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

Mark B. Brown

No FS II 99-102, Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Organisation and Technology from WZB Berlin Social Science Center

Abstract: 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.

Date: 1999
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