Government Intervention Case Study

Elise Jordan (Behunin)

PAF 505

Elizabeth Corely

Homework #1

5/26/2014

1. The three reasons for government intervention are political, moral, and economic. Political reasons include pressures that arise from social and cultural movements, or policy makers themselves decide that government intervention is needed. Moral or ethical reasons are not necessarily popular or politically advantageous (although they can be), but under this branch of reasoning, intervention is simply the “right thing.” Finally, economic reasons for intervention emerge from market failures, or when the economic market can’t or won’t provide something that is needed, or regulate itself fairly.

The history of national parks, their establishment and propagation, demonstrates all three of these intervention principles. Until the early 1800s, the American public viewed nature and the wilderness as something to tame or overcome. Thanks in large part to artistic movements which portrayed unsettled lands as beautiful, public opinion evolved and gave rise to the moral imperative of preservation. In 1864 political, ethical, and economic reasons for intervention furnished momentum to legislation regarding Yosemite Valley; a California senator sponsored a bill which was eventually signed in to law by President Abraham Lincoln and would transfer national lands to the State for “preservation” and “public use, resort, and recreation” (The National Parks, 2005, p. 12-13). In this case, the ethical reason for intervention (land preservation) was largely supported by the American public and the contemporary shift in public opinion, additionally rendering it a political reason for intervention. As for economic reasons for intervention, the land was recognized as a n...

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...t, it would also be important to consider other factors such as possible abuses of the system. And, if there are possible abuses, how can we prevent them?

6. A market incentive is a policy tool which allows government to create economic incentive for a change in behavior. Usually this comes in the form of taxation or an imposition of fees. An example of this type of policy is the cap and trade which limits pollution and also encourages business to innovate and discover ways to run their businesses with fewer pollutants. The “cap” establishes a limit on the amount of pollutant that a business can release into the atmosphere. Fees are imposed on the business if they exceed their allowance. The “trade” aspect of this policy allows business to sell their allowances, which creates a monetary incentive to lower their emissions and invest in cleaner technology.