Dr. Mark McBeth
Professor of Public Policy, Environmental Policy, and Economic Development PolicyEmail: mcbemark@isu.edu
Website: Please visit my Personal Website
DA, Idaho State University, 1992
Faculty Biography
Dr. Mark K. McBeth has been on faculty in the Department of Political Science since January, 1995. Historically, his research has focused on public policy, environmental policy, and economic development policy informed by his interdisciplinary interests in both sociology and economics.
In the 1990s, Mark primarily explored the role of environmental attitudes and economic development policy in rural communities including research on the relationship between the economic composition of a community and the communities environmental attitudes. Since 2000, his research has mainly focused on the role of policy narratives in the development, design, and implementation of public policy.
Much of this latter research has used the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem as case material. The policy narrative research agenda has recently been subsumed under the term, the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF). The NPF represents a decade long research effort by Dr. McBeth and colleagues (Dr. Elizabeth A. Shanahan and Dr. Michael D. Jones) to move the study of policy narratives into an empirical, hypothesis driven framework aimed at finding causal relationships.
Recently, NPF researchers were invited to present at an Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) conference in Davis, California where the NPF's compatibility both methodologically and theoretically with the ACF was explored. Their NPF work regularly appears in the Policy Studies Journal with the most recent piece appearing in the journal in 2011.
In his post-doctoral career, Mark has been a principal investigator or co-principal investigator on twenty grants and contracts and recently finished an U.S. Environmental Protection Agency education grant (with Dr. Donna Lybecker). Dr. McBeth is also a co-author (with Randy S. Clemons) of Public Policy Praxis: A Case Approach for Understanding Policy and Analysis (2nd edition, Longman, 2009), now in its twelfth year on the market.
Dr. McBeth's research has expanded to include work on interest group maturation, the "fake" news and the role of YouTube in the development of public policy. In 2011, he was recognized as an "Outstanding Researcher" at Idaho State University. Please check out his complete ISU Curriculum Vitae page.
Courses Taught
- Introduction to American Government
- Organizational and Bureaucratic Theory
- Public Policy Analysis
- Public Personnel Administration
- Pedagogy Seminar
- Public Administration and Policy Seminar
Selected Publications
1. Introduction to American Government: What is it Good For? Absolutely Everything (with Shea Robison). Journal of Political Science Education, forthcoming (2012).
2. Wolf Politics (with Randy S. Clemons and Rachel Brown). Electronic Hallway , University of Washington Public Affairs (July, 2011). Content Link
3. Policy Narratives and Policy Processes (with Elizabeth A. Shanahan and Michael D. Jones). Policy Studies Journal, Vol. 39(3)(2011), 535-561.
4. Narrative Policy Framework: The Power of Policy Narratives in Influencing Public Opinion (with Elizabeth A. Shanahan, Paul L. Hathaway). Politics & Policy, Vol. 39(3) (2011), 373-400.
5. Is the Fake News the Real News? The Significance of Stewart and Colbert on Democratic Discourse, Politics, and Policy (with Randy S. Clemons). Chapter in The Stewart-Colbert Effect: Essays on the Real Impact of Fake News. Edited by Amarnath Amarasingam, Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company (2011).
6. Narrative Policy Framework: Clear Enough to be Wrong? (with Michael D. Jones). Policy Studies Journal, 38(2010), 329-353.
7. Buffalo Tales: Interest Group Policy Stories and Tactics in Greater Yellowstone (with Elizabeth A. Shanahan, Linda E. Tigert, Paul L. Hathaway, and Lynnette J. Sampson). Policy Sciences, 43(2010), 391 -409.
8. The Story of Good Citizenship (with Donna L. Lybecker, Kacee A. Garner). The Story of Good Citizenship: Framing Public Policy in the Context of Duty-Based versus Engaged Citizenship. Politics & Policy, 38 (2010), 1-23.
9. From Protests to Litigation to YouTube: A Longitudinal Case Study of Strategic Lobby Tactic Choice for the Buffalo Field Campaign (with Elizabeth A. Shanahan, Linda E. Tigert, Paul L. Hathaway). Social Science Journal, 47 (2010), 137-150.
10. Public Policy Analysis Pedagogy: Mixing Methodologies with Cases (with Richard H. Foster and Randy S. Clemons). Journal of Public Affairs Education, 16 (2010), 517-540.
11. The Science of Storytelling: Policy Marketing and Wicked Problems in Greater Yellowstone (with Elizabeth A. Shanahan). Chapter 10 in Knowing Yellowstone: Science in America's First National Park. Taylor Trade Publishing (2010), 141-159.