Radioactive Waste Disposal at Sea: Public Ideas ... - IMO

40 Chapter 3
constructed. For example, Albert Hirschman (1984, p. 151) has pointed
out that “some of the problems characteristic of advanced societies, such as
pollution and discontent about work conditions, are more diffuse and less
obviously intolerable than earlier problems of misery and oppression, so
that a considerable effort of intellectual focusing and clarification is needed
for these problems to enter the consciousness of the victims.” Some scholars
suggest using the term “issueness”—understood as “the transformation
of a fact of life into a political issue”—as a way of conceptualizing the
essence of the problem-definition stage (Enloe 1975, p. 11). For example,
recent concerns about global warming have politicized many so-called
greenhouse gas emitting activities that previously were looked upon as environmentally
unproblematic and entirely legitimate and desirable socially.
Ideational scholars stress that policy entrepreneurship is necessary
because interests in protecting the environment often are ill-organized and
diffuse, rather than well-organized and concentrated. According to James
Q. Wilson’s definition of entrepreneurial politics, which he developed in his
analysis of regulation, forceful mobilization of public opinion is necessary
when the costs of a regulatory policy are concentrated narrowly on, for
example, one industry, while the benefits are widely distributed (Wilson
1980, pp. 357–394). Food and drug regulation and environmental regulation
are typical of such policies. Because environmental protection often is
a collective good that is not for the consumption of special-interest groups,
those who would suffer economically because of environmental policy are
more likely to organize against it than those whom it will benefit. Policy
entrepreneurs therefore are critical in sensitizing potential stakeholders and
mobilizing public opinion.
It is insufficient that decision makers are persuaded about the value of a
policy; any environmental policy must be acceptable in the political arena.
To be justifiable, an environmental policy must convincingly demonstrate
that it will satisfy broader interests. Policy entrepreneurs therefore need to
make convincing arguments that appeal to the beliefs, values, and interests
of broader constituencies (Wilson 1980, p. 372). They may often choose to
highlight the distributive, ethical, and fairness aspects of targeted environmental
problems. Thus, there is much evidence from the area of environmental
and social regulation confirming how “a skilled entrepreneur can
mobilize latent public sentiment (by revealing a scandal or capitalizing on a
crisis), put the opponents of the plan publicly on the defensive (by accusing