Brendan F. Burke’s research while affiliated with Suffolk University and other places

This article builds upon previous research that indicates that multilevel governance, especially at subnational levels and in the private sector, has the greatest potential to address the problem of climate change. Specifically, this article updates the study of climate change efforts among the Canadian provinces and the American states through case analysis. We identify two longitudinal strategies found in both the provinces and the states—a fragmented response to portions of the climate change problem, and a comprehensive strategy based on stakeholder education and participation. Institutional variations between the provinces and the states lead to some differences in the process of policy development, but not in the resulting policy tools used to address the issue.

Executive leadership in state government is examined at two levels, both from the perspectives of the heads of state administrative agencies responding to mail question surveys in 1994, 1998, and 2004. At one level, the status and strength of the governor in controlling and leading the executive branch are assessed. At the second (agency) level, state executives (and their agencies) are assessed on four criteria that are connected, directly or indirectly, with the aims of the Winter Commission: leadership, responsiveness, reforms (at the agency level), and performance (through contracting). State administration generally reflects a balance between continuity and change, with more of the former at the gubernatorial (and legislative) level, and more of the latter at the state agency level.

In the summer 2006 edition of State Politics and Policy Quarterly, Michael Baranowski and Donald Gross examined two methods of measuring influence over state agency activities: freestanding versus paired comparison. Their analysis led them to conclude that the paired-comparison measures might be theoretically superior, but are often impractical. Using the American State Administrator Project (ASAP) surveys, we supplement Baranowski and Gross's analysis by identifying conditions that sometimes make freestanding instruments superior measures and, at other times, paired comparisons both superior and practical to use.

At the time of writing, state governments have rapidly escalated their response to the problem of climate change. The governors and state legislatures are developing a wide variety of bills and executive orders to address different aspects of the issue. This wave of policy development builds upon an expert-based, bureaucracy- and business- focused wave of actions that took place in the state capitals during the late 1990s and into this century. This paper reflects upon a future in which active citizen participation becomes a more integral component of addressing climate change. Using the adaptive leadership philosophy of Ronald Heifetz, this paper shows the beginnings of shared responsibilities for climate change policy implementation between state governments and their citizens, and discusses Heifetz's ideas as a basis for even greater citizen participation on this issue.