When "symbolic" policy is anything but: Policy design and feedbacks from California's human right to water law.
Despite the reality that advocates frequently expend significant resources to pass symbolic policies, this policy design has often been neglected by policy studies scholarship. We combine policy design and policy feedback theory to examine this oft overlooked policy design in practice using the case...
| Publicado en: | Policy Studies Journal Vol. 53; no. 3; pp. 701 - 723 |
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| Autores principales: | , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
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Wiley-Blackwell
Aug2025
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=187727038&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 187727038 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 0190292X PSJ jtl: Policy Studies Journal issn: 0190292X maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: Aug2025 vid: 53 iid: 3 pid: 480 pub: Wiley-Blackwell artinfo: ui: 187727038 10.1111/psj.12564 ppf: 701 ppct: 22 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: C – @attributes: type: P size: 2MB tig: atl: When "symbolic" policy is anything but: Policy design and feedbacks from California's human right to water law. aug: au: Rempel, Jenny Linder Dobbin, Kristin Babson affil: Energy & Resources Group, University of California, Berkeley California,, USA Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California, Berkeley California,, USA su: Environmental justice Social change Social movements Right to water Water laws Drinking water sug: subj: Environmental justice Social change Social movements Right to water Water laws Drinking water keyword: environmental justice policy design policy feedback theory social movements symbolic policy Diseño de políticas política simbólica teoría de retroalimentación de políticas 政策反馈理论 政策设计 象征性政策 environmental justice policy design policy feedback theory social movements symbolic policy Diseño de políticas política simbólica teoría de retroalimentación de políticas 政策反馈理论 政策设计 象征性政策 ab: Despite the reality that advocates frequently expend significant resources to pass symbolic policies, this policy design has often been neglected by policy studies scholarship. We combine policy design and policy feedback theory to examine this oft overlooked policy design in practice using the case of California's human right to water law (Assembly Bill 685, or AB 685). Through semi‐structured interviews, archival research, and document analysis, we reveal how grassroots advocates deliberately and effectively pursued AB 685 to build power across the water justice movement and catalyze narrative change about drinking water access, while also building state responsiveness on the topic. These interpretive policy feedback effects then accelerated the policy's resource effects through formal policy changes in funding allocations, administrative structures, and regulatory systems. Collectively, feedbacks from AB 685 have transformed the sociopolitics of drinking water access. Contrary to prevailing wisdom, the policy's ambiguity proved key to building the broad coalition necessary to accomplish these changes, and it facilitated work across policy venues and governance scales through time, which is critical to enacting transformational change. Based on these findings, we argue that symbolic policies merit attention as a potentially advantageous policy design for social movements seeking social change and transformation. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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