Understanding Local Fracking Regulation: Lessons from New York Municipalities about Policy Advocacy and Policy Change

When a major policy change occurs, policy entrepreneurs—advocates who devote substantial time, energy, and resources to campaigning for a particular policy outcome—are often credited as critical drivers. However, there is little systematic, cross-sectional study of the efficacy of policy entrepreneurs and how they shape outcomes. I investigate policy entrepreneurship in municipalities across New York, where local anti-fracking advocates successfully encouraged hundreds of localities to pass policies opposing high-volume hydraulic fracturing (fracking), 2008–2012. Analysis of original municipal survey data and an original archive of municipal policy actions shows that the presence of a policy entrepreneur significantly predicts a municipality’s likelihood of adopting an anti-fracking policy. Jurisdictions that experienced more policy entrepreneur advocacy adopted more policies. Under some conditions, they also were more likely to evince structural signatures of “salami tactics,” a tiered advocacy strategy policy entrepreneurs are theorized to employ. Anti-fracking policy entrepreneurs were more successful when they had a larger number of entrepreneurial characteristics, particularly local government political acumen and substantive policy knowledge.