal level and, more specifically, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Although such a focus is understandable, it neglects the actors most responsible for the implementation and maintenance of the nation's environmental laws - the states. Recognition of the importance of the states still ignores an even smaller subsection of actors, inspectors. These front-line actors in state environmental agencies are the individuals responsible for writing environmental rules and ensuring compliance with those rules. They play an important role in the environmental regulatory state.With data collected from more than 1,200 inspectors across 17 states, Michelle C. Pautz and Sara R. Rinfret take a closer look at these neglected actors to better understand how environmental regulators perceive the regulated community and how they characterize their interactions with them. In doing so, they explore the role these front-line actors play, what it is like to be them, what they think of their place in the environmental regulatory system, and how they interact with the regulated community.An original, timely and unmatched volume advancing the debate on the future of environmental regulation in the U.S.