Michelle Pautz, Ph.D.
mpautz1@udayton.edu
University of Dayton
Phone: 2293651
Address: 300 College Park
City: Dayton, Ohio - 45469-1302
Country: United States
Research Interests
Environmental Policy
Public Administration
Bureaucracy
Film And Politics
Environmental Regulation
State Environmental Policy
Government In Film
Countries of Interest
United States
My Research:
I have to streams of research. First, I have been researching for more than a decade the implementation of environmental regulations on the front-lines at the state level. In other words, how do state environmental inspectors interact with members of the regulated community. Additionally, I research how government--and more specifically bureaucracy and bureaucrats--are depicted in contemporary American film.
Publications:
Books Written:
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, increasing partisan rhetoric, and escalating debates about federal/state relations. Now in its second edition, this volume includes updated case studies, two new chapters on food policy and natural resource policy, and revised public opinion data. 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 administration. Providing real-life examples of how environmental policy works rather than solely discussing how congressional action produces environmental laws, US Environmental Policy in Action offers a practical approach to understanding contemporary American environmental policy.
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.
Public Policy: A Concise Introduction, by Sara R. Rinfret, Denise Scheberle, and Michelle C. Pautz, is a student-friendly primer that quickly connects readers to the inner workings of public policy. The text condenses early chapters on theory and the policy-making process, allowing students to take up key policy challenges―such as immigration, education, and health care―much earlier in the semester. Structured chapter layouts of substantive policy areas allow instructors to supplement with their own examples seamlessly. The book’s emphasis on policy choices asks students to look beyond simple pros and cons to examine the multifaceted dimensions of decision making and the complexities inherent in real-world problem solving. Not every student starts out engaged in public policy, so place your students―both majors and non-majors alike―in the driver’s seat by fostering their analytical skills early, and spend the rest of the semester discussing policy issues, examining data, and debating current policy examples that matter most to them.
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.