Indirect Regulation of Environmental Hazards Through the Provision of Information to The Public: The Case of SARA, Title III

Title III of the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986 seeks to reduce the risks of chemical accidents through a strategy of indirect regulation that relies on providing the public with information about chemical hazards. For this strategy to be effective, citizens must aggressively utilize the information provided to monitor industrial practices and press for risk reduction. Since prior research suggests it is very difficult to evoke the degree of citizen action that would be required to make a strategy of indirect regulation successful, and since the federal legislation provided no funds for implementation, there is a question o/whether the structures set up by Title III are sufficient to achieve its objectives. This article reports the results of a national study that examined selected aspects of the implementation of Title III in an effort to assess the likely outcome of its attempt at indirect regulation. Our focus is on the degree to which the Title Ill-mandated Local Emergency Planning Committees are pursuing policies that are likely to get the necessary information to citizens and foster community debate on hazardous materials issues

Drafting federal grant statutes /

Mode of access: Internet

Designing a Conflict Management System for Higher Education: A Case Study for Design in Integrative Organizations

In 1994, the University System of Georgia embarked on an ambitious effort to reduce the costs of disputing by creating what is now possibly the largest comprehensive, integrated conflict management system (ICMS) in higher education. For almost twenty years, the Consortium on Negotiation and Conflict Resolution has provided technical advice and support for this initiative. This article reviews the context, summarizes the ICMS design, draws a few lessons, and speculates on the value of this work. Because of my close personal involvement, I am straying from convention and telling this story from the first-person perspective. Although probably skewed by hindsight, the historical context is important because our decisions and actions reflected the prevailing conditions and our nascent level of knowledge and experience. The overarching lessons are applicable to most organizations and particularly salient for the conflict management challenges facing the diverse colleges and universities in the United States today and any multifaceted, integrative organization