Summary: Fracking Democracy

Public Relations Review 39 (2013) 377–386

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Public Relations Review

“Fracking democracy”: Issue management and locus of policy decision-making in the Marcellus Shale gas drilling debate
Michael F. Smith a,∗ , Denise P. Ferguson b a b

Department of Communication, La Salle University, 1900 W. Olney Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19141, United States
Department of Communication, Pepperdine University, 24255 Pacific Coast Hwy, Malibu, CA 90263, United States

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 5 July 2012
Received in revised form 1 August 2013
Accepted 8 August 2013

a b s t r a c t
This study examined a two-year period in which natural gas development in the Marcellus
Shale region of Pennsylvania
105). Actors in public policy debates generally seek to advocate and establish the legitimacy of their issue, of their role as an issue manager, and of the proposed policy resolution (Coombs, 1992). Before members of publics will support the position of an organization, they must believe that the issue is a legitimate one and that the issue manager and the organization’s policy proposal also are legitimate.
Coombs (1992) identified 10 bases upon which claims of legitimacy are based: (1) tradition, or legitimacy based on history or the way things have always been done; (2) charisma, which is legitimacy based on notable personality characteristics of the issue advocate; (3) bureaucracy, which “draws legitimacy from accepted rules, laws, statutes, and so on” (p. 107); (4) values, which either represent those things that are universally judged to be right and just or those things that a particular society or culture finds important or worthy; (5) symbols, which are signs that represent concepts and ideas, such as a peace symbol or a country’s flag; (6) de-legitimacy, or the process by which one partner in the “legitimacy dance” questions the legitimacy of the other, as when an activist group questions an institutional target’s motives; (7) credibility, which rests
These important efforts – from first response to public safety measures – are directed and often carried out by township supervisors” (As PA Twp. Supervisors Head to Hershey, 2010). Note that this passage does not refer to site licenses, or taking measures to place wells to avoid contamination. Rather, the MSC is suggesting that communities are important, but only legitimate in certain areas of policy, such as public safety.
Despite supporting a limited range of local policy making, the MSC was quite clear in its desire to limit the legitimacy of local decision makers. While some communities, as noted above, were supportive of gas exploration, other towns had used zoning laws to forbid drilling. Under the law in 2010, communities had the right to influence development. The challenge for MSC and the industry was that there are over 2500 local governments in Pennsylvania, more than any other state. Thus, two years before Act 13 became law, MSC issued a position paper that argued “. . .if local government is where everything begins in our state, sometimes it’s where it all comes to an end as well. . .Tonight, a local government body in Pennsylvania can pass an ordinance that effectively eliminates the ability of landowners and businesses to develop clean-burning