Policy design, expertise, and citizenship: revising the California electric vehicle program

Arbeitspapier

This essay analyzes the 1996 decision by the California Air Resources Board to revise its program for promoting the development and sale of electric vehicles. The essay does not aim primarily to explain the causes of the decision, but to assess the implications for democratic politics of the reasons that the agency provided for postponing the program. The analysis draws on science and technology studies and research on the impact of policy design on politics to develop insights into the interaction between science, technology, and policy in the creation of public conceptions of citizenship. Despite the agency's efforts to project a participatory conception of citizenship, the way in which it made use of consumer surveys and scientific expertise, and its choice of technical criteria for assessing EV battery technology, produced an image of the agency's public as passive consumers of government decisions.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: WZB Discussion Paper ; No. FS II 99-102

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft
• Subject: Forschungs- und Technologiepolitik ; Bürgerbeteiligung ; Elektrofahrzeug ; Kalifornien

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Brown, Mark B.
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB)
• (where): Berlin
• (when): 1999

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/49798
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET