Local Government Roles in Filling the Sustainability Policy Vacuum: Insights from Local Government Managers

• Date: 01 December 2020
• Author: Richard C. Feiock,Robert E. Lee
• Published date: 01 December 2020
• DOI: 10.1177/0160323X20988896
• Subject Matter: Special Issue 2020

Special Issue 2020

Local Government Roles in

Filling the Sustainability

Policy Vacuum: Insights from

Local Government Managers

Robert E. Lee

1

and Richard C. Feiock

2

Abstract

This paper investigates four roles that local governments play in sustainability within the contem-

porary intergovernmental system—minimalist, implementing agent, entrepreneur, and regional

champion. A conceptual framework is advanced to explain these roles based on the time horizons

and capacities within which local governments operate. Interviews with local government managers

offer insights into how these two dimensions shape the roles that local governments play in sus-

tainability. Although the interviews offer support for the utility of the sustainability role framework,

they also suggest additional factors influencing the roles that local governments play in sustainability.

Keywords

sustainability policy, local government, climate change

Introduction

Multiple levels of government must play active

and complementary roles in mitigating climate

changes (Ostrom 2010), but partisan polariza-

tion has rendered the national government

unwilling or unable to take a leadership role

in climate and sustainability policy. The last

few years have seen state adoptions of carbon

pricing and renewable portfolio programs stall,

the U.S. Clean Energy Plan abandoned, and the

U.S. withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord.

State, local, and regional governments have at

least partially filled the vacuum left by national

government inaction. States have played a role

through actions such as adoption of renewable

portfolio policy and empowering local govern-

ments in their states, but it is local governments

that have taken the lead in addressing many cli-

mate and sustainability issues (Feiock 2020).

Local governments have the potential to signif-

icantly influence environmental problems since

they have primary responsibility for the local

land use and building decisions that are critical

to sustainability efforts (Feiock and Bae 2011).

This paper seeks to better understand the differ-

ent roles local governments play in sustainabil-

ity within the contemporary intergovernmental

system.

1

Department of Political Science and Public Administra-

tion, Florida Gulf Coast University, Ft. Myers, FL, USA

2

Local Governance Research, Tallahassee, FL, USA

Corresponding Author:

Robert E. Lee, Department of Political Science and Public

Administration, Florida Gulf Coast University, 10501

FGCU Boulevard, Ft. Myers, FL 33965, USA.

Email: rlee@fgcu.edu

State and Local GovernmentReview

2020, Vol. 52(4) 266-276

ªThe Author(s) 2021

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/0160323X20988896

journals.sagepub.com/home/slg