Praxis: Politics in Action V. 3, Issue I: Contemporary Issues in Global and Domestic Politics

VOLUME 3, ISSUE 1 Contemporary issues in global and domestic politics
http://clas.ucdenver.edu/polisci/journals
June 2016
Department Chair: Anthony Robinson, Ph.D.

Managing Editor: Alexander Armani-Munn
Faculty Reviewers:
Michael S. Cummings, Ph.D.
Lucy Ware McGuffey, Ph.D.
Sasha Breger Bush, Ph.D.
Michael Berry, Ph.D.
Jana Everrett, Ph.D.
Christoph Stefes, Ph.D.
University of Colorado at Denver
Department of Political Science
King Center #502, Campus Box 190
Denver, CO 80217
Phone: (303) 556-3556
Fax: (303) 556-6041
Cover image: By Luis Argerich from Buenos Aires, Argentina (End of the world prison) [CC BY
2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
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Letter from the Editor:

In this edition of PRAXIS, our authors offer comprehensive analyses of a panoply of issues impacting
governance both at home and abroad. The common theme that reveals itself throughout these collected works is the
reality that in policy-making there are winners and there are losers. To believe that there is a method of democratic
policy-making that can produce perfect solutions with unanimous support from all constituents is to neglect the true
nature of governance, which requires practitioners to leverage the competing interests and disparate needs of countless
factions. In energy development, economic interests are countered by the safety concerns of communities. In fiscal
policy, governments must often make the difficult decision between social spending and austerity, which can greatly
impact human development, and in todays globalized world, many continue to suffer on the margins of society while
others prosper. What, then, is the aurea mediocritas, or Golden Mean, of policy-making if perfect governance is
unattainable? As exemplified by our authors, it is the dialogue we have every day in pursuit of a better world, wherein
fierce debate and unadulterated discourse between individuals renders new and innovative solutions for improving the
human condition.
In our first article, Caleb Carr and his colleagues from Students for Intellectual Property address the issue of
students being granted intellectual property rights for innovations they create using university resources, weighing the
interest of universities to promote their brand as hubs of innovation with the interest of students to own their creations.
Christina Sandhoff then discusses the contentious issue of energy development in Colorado in the context of hydraulic
fracturing, which has pitted the interests of communities against the business interests of the oil and gas industry.
Next, Harlan Norby explores the impacts of mass incarceration in the United States, a phenomenon that has wrought
considerable consequences despite initially good intentions to preserve public health and safety. Wyatt Yang continues
the theme of conflict in policy-making by examining the winners and losers of globalization followed by Michael
Parkers analysis of austerity measures and their impact on human development. Finally, Paul McClimans considers
the impacts of government regulation on global food waste.
While the reader may experience mounting frustration at the prospect of policy-making benefitting some
while neglecting others, it is imperative to remember that this is the nature of our social contract. The consolation of
these circumstances is that we are all guaranteed a voice in the conversation. Though barriers may exist, we must all
take it upon ourselves as citizens to speak out and to contribute to the public discourse. When citizens are silent, the
conversation ends, and democracy fails. With that, I leave the reader with a quote from the late Christopher Hitchens,
spoken just months before his passing due to lung cancer.
that the discussion about what is good, what is beautiful, what is noble, what is pure, and what is true could always
go on. Why is that important? Why would I like to do that? Because thats the only conversation worth having. And whether it goes
on or not after I die, I dont know. But, I do know that it is the conversation I want to have while I am still alive. Which means that
to me the offer of certainty, the offer of complete security, the offer of an impermeable faith that cant give way is an offer of
something not worth having. I want to live my life taking the risk all the time that I dont know anything like enough yet t hat I
havent understood enough that I cant know enough that I am always hungrily operating on the margins of a potentially great
harvest of future knowledge and wisdom. I wouldnt have it any other way.
Thank you for reading this edition of PRAXIS, and thank you for contributing to the conversation.
Alexander O. Armani-Munn
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Table of Contents
Student Intellectual Property: Policy to Shape Student Innovation Within Higher Education
Caleb Carr, Vi Tran, Dominick Kuljis, Andrew Borman, Adam Sanchez, Jiri Karnos, James Vezina
Hydraulic Fracturing and Policymaking in Colorado

Christina Sandhoff
18
Americas Failed Experiment: Understanding Mass Incarceration through

Mandatory Minimum Sentencing
Harlan Norby
33
Has Globalization Undermined Democracy?

Huaizhi (Wyatt) Yang
50
The Negative Impacts of Austerity on Human Development

Michael Parker
59
Government and Food Waste: When Bad Governance Wastes Good Food
Paul McClimans
67
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Student Intellectual Property: Policy to Shape Student Innovation Within

Higher Education
Caleb Carr, Vi Tran, Dominick Kuljis, Andrew Borman, Adam Sanchez, Jiri Karnos, James
Vezina
Faced with mounting debt, some undergraduate students are turning to technology in hopes of
overcoming the rising costs of higher education. With powerful technology readily available to
students via university labs, work spaces, and classrooms, tools for exceptional innovation at the
undergraduate level are more accessible than ever. By turning to innovation, students are often
able to secure employment as soon as they graduate, making on average $39,907 with just the idea
alone. If they leave a university with a viable product, they are looking at making $70,109 per year
on average (Nextweb 2014). However, a critical part of innovation is the impartial evaluation of
ownership. Historically, post-secondary institutions possess the legal right to pursue intellectual
protection of any invention or innovation created either directly by or through faculty and staff
members. Similar policies are common in the corporate world and apply to all individuals on the
payroll of the institution. However, this standard should not apply at the student level because
students are not employed or compensated by the university and, therefore, should not be treated
as employees.
Undergraduate students who are not employed by their university possess severely limited
rights to inventions and innovations, and as a result, they must often share substantial margins of
legal ownership with their respective institution. A key example of this limitation is found in the
University of Colorado policy on Intellectual Property (IP), whereby regardless of employment
status within the institution, students who invent independently of any employment receive only
25% of their intellectual property when they use significant resources as outlined by the university
(University of Colorado 2006). The need for federal reform granting students not employed by
their respective university increased ownership of what they create is upon students themselves to
spearhead. Our proposed reform would establish a floor guarantee of 75% student ownership and
a ceiling of 25% institutional ownership of intellectual property to ensure fairness to all parties
while encouraging innovation at the undergraduate level. This solution would resolve current
problems perpetuated by outdated or nonexistent policies at universities nationwide, and give
students the tools and ownership to continue development of their creation upon completion of
their university career.
Intellectual property (IP) is a product of mental creativity. It includes scientific
developments, music, symbols, artistic works, discoveries, and inventions. We create our own
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intellectual property every day, and with that comes the need for recognition and ownership of that
creation. IP can often lead to a patent, copyright, or trademark so it may be protected and marketed.
In the U.S., universities provide some of the richest locations for the creation of individual
intellectual property. They pride themselves on creating a space where innovation and creations
by students are encouraged; however, informing students on the details of IP ownership within the
university is decidedly lacking. Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) were primarily established
to manage faculty and employee patent, copyright, and trademarks that were developed from
federally funded research. Protocol for undergraduate student IP was added more recently to
address the growth of student generated IP. Universities largely addressed the issue of student IP
by establishing TTOs as an avenue for students to ask questions about IP policy while receiving
guidance on how to patent, copyright, or trademark their IP.
Current IP policies are written and executed at the university level; therefore, there are few
statutes on IP policy by either local, state, or national governments. To this day only two states
manage IP policy at a legislative level: Ohio and Minnesota. Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. has
lately been focusing on patent reform with the passing of the Leahy-Smith America Invents act in
2011, which is the first bill of patent reform since the 1980s Bayh-Dole Act. As a result, patent
reform can lead to the regulation of IP policy by the national government. As President Obama
said in 2010, Our single greatest asset is the innovation and the ingenuity and creativity of the
American people. It is essential to our prosperity and it will only become more so in this century.
But its only a competitive advantage if our companies know that someone else cant just steal that
idea and duplicate it with cheaper inputs and labor (The White House 2010). Discussion of IP
policy and related issues is still emerging in the judiciary committees for both the House and
Senate.
A TTOs mission is best described by Stanford University: [the mission of Stanfords
TTO] is to promote the transfer of Stanford technology for society's use and benefit while
generating unrestricted income to support research and education (Stanford University). TTOs
have provided the foundation for the American university system to drive the transfer of new
technology developed in the lab to real, commercially viable products. Like many university
offices, TTOs have small budgets and small staff sizes and have traditionally focused on managing
the IP of university staff and faculty. However, in recent years a growing population of student
innovators has amplified the need for student-focused IP policies.
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Getting HIP
Many issues arise as students attend university, be it growing student debt, significant life
events, or loss of interest in their major. Universities have therefore been forced to attempt multiple
strategies for engaging and ultimately retaining their students until graduation. One way
universities address this issue is through a system referred to by the Association of American
Colleges and Universities as High Impact Practices (HIP) (Kuh 2008). These practices comprise
strategies universities can use to encourage students to apply their post-secondary educations. Two
notable examples of HIP are undergraduate research and senior projects, both of which encourage
students to innovate and create their own intellectual property. These practices have resulted in
existing university IP policies coming under scrutiny, as there are few policies created with the
goal of addressing a new type of innovator: the student inventor. For the purposes of this paper, a
student inventor is defined as a student who is creating intellectual property on campus without
compensation from the university.
Student Intellectual Property An Unknown Frontier
Being an innovator is hard enough, the university environment should make it easier, but
presently, it does not. First, students must often go out of their way to find their universitys IP
policy. In most cases the policy is not outlined in the student handbook and can only be found in
the faculty handbook. In some cases, TTO websites where on would expect to find the IP policies,
were out of date or were noted as a work in progress. The next hurdle student innovators face
is understanding the policy language once the university policy is identified. These policies, often
written in legalese, make it very difficult for students to understand the policy which they are
reading. Each of these steps takes time to execute and wastes time that could be better spent toward
the development of their IP. At the same time, students may find themselves already developing
IP before realizing that they must adhere to their universitys IP policy, thus halting progress in
developing their innovation simply because they did not know the policy existed. At that point, a
university may decide to assert ownership rights, and now the students must fight to retain what
they have invented. Of 155 universities nationwide analyzed in this report, 20.6% either had no IP
policy at all or had no public IP policy obtainable through the schools website or student
handbook. This statistic exemplifies the common dilemma that students face as they attempt to
identify the next steps in realizing the fruition of their innovation.
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As students try to identify the IP policy at their institution, they must contact their
universitys TTO in order to determine exactly how much of their creation is theirs. Depending on
the university, students may find that they own a percentage of their creations that ranges anywhere
from 0 to 100%. In many situations it is likely that the students share of IP is very low, as shown
in Figure 1.
Figure 1
Student IP Ownership
Colorado State University
Naropa University
University of the Rockies
Aspen University
Colorado Heights University
Regis University
Colorado College
Colorado Christian University
Western State Colorado University
University of Northern Colorado
Metro State University of Denver
Fort Lewis College
Colorado School of Mines
Colorado Mesa University
Adams State Univeraity
University of Colorado
University of Denver
0%
20%
Student Share
40%
60%
80%
100%
120%
University Share
Figure 1 Student Intellectual Property ownership percentages as defined by university

intellectual property policy obtained through public search of all public documents for all
4-year degree granting universities within the state of Colorado.
Additionally, in some cases, students fall into a grey area where the percentage that
students own cannot be determined by an existing policy. The unfairness and uncertainty in
ownership percentages has driven reputable individuals from notable organizations such as
members of the University Innovation Fellows, the Association of University Technology
Management (AUTM), and Brad Feld, Co-Founder of Tech-Stars, to speak up about these issues.
As the number of undergraduate student innovators has grown, TTOs have had to adapt,
and some have done so better than others. In our search for intellectual property policies from
multiple TTOs, it was found that in some cases students and faculty were treated the same. For
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example, at the University of Colorado, the intellectual property policy encompasses all
individuals on campus, regardless of their academic or faculty status. (University of Colorado
2006). This is obviously a problem as many students are not employed by the university, and
therefore, they should not be grouped with university employees under the same IP policy.
Next, university intellectual property policies use the term significant resources to
determine whether or not the university owns the IP in question. In many cases, significant
resources is never clearly defined and differs from institution to institution. In addition to the
confusing terminology of what students can use or not use on campus, the vastness of university
reach in the creation of university intellectual property is a concern. From a students dorm room
to the lab in the middle of campus, the university has full right to take ownership of that creation,
assuming that it was developed on university grounds. An example of this point is Harvard
University, whose intellectual property policy states that 100% of the intellectual property belongs
to the university, leaving 0% for the student inventor if any university facilities were utilized
(Harvard University 2013).
The Uncertainty of Student Intellectual Property: Case Studies
Recently, as student innovators are increasingly encouraged to create their own intellectual
property, universities across the nation have begun investigating how to respond. What should a
university do in the cases where a student generates intellectual property? The current answer is
unknown to many institutions. In this section, we analyze two states, Colorado and Virginia,
involving students not paid for development of the IP using school resources at universities.
Colorado.
Like most states, universities within Colorado are free to dictate their intellectual property
policy as they see fit. We analyzed the intellectual property policies identified on the individual
websites of 17 four-year degree-granting universities in Colorado. Mirroring most university IP
policy structures, we divided our analysis into two parts: the equity share for a student (ownership
of the intellectual property) and the royalty share derived from the licensing or sale of the
intellectual property. We recognize that not all universities will acknowledge the ownership and
royalty as different and separate parts of IP policy with royalty in regards to monetary share of
each product sold and ownership meaning equity within the company. Our research aims to show
the differences between university intellectual property policies within the state of Colorado, as
shown in Figure 1.
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Figure 1 lists the percentage ownership shares of the intellectual property of a student
innovator. Of the 17 universities, nine did not have a public intellectual property policy readily
available on their website. Among the universities with an accessible IP policy, the average student
ownership of a personal IP is 32.5%. Notably, Colorado School of Mines, a leading school for
engineering innovation, currently claims 100% of what students create with the significant use of
university resources (Colorado School of Mines 2009). The data used in these figures were found
by calling university TTOs, searching university websites, and reading university student/faculty
handbooks. Among universities specifying royalty policies regarding the revenue gained from
intellectual property commercialization, the average royalty share given to a student creator is
24.1%, with four universities claiming full ownership of any and all royalties (Figure 2).
Figure 2
Figure 2 Student Intellectual
Property royalty
percentages as defined by
university intellectual
property policy obtained
through public search of all
public documents for all 4year degree granting
universities within the state
of Colorado.
Student IP Royalty Share

Colorado State University
Naropa University
University of the Rockies
Aspen University
Colorado Heights University
Regis University
Colorado College
Colorado Christian University
Western State Colorado University
University of Northern Colorado
Metro State University of Denver

Fort Lewis College
Colorado School of Mines
Colorado Mesa University
Adams State University
University of Denver
University of Colorado
0%
20%
Student Share
40%
60%
80%
100%
120%
University Share
In order to better understand the intellectual property atmosphere within the state of
Colorado, the University of Colorado systems IP policy was analyzed. As a four-campus system
composed of close to 57,000 students (University of Colorado 2009), these campuses represent
the most visible hub for higher education in Colorado. Universities within this system grant on
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average only 25% IP equity and royalty share to their students. The IP policy reads Every included
person, as a condition of employment, or of his/her education, and every user of University
facilities shall comply with this policy (University of Colorado 2006) The statement above gives
the University of Colorado grounds to apply the IP policy not only to staff and faculty, but also to
students.
Following the analysis of the general policy, it is necessary to understand the nature of the
policy. The University of Colorado system distributes IP equity among four parties. Its policy
states, 25 percent to discoverer(s) personally; 25 percent to a University campus account for
support of discoverer's(s') research; 25 percent to an account for the benefit of the University; and
25 percent to the Campus Chancellor (University of Colorado 2006) This policy is written
specifically to distribute equity in such a way that any student, faculty, or staff member under the
University of Colorado system can claim only up to 25% of his or her intellectual property
regardless of their status within the system.
Virginia.
In another case study, we analyzed the state of Virginia, a state with aspirations to become
the new center for technological innovation and entrepreneurship (State of Virginia 2014). By
abiding by the same search methods used in the identification of IP policies in Colorado, we found
that Virginia has a slightly higher average IP equity share, with 34% of equity allocated to students.
Of the 43 universities, 26 universities made IP policies available online (Figure 3). In the state of
Virginia, 14 universities take 100% of the intellectual property equity if anything is created at the
university.
The University of Colorado system distributes IP equity among four parties. Its policy states,
25 percent to discoverer(s) personally; 25 percent to a University campus account for
support of discoverer's(s') research; 25 percent to an account for the benefit of the
University; and 25 percent to the Campus Chancellor -University of Colorado 2006
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Figure 3
Figure 3 Student Intellectual Property ownership percentages as defined by university intellectual property policy
obtained through public search of all public documents for all 4-year degree granting universities within the state
of Virginia.
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Figure 4 details royalty shares obtained from IP policy.

Figure 4
Figure 4 Student Intellectual Property royalty percentages as defined by university

intellectual property policy obtained through public search of all public documents for all
4-year degree granting universities within the state of Virginia.
As in Colorado, we analyzed the split between university equity ownership and royalty
shares. Of the 43 universities with intellectual property policy, 23 had separate policies for the
distribution of intellectual property equity and royalty shares. These 23 universities on average
had 42.4% royalty percentage going to students, with five universities, including James Madison
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University and Virginia Tech, taking 100% of the student intellectual property royalty from
commercialization. Once again, this type of policy limits the potential for the next generation of
innovators to make an impact in the world around them through their creations. States must
understand the importance of university IP policies that are favorable to students in order to be
able to capitalize on the high- impact practices in which their students are engaged.
Current Legislative Case Studies
Unlike most states, Ohio has passed legislation that actively stifles student innovation. That
legislation is the Ohio Revised Statute 3345.14, Rights to and interests in discoveries, inventions
or patents, which specifically states that any discovery or piece of intellectual property created at
any facility on campus is owned by the state (Lawriter). This policy, originally written in 2000
with the intention of adding clarity to the role of staff and faculty regarding intellectual property,
is now adversely affecting students.
The state of Minnesota has implemented legislation with the opposite effect. The passage
of chapter 3 of the Minnesota State Colleges and University Board policy specifically states that
any creation by any student is solely owned by the student, even in case of his or her employment
by the university (Minnesota State Colleges and Universities 2002). Minnesota has set the example
for universities intending to promote university students who are actively striving to be inventors
and innovators.
Freedom to learn is the first necessity of guaranteeing that man himself shall be self-reliant
enough to be free...If the fires of freedom and civil liberties burn low in other lands they must
be made brighter in our own. -Franklin D. Roosevelt
The University Environment

From 2003 to 2013, tuition costs increased nationally by nearly 80%, eclipsing the
increases in costs of medical care (43.1%) and the costs of food and beverage (31.2%) (Kurtzleben
2013). Today, many students are left wondering if a bachelors degree is even worth the
investment. Now more than ever before, undergraduates have to maximize their time and resources
during their collegiate career to get the most for their dollar. To do so, undergraduates are forming
research groups, pursuing ideas, and producing inventions on campus at a faster rate than in prior
years.
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At the start of a students university career, it is reasonable to assume that IP is not on the
forefront of the mind of students as they start college. Learning that a university has unfriendly
policies after a few years of attending school and creating IP only to have it taken away, can make
even the most loyal students begin to dislike their school. At the graduate and Ph.D levels, nearly
every school educates their scholars regarding intellectual property laws and how they affect
students at the university. However, this step is not often taken at the undergraduate level.
Unfortunately, the lack of clear communication between university TTOs and undergraduate
students has produced the intellectual property concerns discussed here.
By creating opportunities for innovation by undergraduates and providing student-friendly
and clear IP policies, each university builds the strength of its alumni and its reputation for success.
In order to increase student/alumni satisfaction, universities must provide these undergraduates
with the opportunity to maximize the resources around them to achieve their dreams of success.
The question remains: how can students be expected to bear the weight of their potential
on their shoulders alone without guidance? They shouldnt. Universities are meant to support
students through the beginning of their professional career by acting as educator, mentor, and
provider of resources in return for tuition fees. By giving students the proper tools and guidance,
the university can prosper and continue to build a strong alumni network of successful graduates
who have the ability to donate back to their alma mater, very similarly to the actions of
entrepreneurs like John Arrillaga, who has donated $250 million to Stanford University (Mercury
News 2016). By leaving the students their intellectual property rights, universities give students
the necessary means to allow them to flourish and innovate beyond school. Universities
demonstrate their dedication to assisting students progress towards success by actively supporting
students, thereby allowing them to retain equity in their work.
According to a National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) report from 2013, the
number of undergraduate seniors who had worked with faculty on activities outside of coursework
at least once during their university career was roughly one out of every five graduating students,
meaning that 80% of all undergraduates had no coursework or research- related interaction with
faculty outside of the classroom during their years at university. Universities need to prioritize
increasing these numbers not only to keep students engaged and increase enrollment and retention,
but to increase their productivity as well. One solution is through the creation of high- impact
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practices such as the creation of student IP, which now guides the need for university policy
reform.
As universities begin to address whether or not they want to advocate for a student- friendly
IP policy or for university- owned IP, undergraduate students need to voice their thoughts on these
policies. With both undergraduates and university employees spearheading the redesign of IP
policies, freedom to innovate will shine even brighter in our country (Barrow, Duval-Couetil,
Scott, Skinner, Speser, Wilerstein 2014).
University retention is a hot topic within higher education today. During the years from
2005 to 2015, national retention of first- year students dropped 17.4 percent (Astin 2005). This
drop has resulted in many of the initiatives discussed within this paper such as HIPs. However,
one of the largest initiatives is student projects and student creation of technology. Multiple sources
such as NSSE and George Kuh at Ohio State University talk about the link between student
engagement and university retention. By using innovative ventures as the other key to this student
engagement, universities could see an increase in retention of students. It can be estimated based
on current data that if all universities adopted student- friendly IP policies and promoted a culture
of innovation, the retention of 10 students from each of those efforts would generate over $800
million per year collectively (College Data 2016).
The second benefit that universities would provide students if they were to adopt studentfriendly IP policies is a better ability of students to pay off the large amount of debt that they are
graduating with today. In fact, giving students the tools to take their IP to the next level via creating
a company, results on average in an annual wage for the student of $70,000 (Bryant 2014), which
is $25,000 more than the average annual wage of graduates with a bachelor's degree (Adams 2013).
No one would debate the effect that an extra $25,000 could have for students in take their next step
in life, in their personal success, and in their ability to be released from the chain of student debt
much faster.
However, with all the benefits a university and its students can gain by following the
example of universities like MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2000) or Carnegie
Mellon University (Carnegie Mellon University 1985), whose students claim 100% of their
intellectual property, change is still not occurring. Students have such a small amount of time at a
university that state legislatures and the federal government must act in order to ensure that the
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student innovator developing at institutions nationwide today will have the ability to be successful
tomorrow.
What can be done?

This analysis proposes legislation at the federal level that would mandate that all
universities have student-friendly intellectual property policies. Legislation that touches every
student from the liberal arts to chemistry and engineering will benefit students nationally.
The policy proposed here would encompass all tuition-paying students at all degreegranting institutions in the United States. It is essential to ensure that every student who pays
tuition dollars is not treated as faculty who lose larger amounts of IP ownership as exemplified by
the University of Colorado school system. We would avoid mandating any student staff member
being paid to work on relevant IP development, as it could be argued that they are university staff
and deserve to be treated the same as any faculty or staff member under the current intellectual
property policy. We will also refrain from a policy that affects innovators under any grant funding,
as many grant agencies carry their own intellectual property policies.
What we would like to address is the minimum intellectual property percentage and give students
across the country more of what they deserve. We propose that students get a minimum of 75% of
their intellectual property equity and royalty share. We concede that the university deserves equity
and royalty for giving the student the resources and opportunity to advance their ideas, which we
believe is compensated by giving a university 25% of any equity or royalty gained from the
commercialization of any kind of intellectual property. Although the student is paying tuition
dollars for access to these resources, we believe that in order for the policy to be accepted at the
federal level, the university must be allocated a certain percentage.
Another exclusion relates to grant-funded research, in which if any student creates
intellectual property under any kind of awarded grant, the intellectual property would be subject
to the rules of the grant and not federal legislation. This exclusion is a means for us to leave the
National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, and many other granting agencies to
continue to define how their money is used to create intellectual property.
Motivated students want to further their education and careers by attending universities,
which are the best environment for students to create intellectual property, but that service comes
at a cost to the institution. Due to the scale of our proposed policy, it is reasonable to question the
ability of federal legislation to completely fix a situation as complicated as this. The impact of
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allowing students to develop intellectual property in any university could have unforeseen
consequences; however, we believe that the potential benefits outweigh the potential harms.
The passage of such a policy would give students greater ownership of their own intellectual
property and more royalty shares, and students would be able to have greater control over their
innovative and entrepreneurial prospects.
The United States of America prides itself on supporting the development of the most
educated group of citizens in the world, students who are passionate about research,
entrepreneurship, and service. Students must have the ability to keep most of what they create on
university campuses nationwide, tools to combat increasing student debt, and support in building
an innovative workforce.
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References
Fast Facts. (n.d.). Retrieved January 31, 2016, from
http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=372
"Price of Attending an Undergraduate Institution." National Center for Education Statistics.
Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), May 2015. Web.
What Salaries Do Startup Founders Pay Themselves? (2014). Retrieved January 31, 2016, from
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"Policy 5J: Intellectual Property Policy on Discoveries and Patents for Their Protection and
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(IP Policy). Harvard University, 12 Dec. 2013. Web.
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"Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Board Policies Chapter 3 Educational Policies."
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Managing Student Intellectual Property Issues at Institutions of Higher Education: An
ATUM Primer. AUTM. March 12 2014.
Astin, Alexander W. "Making Sense Out Of Degree Completion Rates." Journal of College
Student Retention: Research, Theory and Practice 7.1 (2005): 5-17. ACT. ACT. Web. &
Astin, Alexander W. "Making Sense Out Of Degree Completion Rates." Journal of
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of Student Engagement on First-Year College Grades and Persistence. The Journal of
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Hydraulic fracturing and policymaking in Colorado

Christina Sandhoff
Colorado has a long tradition of mineral and energy development. Currently, the states vast
supply of shale and coalbed methane has incentivized industry to develop these geological
formations, asserting the practice is an important contributor to Colorados overall environmental
health, economic viability, and resource independency. As far as a legal framework, state law
encourages it, and the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) actively
produces general and provisional regulations surrounding it. Does this mean, however, that rules
for controversial resource extraction methods such as hydraulic fracturing (fracking) are
effectively and fairly created and implemented? Overall, state level policy making is not studied
enough. A series of ad hoc exemptions for the fracking industry at the national level1, however,
has encouraged some academic analysis to focus more on how state and local actors are filling in
the gap with land use ordinances and state policy (Rinfret, Cook, & Pautz 2014). This research
draws on such academic works, and adds first hand interviews with stake holders and legislators
to test whether the processes that produce legislation in tandem with the agents that implement
them are sufficiently bringing about the promise of natural gas as a bridge fuel while public
and private actors attempt to transition to clean energy.
The issue of oil and gas exploration is important because the fossil fuels extracted through
such exploration can have serious impacts on public health and the environment. The seriousness
of the ramifications of climate change is becoming more evident. In fact, Ioane Teitiotais, from
the Tropical Pacific is seeking to be the first climate change refugee due to rising sea levels that
have destroyed his village (Weiss 2015). Even the Republican controlled US Congress confessed
climate change is real in section 5 of the Keystone Pipeline Act (S.1 114th Congress 2015).
The cause of these environmental changes and challenges are still not agreed upon, but the idea
that climate change is a hoax has officially been put to rest by elected officials in the U.S.
legislature (FOX 31 Denver 2014). Despite this reality, natural gas will not cease to be a
considerable means of energy provision, notwithstanding the current global oil glut (Davis 2014).
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 clearly incentivizes the practice with tax breaks, provisional
exemptions from laws, and both federal and state land use capabilities (H.R.6 109th Congress
It is often believed that oil and gas has been exempt from several federal environmental laws. Fracking is in fact
subject to these laws, with key exemptions from each (GOA, 2012). Some of this has been manufactured through
redefining certain aspects fracking and its procedures while others have been exempt specifically through newer
pieces of legislation (Brady, 2011).
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2015). This combined with the appeals of natural gas outlined in this essay and the profit made
thereby, has contributed to a heightened demand for fracking that wont be going away anytime
soon.
Hydraulic Fracturing (Fracking)- What it is?

Fracking methods have been used in the United States since the 1940s to extract natural
gas from shale and coalbed formations and since the 1970s here in Colorado (Brady 2011). In
recent years, technology has made this method economically viable, and as a result, fracking has
propagated. Typically, a shale formation (condensed sedimentary rock containing natural gas), or
coalbed methane (coal containing hydrocarbons) is drilled first vertically, up to a mile deep, and
then the drill head turns 90 degrees, and continues on horizontally (Dr. Fleckenstein 2016). At this
point, a concoction of chemicals mixed into tens of thousands of gallons of water is injected into
the rock (State of CO 2016). The velocity of the water and the chemicals (also mixed with sand)
fracture and prop open weaknesses in the formation which forces trapped gas from within to the
wellhead where it is captured for storage and sale (Dr. Fleckenstein 2016). The contaminated water
(with about 1% chemicals) flows back to the surface and is either reused, stored in pits or treated
and recycled (State of CO 2016).
Controversies
Burning natural gas emits half as much carbon dioxide (CO2) as coal. The US saw about
an 11% drop in emissions between 2007 and 2013, which coincides with the proliferation of
fracking (Feng, Davis, Sun, & Hubacek 2015). This amounts to 450 million fewer tons of noxious
gas in the atmosphere. (Freilich & Popowitz 2012). An often drawn, and widely accepted,
conclusion is that fracking is directly responsible for this phenomenon, which exists despite the
fact that the fugitive gas methane, a pollutant roughly 80 times more potent than coal, can often
escape at the wellhead (Parker 2015). This theory has its skeptics, of course, and they claim
correlation doesnt equal causation. A recent quantitative analysis, conducted by scholars from the
University of Chicago, University of Maryland and the University of London, estimates that
between 2007 and 2009, 83% of the reduction in emissions can be contributed to a reduction in
GDP (Feng, Davis, Sun, & Hubacek 2015). During the recent Great Recession, consumption
dropped dramatically, which means less fuel was used overall. The study concluded that only 17%
of emissions reduction can be attributed to structural changes in the sources of energy for
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electricity in the US. After 2009, it is estimated that the drop of pollutants can be attributed to
decreases in energy use per unit of GDP, changes in US production structure, and changes in
consumption patterns in roughly equal parts (Feng, Davis, Sun, & Hubacek 2015). What this
means is that after the nadir of the Great Recession, about one-third of the overall drop in emissions
can be attributed to the use of natural gas and clean energy.
A second benefit is energy independence. The federal government announced this as a
policy goal and codified it in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (H.R.6 109th Congress 2015). And
while one might be surprised to find that the US receives more than half of its oil imports from the
Western Hemisphere, overall imports have certainly declined since its peak in 2005 (U.S. Energy
Information Administration 2013). Domestic production of natural gas has played a considerable
role in accomplishing this goal (Dimik 2014). Domestic energy from shale increased from 1% in
2000 to 20% in 2010 in the U.S., and it is anticipated to increase to 50% by 2035 (Davis 2014).
Coloradans have also seen economic benefits. At least 6% of the states economic pie
comes from the oil and gas industry (Minor 2015). While that isnt enough to be considered oil
and gas dominant (which means it constitutes the largest percentage of a states economy), the
industry is second only to tourism, that is, unless agriculture has a good year (Minor 2015). In
2014, oil and gas created 38,650 direct jobs with average wages doubling that of any other industry
in Colorado, totaling over $105,000 per year (COGA 2015). Out of those positions, 31,000 pay
more than $161,000 annually. Combine this with 102,700 indirect jobs and billions in overall
productive value, then the total contribution to Colorados economy in 2014 from oil and gas was
$31.7 billion (COGA 2015). Of this total, $7.6 billion went directly to compensation (COGA
2015). These numbers are impressive, and make oil and gas one the most lucrative businesses in
Colorado (CRED 2014).
Fracking has made energy less expensive in the past several years. The US has seen a 47%
drop in price since 2000, and Coloradans certainly benefited from this (Drews 2015). Gas bills
plummeted $13 billion between 2007 and 2013 (Drews 2015). The average American home in the
U.S. saved $200 per year, and commerce overall saw a $74 billion reduction in energy expenses,
according to a study by the Brookings Institute (Drews 2015). Of course, this increases the
disposable income of all Coloradoans.
Additionally, state and local coffers have been padded by fracking enterprises. Weld
County derived 52% of its total property valuation from oil and gas from 2003-2012 (Energy From
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Shale, 2016). In fact, 37 of Colorados 64 counties have recorded taxable oil and gas property
(COGA 2015). Inflows of tax money to the states general fund and cash fund has paid over $434.7
million in property taxes, $330 million in severance taxes, and contributed over $1.1 billion in
revenues to state and local governments. This helps to fund schools, hospitals, police forces and
more (CRED 2014). Dan Haley, President and CEO of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association
(COGA) has stated every Coloradan is positively impacted by this industry, no matter where you
live.
Water in general has been a centerpiece of controversy since the onset of the fracking
boom. To begin, the flow back water is of major concern for Colorado residents. This potentially
toxic water must be diligently overseen to avoid spills into ground and surface water. Some of the
chemicals are known carcinogens (Minor 2015). Also, some fracking occurs in close proximity to
aquifers. The debate over this has been fierce and the legitimacy over contamination claims bitterly
challenged. The EPA, in 2004, and more recently in 2015, has reported that the risk of aquifer
contamination is low enough for the practice to be considered safe (EPA 2015). Despite this, there
have been at least four confirmed cases of contamination (Begos 2014).
Controversial
documentaries and lawsuits based on these cases have swarmed the fracking industry for years.
Also, the Colorado River rarely reaches the Gulf of California due to overuse, so the
millions of gallons of water needed for the fracking process in parched climates such as Colorados
is of great concern to environmentalists and communities that exist downstream (National
Geographic 2016). More than 30 million people depend on this river for water, and it is one of the
most managed water sources in the world (National Geographic 2016). In similarly arid areas, such
as California, recycled fracking water is being used for crop irrigation due to drought (O'Connor
2015). This has sparked bottom up concerns that this may start here in Colorado because
consumption of all variations of fracking fluid is understudied.
Boom town problems accompany fracking projects. These are qualitative vs. quantitative
challenges and are often categorized as socioeconomic. For one, the housing provided for workers
is not always adequate. Providing low income housing to avoid the emergence of man camps
has pushed the most vulnerable out onto the streets and edges of society (Minor 2015).
Additionally, given the lonely nature of this kind of contract work, sex workers and drugs often
follow workers. Rarely are local police prepared with staff or funds to handle the sudden escalation
in activity (Minor 2015).
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The increased traffic is always a concern. Fracking needs good roads for material
transportation (Dr. Fleckenstein 2016). The water that needs to be transported in is extraordinarily
heavy. The same is true for the hazardous chemicals used, and the truckloads total up to 1,000 per
well (Freilich & Popowitz 2012). Tremendous damage is done to local roads in the process. Often,
the increased sales tax revenue is simply not enough to pay for the damage, and corrective tax
increases on citizens are likely to ensue (Minor 2015). Finally, light and sound pollution has been
a very real nuisance to local residents (Minor 2015). The procedures are extraordinarily loud, and
the methane is sometimes flared, or burned at the wellhead, producing enormous billowing
flames.
Some miscellaneous challenges may include increased health costs from pollutants (Minor,
2015). The processes and chemicals used are relatively new and the long term effects on health
may remain to be seen. Public and private lands that allow fracking may cause a decrease in
tourism and diminish wildlife habitats, including local flora and fauna (Minor 2015). Hunters have
often found themselves siding with the environmentalists on this issue because a decrease in
healthy habitat reduces potential game. Finally, fracking has compromised the economic viability
of coal. The solar industry has also become less attractive to investors with the onset of fracking
profit opportunity (Minor 2015). So while natural gas is supposed to be a bridge fuel to renewable
energy, its propagation may actually depress incentive to move in that direction.
Rule Making Process
From the Legislature.
The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Act (COGCA) is the primary statute governing
mineral development (BMP 2016). The language specifies that there is a legitimate state interest
in developing Colorados natural resources in a responsible manner. Part of what the act did was
create the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC), which was given the
authority to oversee mineral development with powers reasonably necessary to implement the
rules they make (BMP 2016).
Former Governor Bill Ritters government brought important changes to this regulatory
framework just as fracking was proliferating in Colorados Niobrara Shale Play and the Raton
Basin. This resulted in two important amendments, the Oil and Gas Reform Act and the Colorado
Wildlife Stewardship Act (BMP 2016). These were designed to change the board of COGCC to
include environmentalists, especially soil and habitat experts (Davis 2014). This has been a game
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changer as far as influence in subsystem rule making due to the inclusivity of competing interests
and demonstrates the important role gatekeepers can play in the regulatory process.
Subsystem Rule-Making.
The official agency rule making process is governed by the Colorado Administrative
Procedures Act of 1959, which functions much like the US Administrative Process Act of 1946.
(Rinfret, Cook, & Pautz 2014). The statute essentially creates three stages for rule making. In the
first, agencies such as the COGCC and the Air Quality Control Commission (AQCC) have
personnel who promote meetings with stakeholders, such as industry leaders and environmentalists
(Rinfret, Cook, & Pautz 2014). Any interested parties are welcome to participate in these meetings
before any official hearings are held. All parties are subject to cross-examination. Also, agencies
must provide adequate reasoning of any proposed rule should they intend to conduct this hearing
at all. Meeting times and similar information is always available at an agencys respective websites
(State of Colorado 2016).
The second stage begins when a draft is written and the agency submits a Notice of
Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) to the Colorado Register. From that point, the agency has 180
days to conduct hearings, which include testimony, before it is required to produce an official
decision (Rinfret, Cook, & Pautz 2014). If this doesnt come to fruition, the agency must post a
termination notice in the Colorado Register. Agencies proceed by determining whether a rule
should be finalized, rewritten or discarded.
The third and final stage is approval. When the COGCC finally agrees on the proposed
rules, they will go on record for that year (Colorado is a part-time legislature) and it will expire
the following May 15th. All rules are subject to review by the Office of Legislative Services which
is an arm of Colorados executive branch (Rinfret, Cook, & Pautz 2014). Their role is to ensure
rule compliance with statutory authority. Any issues found are reported to the Legislative
Committee on Legal Services who then review the rule and ultimately determine its legitimacy.
From the Executive.

Colorados current governor, John Hickenlooper, issued an executive order in September
of 2014 which created the Oil and Gas Taskforce. In theory, this organization is to be comprised
of experts from each side of the debate, just like the board of the COGCC. Its purpose is to focus
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on how to most reasonably and effectively balance land use issues in a way that minimalizes
conflict while protecting communities and allowing reasonable access to private mineral rights.
Obviously, this is not to suppress oil and gas, but to promote harmony amongst competing
interests.
The Final Product
On Paper.
The rules produced are published on the COGCCs website. The thorough guidelines
include (but are not limited to) a requirement that well casings are made of multiple layers of steel
and cement (State of CO 2016). This ensures protection of water supplies, such as the Fox Hill
aquifer that lies beneath the Niobrara Shale Play. Additionally, drilling happens roughly 5,280 feet
beneath any aquifer (State of CO 2016). EPA has determined this to be a safe distance (EPA 2015).
Current methane capture methods (known as green completion) in Colorado are so effective they
have become a model for the rest of the nation (Dr. Fleckenstein 2016). Colorado demands
fracking companies disclose the chemicals they use and register them at fracfocus.org (State of
CO 2016). This is impressive because the industry will often fight coerced disclosure in the name
of intellectual property rights that promote competition (Cook 2014). In a compromise, the
COGCC has agreed to provide the information they collect on a need to know basis, for example,
should a spill contaminate surface water (State of CO 2016). The flow back water has been
categorized as production waste (instead of hazardous waste) and is the responsibility of the
industry to treat and dispose of ethically. There are setback requirements and noise restrictions,
which limit decibels emitted by drilling. Even sites that no longer have active wells are mandated
to be properly cared for by the industry. There are also processes for grievances and enforced
penalties that are all recorded and available for public viewing (COGCC 2016). On paper, most
controversies appear to be adequately addressed.
IMPLEMENTATION THEORY V. PRACTICE
The question that remains to be answered is this: If, on paper, the rules for oil and gas in
Colorado are amongst the best the nation has to offer, and policy creating processes are inclusive
of competing interests, why do we have the continued controversy? Local governments persist in
trying to ban fracking and environmentalists continue to lobby as tenaciously at the Capitol as the
industry does (Jaffe 2015). The Denver Post reports on abandoned well sites where soil erosion
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and drought are spreading due to neglect (Finley & Murphy 2015). If we are a model for the
country for fracking regulation, the hype is either due to ideologically driven fears, or, something
operationally isnt quite right.
One explanation might be that oversight of the rules is seriously lacking. According to the
COGCC website, the state provides oversight, but there are only 29 total employees who are in
charge of regulating more than 50,000 wells in Colorado (COGCC 2016). Inspectors visit each
well, on average, every 2.4 years (COGCC 2016). This is up from just under four years per visit.
Thats quite a long time for anyone to ensure rules are being followed, especially considering the
seriousness of the consequences of mistakes. This isnt an accusation of gross negligence on behalf
of the industry. A sound educated guess might entail that plenty of companies comply with
regulations quite well, without any oversight, while others take advantage of their two and half
year vacation from inspection. The problem is that no one can possibly know because there is no
state official to verify compliance.
Additionally, this same team, only about 5 of which are actually inspectors, must oversee
wells that are no longer in use, often referred to as orphan wells. These wells total nearly 50,000
which doubles the work load for inspectors (Finley & Murphy 2015). In order to drill, a company
must first remove the top soil. This destroys any vegetation that would secure the soil in place and
erosion soon follows. The COGCC demands that reclamation begin almost immediately after the
drills are rendered useless, but set no timetable as to when the reclamation should be finished.
Resultantly, sites are left for years without full reclamation, risking future drought (Finley &
Murphy 2015).
It must also be taken into account that there have been over 6,000 spills (which include oil
and/or toxic water) since 1999 (COGCC 2016). In 2014, there was an average of two known spills
per day, 11% of which contaminated water, and 33% of which occurred less than 50 feet from
ground water (COGCC 2016). Hundreds happened within 1,500 feet of surface water or water
wells. While many of these were minor spills, some did very real damage, like that at Parachute
Creek where more than 60,000 gallons spilled just north of the Colorado River in 2013 (Finley
2013).
Citizens have been pushing back against the hundreds of fracking wells that are already in or are
proposed to be drilled in close proximity to their homes and schools (Jaffe 2015). They believe the
aforementioned socioeconomic costs are not adequately addressed by the State, particularly due to
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the local nature of the problems (Jaffe 2013). For example, the current setbacks required by the
COGCC are 1,000 feet, which is plenty close enough to hear the drills, smell the fumes and feel
the heat coming off site. When it comes to the safety, health and quality of life for children and
families, this is a disturbingly short distance. In fact, one company who faced concerned parents
opted for 2,000 feet because they felt it was the right thing to do (Jaffe 2013). For many
Coloradans, the economic benefits are not enough to live with these conditions.
Residents are also upset about air pollution. Rising levels of benzene continue to be found
near fracking sights (CAF 2016). This is a known carcinogen that parents likely dont want their
children exposed to on a daily basis. The benzene levels are 77 times higher near wells, and found
in several residential areas that contain them (CAF, 2016). In Longmont, the groundwater was
found to have 100 times the state allowed amount of benzene (CAF 2016). Additional chemicals
dangerous to human health and also found near fracking sites include Toluene, Ethyl benzene, and
Xylene (CAF 2016). It may be that fugitive gases cannot be fully contained, and citizens turn to
absolute measures, like trying to get fracking out of their towns altogether.
The wells continue to be dropped in residential areas, and many people simply dont want them.
Yet, they are involuntarily (forced) pooled (DGSLAW, 2016). This means they are forced to sell
the minerals beneath their feet to an oil and gas company, whether they like it or not. The industry
claims that without this legal mechanism, there is no way to access to the property they have rightly
purchased under the surface owners feet. In response, citizens have attempted to use local land
use ordinances to ban fracking (only within their city, not in the state), but as of yet, none have
been upheld in court.
Some citizens believe that oil and gas interests are still favored by regulators, despite
improvements to regulatory framework. They claim personnel favorable to the industry have been
appointed to the COGCC and the Oil and Gas Task force (CAF, 2016). Senator Matt Jones (D,
Louisville) wholeheartedly believes this to be true. The COGCC board is comprised of three
Democrats, four Republicans, and two ex-officio members. Several of them have worked in oil
and gas for many years, and have a remarkable amount combined education in geology, petroleum
engineering, ecology, medicine, and more. State Senator Jessie Ulibarri (D-Adams County)
believes that oil and gas representatives are treated differently at the Capitol. He also believes they
are given special treatment and their position is simply taken more seriously. Given the amount of
money the industry has available for campaign funds (evident perhaps by the massive salaries they
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pay), the legislators are, in general, friendlier with them than they are with environmentalists.
Many citizens and environmentalists say that no matter how much they might be invited to
hearings or are included at meetings, oil and gas still calls the shots (Cook, 2014). Finally, many
believe that the federal government has been lobbied by the oil and gas industry to opt for a laissezfaire approach because their monetary influence is more potent at the state level (Freilich &
Popowitz, 2012). A group of citizens recently staged a walk out of a COGCC meeting to protest
alleged unfairness (CAF, 2016).
Naturally, the oil and gas lobbyists claim the red-tape is ever growing and suppresses the
economic viability of the industry. They assert that environmentalists are always going to feel
ineffective in the rule making process because they are satisfied with nothing but an outright ban
(Cook, 2014). A successful ban on fracking, for the industry, represents a takings case. One
lobbyist informed me that any successful ban on fracking will result in a lawsuit for damages (for
millions) by the industry. It has been suggested by some that citizens overreact to minor
complications, and that toxins in the flow back water are basically xanthium gum (Healy, 2015).
Finally, it is claimed that large, national environmental groups have a dollar or two to spend on
campaigns as well (FOX 31 Denver, 2014). Whichever perspective is true, the oil and gas industry,
along with the COGCC and the COGA, have joined in suing cities that attempt to ban fracking.
As of this writing, the fate of these lawsuits has yet to be determined.
Local Power Why Bans Have Been Struck Down
Local governments in Colorado have different powers according to their charters. Statutory
municipalities are endowed with authority granted to them via state law (Minor, 2015). These
enumerated powers include policing and zoning. Other local governments, such as home-rule
municipalities, are endowed with considerably broad powers by the Colorado Constitution (Minor,
2015). These powers have a necessary and proper clause which helps them realize the authority
granted to them. In essence, statutory counties and municipalities follow whats known as
Dillons Rule, which affirms the states plenary power exists in such a manner that a local
government must search for and prove any authority beyond what has been granted by statute
(Davis, 2014). Home-rule municipalities and counties, in contrast, will assume power and the state
will have to prove in court its legitimate interest when attempting to overturn local ordinances
(Minor, 2015).
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Colorado Supreme Court jurisprudence has allowed state legislation to preempt local land
use ordinances that have banned fracking. Precedent was set in two separate opinions, both
delivered in 1992 (Davis, 2014). The first is Voss v. Lundvall Brothers Inc. which concerned a
ban on all drilling for oil and gas within the limits of a home-rule municipality, and the second
case is Board of Commissioners v. Bowen/Edwards Associate Inc. which is a statutory county that
issued a similar ordinance. In general, the cases decided that land use ordinances could be used to
govern certain socioeconomic impacts of fracking, but bans attempting to regulate technical
aspects of fracking that would impede the goal of the COGA, which is to promote mineral
development, would not be allowed (LEAGLE, 2016). The bans were overturned.
Longmont, a home-rule municipality has recently issued a partial ban on oil and gas
development. The ordinance doesnt outlaw all mineral development, only fracking methods
(Healy, 2015). Longmont residents are not seeking to stop fracking in the entire state, just in their
home town. In such a case, oil and gas can still extract recourses from much of Colorado. The city
is hoping the Court will find that because oil and gas can still operate on certain levels, it doesnt
materially impede the goals of the COGCA (Healy, 2015). A lobbyist for the oil and gas industry
informed me that fracking is the only economically viable means of mineral extraction in
Longmont, so the chances of the ordinance holding up in court are slim because the ban on fracking
only is de facto a ban on all development.
Conclusion
The processes for creating a regulatory framework for oil and gas in Colorado appear, on
paper, to be transparent, thorough, and inclusive of competing interests. The rules and laws
produced for the fracking industry in Colorado are the most stringent among states which havent
banned the practice. Even a part of policy implementation (green completion) is leading the
nation in innovation for containment of methane gas. Economically, Colorado has reaped many
benefits and roughly one third of the reduction in emissions in recent years may be attributed to
natural gas as an alternative to coal.
Yet, there are some major concerns. First is oversight. One visit per well every two and a
half years is staggeringly low. This leaves the industry to abide by the honor code, and considering
the seriousness of the consequences of irresponsibility in this field, the egregious lack of oversight
for both active and inactive wells must be addressed by the state. Second, many citizens who are
experiencing the socioeconomic and environmental consequences dont believe that any sort of
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economic gain is worth exposing their children to potential carcinogens on a daily basis. Also,
while it is nearly impossible to determine the intent of left leaning board members of the COGCC
and the Oil and Gas Task Force, if they do in fact favor the industry then the efforts to be inclusive
of competing interests are deluded. Finally, it can be perceived that natural gas as a bridge fuel
doesnt fulfill its promise because its profitability often takes interest and opportunity away from
what its supposed to be bridging to, which is renewables. So the theories are great, but the practice
needs work.
There are no easy solutions. No one wants to see Coloradans losing their jobs or
livelihoods, and no one wants to risk generations of Coloradans becoming sick or facing
irreversible environmental damage. People from all over the world come to Colorado to enjoy the
fresh mountain air and recreation. As Senator Matt Jones has said in debate time and time again,
its our brand. It needs to be protected, and if there is concern about the economy, we should
keep in mind that Colorados is tourism dominant. To err on the side of caution, wise policy will
keep fracking wells away from elementary schools and playgrounds, especially if industry wants
to limit pushback from concerned parents. Also, inspectors need to catch up with the wells that
are out there, both active and inactive, before allowing more to be drilled. When more licenses are
eventually issued, the state should consider making the industry compete for them (Minor, 2015).
Local governments should offer a minimum amount, and only issue them to the highest bidders.
The winners would be those who pay the highest wages and cover costs for additional state
inspectors, while also committing to reclamation, the highest safety standards, and to keeping wells
away from children and families. This is simply the right thing to do on behalf of the health and
safety of Coloradans, the economy, and the environment. Compromises like these are never easy,
but almost always necessary.
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Americas Failed Experiment: Understanding Mass Incarceration through

Mandatory Minimum Sentencing
Harlan Norby
One of the greatest political transformations of the previous century is the mass incarceration
phenomenon within the United States. Overtaking the threshold in 1991, American prisons and
jails housed more incarcerated individuals than at any point in human history (Alexander 2011,
56), and that disturbing statistic only represents the tip of the iceberg, as the total has continued
to balloon throughout the subsequent decades. Today, with a total of 2.29 million inmates, the
United States houses just under half of the worlds sentenced prisoners (Nauman 2013, 874). This
trend applies on a per capita basis as well, with 750 individuals per 100,000 currently
incarcerated in federal, state, or local jails and prisons (Alexander 2011, 6). With over 12 million
jail bookings annually (Wacquant 2014, 37), resulting in over 700,000 individuals being
proscribed significant time behind bars (Western 2010, 11), the mass incarceration epidemic in
America has become institutionalized.
This, however, has not always been the case. Historically, the United Sates incarceration
rates have been in-line with the rest of the world, particularly amongst states with similar political
tradition. Approximately 100 out of every 100,000 citizens were incarcerated between the 1920s
and the 1970s (Western 2010, 9). In 1975, federal, state, and local institutions housed around
380,000 inmates, an eighth of what is currently observed (Wacquant 2014, 36). A similar situation
exists with regard to the populace under supervisory control (which includes those on parole and
probation in addition to the total incarcerated); 7.4 million American citizens were under
supervision of the state in 2007, up from only 1.8 million in 1980 (Wacquant 2014, 37).
Compounding the mass incarceration epidemic is the economic, ethnic, and racial
disposition of those incarcerated. Inmates are predominately indigent with little-to-no secondary
education. The incarceration rates for college-educated individuals have barely increased over the
previous thirty years, while those without a college degree are substantially more likely to become
incarcerated: white citizens without a degree are now six times more likely to be incarcerated,
while black citizens without a college education experience over three times greater chance for
imprisonment than in the past (Western 2010, 9-10). Similarly striking, over half of all inmates are
black males, a demographic that represents only six percent of the total population (Bain 2012, 578). This statistic is over four times the level observed during the height of racial apartheid in South
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Africa (Bain 2012, 58). The current incarceration of American citizens is not only the largest in its
history, but also represents inequality in its educational, economic, and racial distribution.
Mass incarceration in the latter quarter of the 20th century was not a universal
phenomenon, but rather a specific situation within the American political landscape. The crime
rates in most Western democracies were remarkably similar, with the United States, Finland, and
Germany all experiencing almost identical totals during that period. Yet, as American
incarceration figures quadrupled from 1960-1990, Finnish incarceration rates decreased by 60%
and German ones remained stable (Alexander 2011, 7). Today, Germany incarcerates 93 citizens
per 100,000, an eighth of what the United States does. This total is consistent with our historical
average (Alexander 2011, 6). The largest incarceration figures worldwide, excluding the United
States, stem from former Soviet Union states. Russia currently imprisons 568 people per 100,000,
while Belarus is at 381, Ukraine is at 338, Latvia is at 314, Lithuania is at 276, and Estonia is at
254 (Nauman 2013, 874). In contrast, China incarcerates only 122 citizens for every 100,000
(Nauman 2013, 873). These statistics are startling when one considers the common rhetoric
espousing America as the land of the free, while many of the states that also incarcerate above
the world average are seen as repressive. In the international arena, American hegemony selfcreates the perspective of infallibility; however, the mass marketed belief in the superiority of
American ideals and institutions comes into direct contradiction with the reality that America is
actually the home of the incarcerated (Bain 2012, xiv).
Framing the Culprit: How Did We Get Here?
While others argue that the movement towards mass incarceration occurred as a concerted
backlash to the social, racial, and economic advances attained during the Civil Rights and New
Left Eras (see Alexander 2011, Bain 2012, and Wacquant 2014), intent is difficult to prove. Rather,
this article maintains that the political environment of the 1960s and 1970s created the sense that
crime was rife (whether real or imagined), and that measures were needed to ensure the populaces
safety. In this sense, I am arguing that the intent of the mass incarceration phenomenon was
directed at reducing crime, not at marginalizing a particular group. While evidence exists linking
intent to a more heinous attempt at subverting the social, political, and economic gains of minority
groups during the Civil Rights Era, any such conclusion will be left to the reader.
Attempting to counteract the perceived lawlessness of the Civil Rights Era, substantial
legislation and executive prodding culminated in the creation of numerous crime bills that
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extensively harshened the penalties associated with crime. As drugs became the official public
enemy number one after the fall of Communism (Davis 2012, 42), they were framed as the
primary evil that needed addressing, resulting in the codification of mandatory minimum
sentences. While these mandatory minimum sentences were concerned with a multitude of
different infractions, their use was predominately proscribed to fight the War on Drugs (Bain
2012, 60). Thus, understanding the history of the War on Drugs, and how mandatory minimums
were used to combat it, enlightens the reasoning behind the mass incarceration experiment
currently being administered within America.
The history of mandatory minimum sentences began as a backlash to the perceived
lawlessness of the 1960s. Actual crime rates did increase throughout the decade, presumably from
the baby boomer generation coming of age in an environment rife with instability from the New
Left and Civil Rights Movements (Alexander 2011, 41). Minorities, drugs, and minorities using
drugs, especially, became the targets of repression, as the urban race riots of 1964-1968 incited the
belief that American society was fracturing from vice (Rosen 2006, 127). By 1968, 81 percent of
respondents to a nation-wide Gallop Poll noted that law and order has broken down in this
country (Alexander 2011, 46). Indeterminate sentencing, classified by the ability of the
sentencing judge to deviate from established norms due to mitigating or extenuating
circumstances, came under fire from a drug abuse perspective. Drug offenders were previously
uncertain of the punishment for any specific crime, resulting in the marketed belief that they were
therefore more likely to commit the offense (Nauman 2013, 861). As such, beginning in the state
of New York, legislation was introduced to address the issue. Passed in 1973, the Rockefeller Drug
Laws established mandatory minimum sentences on drug convictions, aimed at curtailing the
increased violence and hopelessness of rehabilitation associated with the 1960s (KohlerHausmann 2010). The Rockefeller Drug Laws became the most draconian criminal penalty
throughout the United States, effectively ensuring that drug addicts faced penalties similar to
convicted murderers and harsher than rapists (Bain 2012, 60). As a political move, Rockefeller
utilized the passage of mandatory minimum sentencing to take control of the crime issue,
positioning himself, and subsequent political actors who followed suit, as the protectors of
American communities and society as a whole (Kohler-Hausmann 2010).
Realizing that a tough on crime stance could position oneself for the political advantage
of appearing to ensure the safety of American lives (Wacquant 2014, 40), other states quickly
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followed New Yorks precedent (Kohler-Hausmann 2010). At the federal level, the Reagan
administration sought to implement mandatory minimum sentences as a solution for Americas
crime problem. This officially began in October of 1982, when President Reagan announced his
War on Drugs (Alexander 2011, 49). Legislation followed swiftly, and in 1984, Congress passed
the Sentencing Reform Act as part of the Comprehensive Crime Act (Nauman 2013, 863). Created
under the umbrella of the Sentencing Reform Act, the United States Sentencing Commission
(USSC) was established with the task of drafting guidelines for federal mandatory minimum
sentences, which were finalized in the Federal Sentencing Guidelines of 1987 (Nauman 2013,
863). More specifically, the USSC undertook the task of codifying mandatory minimum sentences
for drug offenses (Nauman 2013, 864). Furthermore, the Comprehensive Crime Act of 1984
abolished parole for federal offenders, ensuring that they would serve all of their mandated time
and further cementing the administrations posturing towards appearing tough on crime.
Subsequent legislation continued the codification of federal mandatory minimum
sentences. The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 set mandatory minimums for a host of drug offenses
but is most infamously known for a racially-charged provision distinguishing the varying amounts
necessary to ensure mandatory minimum sentences for powder and crack cocaine (Alexander
2011, 53). A second Anti-Drug Abuse Act followed in 1988, compounding the penalties associated
with drug abuse convictions. The 1988 Act required mandatory five year sentences for first time
cocaine offenders, eviction from public housing for all major drug offenses, and the loss of student
loans coupled with the inability to receive any in the future (Alexander 2011, 53-4). The Reagan
administration effectively implemented, through cooperation with Congress and drawing
momentum from the War on Drugs, a sweeping reform of sentencing practices with mandatory
minimums.
While Republican rhetoric championed the idea that their party was responsible for the
tough on crime stance that was coinciding with a reduced crime rate (Casey and Mohr 2005),
Democratic politicians also contributed to Americas mass incarceration ordeal. The Carter
administration jumpstarted the entire phenomenon with its overtly anti-drug language (Wacquant
2014, 40), effectively framing the issue for subsequent administrations. Additionally, the greatest
contribution to the draconian laws mandating minimum sentencing came with the passage of the
Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 under the Clinton administration. The
Act singlehandedly oversaw the largest expansion of incarceration in the annals of democratic
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societies with over 465,000 new inmates incarcerated due to its implementation; whereas the sum
of Reagans legislation accounted for only 288,000 new inmates (Wacquant 2014, 40). History
remembers the 1994 Act for its creation of the three-strikes-and-youre-out initiative, which
required a twenty-five year-to-life sentence for a third conviction under the umbrella of mandatory
minimum sentencing (Alexander 2011, 56). Countless lives were, and remain to this day, rendered
useless because of the three strikes initiative.
Implementation of laws that deny previously enjoyed freedoms require astute framing. The
criminal sentencing reform acts of the 1980s and 1990s conform to this observation, as the very
notion of mass incarceration contradicts the American values of freedom and liberty. Thus, the
creation of a new societal scourgedrugswas necessary for implementing mandatory
minimums (Bain 2012, 50). At the onset of the War on Drugs, only two percent of the population
viewed drugs as Americas most pressing concern (Alexander 2011, 49). However, a concerted
and overwhelming media effort ensued that framed the new demon drug, crack cocaine, as the
downfall of American society (Alexander 2011, 5). In fact, in a one year period between October
1988 and October 1989, the Washington Post alone ran 1,565 stories about the drug scourge
(Alexander 2011, 53). President George H.W. Bush continued this rhetoric when pronouncing in
August 1989 that drug use was the nations most pressing problem. As such, a poll conducted just
after Bushs executive statement recorded that 64 percent of Americans saw drug abuse as the
supreme issue facing the nation, the largest percentage in American history (Alexander 2011, 55).
Drugs were increasingly being linked with crime and deviance, and the proposed solution was to
implement incredibly severe sanctions for abuse.
The results of this media attention and enacted legislation are staggering. In 1980,
approximately 41,000 drug offenders were in prison, predominately due to importation,
manufacturing, or distribution. Today, over 500,000 individuals reside in correctional facilities
due to drug convictions, an increase of over 1,200 percent (Bain 2012, 137). Approximately onehalf of the more than 218,000 federal inmates are serving time for drug offenses, and virtually all
of them faced mandatory minimum sentencing (Editorial 2014). As Alexander describes, Drug
offenses alone account for two-thirds of the rise in the federal inmate population and more than
half of the rise in state prisoners between 1985 and 2000 (2011, 60). These numbers stem from
over 31 million drug offense arrests since the official start of the War on Drugs in 1982. The
majority of these arrests correspond to mere possession, as only one out of five drug-related arrests
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has been for sales (Alexander 2011, 60). Furthermore, the vast majority of drug possession arrests
were for marijuana, as nearly 80 percent of the growth in drug arrests in the 1990s concerned this
drug (Alexander 2011, 60). These draconian measures were for a drug that has recently become
legal in four states and the District of Columbia, with nine other states considering similar
legislation (McGuire 2016). With little doubt, the mass incarceration boom in America can be
attributed primarily to the implementation of mandatory minimum sentences concerning drugs.
The aforementioned discussion of the mass incarceration phenomenon and its
implementation is objective fact. Determining and understanding the effects of mass incarceration,
however, are subjective and vary upon perspective. The next section of this paper concerns the
benefits associated with the social movement, followed by a section dedicated to the negative
consequences of mass incarceration. Finally, I conclude by determining which of the contending
perspectives offers a more practical, ideologically consistent match with professed American
ideals.
Championing the Cause
All enacted legislation has benefits and disadvantages; the codification of mandatory
minimums embodies this understanding. Without perceived positive outcomes, proposed
legislation would never overcome opposition and become law. From a theoretical perspective,
incarceration is a uniform punishment (Foucault 1995, 232). Regardless of the individuals race,
ethnicity, class, or age, a prison sentence creates uniform experiences for those incarcerated.
Hence, much more so than a fine, which unequally distributes punishment based upon an
individuals ability to pay, incarceration is an egalitarian punishment. Justice demands consistency
in sentencing (Guthrie 2014, 236). As the criminal justice system is concerned with disseminating
the principle of justice to offenders, determining a consistent approach to punishment is key to
ensuring equality in sentencing. Conversely, indeterminate sentencing, where the judge is able to
deviate from established norms, leads to disparate sentencing and the luck of the draw in judge
selection, which can be the most important factor for determining sentencing severity (Guthrie
2014, 236). So goes the argument that the principle of justice is, in fact, upheld by mandatory
minimum sentencing.
Today, the United States enjoys one of the lowest crime rates in its history, approximately
300 percent lower than in the 1960s and 1970s (Guthrie 2014, 234). The creation and
implementation of mandatory minimum sentences has played a crucial role in this trend. As
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Guthrie notes, Evidence linking increased punishment to lower crime rates is very strong (2014,
233). He argues that approximately one-fourth of the drop is causally linked to mandatory
minimum sentencing (Guthrie 2014, 233). Determinate sentences fixed the issues presented by
indeterminate sentencing by sufficiently deterring future crime, incapacitating dangerous
offenders, and ensuring retributive justice is achieved (Nauman 2013, 865). Furthermore, the
American population appears to notice that a drop in crime has occurred, as only two percent of
citizens now view crime as the biggest issue our nation faces, down from almost half in the 1990s
(Guthrie 2014, 233).
The reasoning for the drop in crime rates from mandatory minimum sentences is due to
increased cooperation with law enforcement ensured by the specter of incarceration looming over
defendants heads. Determinate sentencing promotes cooperation between the prosecution and the
offender because of the ability for that cooperation to be used as a mitigating circumstance during
sentencing (Nauman 2013, 865). This cooperation provides vital information for the apprehension
of higher-level offenders, particularly within drug trafficking and terrorist organizations, which
removes dangerous criminals from society (Guthrie 2014, 234). Increasingly, terrorist
organizations are turning to narcotics for funding. As an Obama-appointed attorney recently noted,
There is a growing nexus between drug trafficking and terrorism, a threat that increasingly poses
a clear and present danger to our national security (Washington 2015). Viewing the debate on
mandatory minimum sentencing through a national security lens provides ample support for its
continuation.
The number of individuals sentenced under mandatory minimums federally is overblown.
A vital distinction occurs here, as even the most ardent supporters of mandatory minimum
sentencing can find fault at the state level for incarcerating drug abusing offenders (Washington
2015). Yet, federal and state courts prosecute different types of criminals. Federal prosecutors are
responsible for the most heinous of drug offenders, the ones responsible for the importation and
distribution of narcotics on purely profit-driven models (Guthrie 2014, 237). As such, determinate
sentencing is not triggered for drug possession at the federal level, and almost none of those
incarcerated at the federal level are imprisoned solely for isolated possession charges (Washington
2015). Approximately 88 percent of federal drug possession charges occur on the Southwestern
border of the country. Of those, the median amount of narcotics seized was 48 pounds. These
offenders, whom most would consider high-level traffickers, receive an average sentence of only
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1.3 months (Washington 2015). Even couriers that are arrested rarely receive determinate
sentencing: just under half of all courier cases are subject to mandatory minimums, yet less than
10 percent of the total are sentenced within those guidelines, predominately due to offender
cooperation with law enforcement (Washington 2015).
Opportunities currently abound for an offender to secure shorter sentences. The safety
valve was implemented to avoid the abuses of an overly-harsh system. If an individual is a firsttime offender, is non-violent, did not use any weapons in their crime, and cooperates with law
enforcement to secure evidence towards apprehending more dangerous criminals, they will avoid
mandatory minimum sentencing (Guthrie 2014, 235). While these criteria may seem difficult to
achieve, the majority of offenders meet them (Washington 2015). The only offenders who do not
meet the qualifications necessary for the safety valve are those whom should be incarcerated:
dangerous, aggressive, repeat offenders and major drug traffickers (Guthrie 2014, 235).
Furthermore, pursuant to Rule 35 (Section 5k1.1) of the Sentencing Guidelines, determinate
sentencing can be avoided if an individual provides substantial assistance to law enforcement,
regardless if any other criteria are met for the safety valve (Guthrie 2014, 235). The Attorney
Generals Memorandum to the United States Attorneys on August 12, 2013 provides further
avoidance of imposing mandatory minimums by requiring prosecutors not to use them if any
safety valve criteria exists, even for recidivists under similar criminal circumstances (Guthrie
2014, 235). The federal system has checks upon the unmitigated use of determinate sentencing,
and offenders are provided ample opportunities to reduce their sentencing.
The usage of mandatory minimum sentencing provides an extensive above-ground
economy while simultaneously curtailing the illegal narcotics trade. The Violent Crime Control
and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 alone authorized $8.8 billion to employ over 100,000 new
policemen and women. It also allocated $7.9 billion in state construction grants for prisons and
boot camps nationwide, resulting in thousands of construction, architecture and engineering jobs
(Davis 2012, 25). The corrections industry has seen an increase in over 1 million jobs since the
1980s, making it the third largest employer in America with a monthly payroll of $2.4 billion
(Wacquant 2014, 39). This stimulation for the economy coincided with an increase in the
American economy throughout the 1980s, and any decrease would, in all likelihood, result in a
similar shock to the overall system. Because of the egalitarian nature of incarceration, increased
public safety, increased cooperation between low-level offenders and law enforcement, the reality
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that drug possession cases do not result in federal incarceration, the milieu of opportunities to
avoid mandatory minimum sentencing, and a vibrant above-ground economy, determinate
sentencing provides the greatest ability to ensure that procedural and restorative justice are
properly observed.
Understanding the Underlying Effects
While mandatory minimum sentencing at the federal level can be framed in a positive light
if the underlying effects of its implementation are ignored, the actuality of its usage raises serious
legal and cultural concerns for American society. Recent public sentiment against determinate
sentencing (Ingraham 2014) has forced Congressional action to look into its disadvantages, while
proposing alternative models for criminal sentencing. Twenty-nine states have curtailed the use of
mandatory minimum sentencing in some regard during the previous decade (Editorial 2015), and
the federal system is in need of similar revision.
The most pressing issue compelling the elimination of mandatory minimum sentencing is
that it is, in fact, not an egalitarian punishment. Rather, mandatory minimum sentencings
implementation has resulted in the proliferation of indigent, uneducated, and minority offenders
behind bars. The majority of this disadvantaged population is African American, as more black
individuals are now caught up in corrections than were once enslaved on American plantations
(Bain 2012, 123). Surprisingly, however, this was not always the case. At the end of World War
II, blacks comprised approximately 30 percent of the incarcerated population, while whites
comprised the vast majority of the other 70 percent. By the turn of the twenty-first century, the
numbers had flipped: whites represented only 30 percent of incarcerated Americans, while
minoritiespredominately black but increasingly Latinoaccount for the majority of those
imprisoned (Wacquant 2014, 43). Assuming that crime rates, and specifically drug abuse, between
racial groups within America are fairly consistent (Bain 2012, 137), the imposition of mandatory
minimum sentencing has unequally effected minority populaces.
The skewed distribution of incarceration towards minority and poor communities has been
coupled with the dissolution of welfare programs. Every governing body has financial limitations,
a set budget that must be met. For correctional costs to skyrocket the way that they have over the
previous three decades, something had to correspondingly suffer. In 1980, the federal government
allocated three times the budgetary dollars for the two largest welfare programs, the Aid to
Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and food stamps, as compared to corrections. By 1996,
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correctional expenditures exceeded the combined total of those two programs by $7 billion dollars
annually (Wacquant 2014, 39). Similarly, and specifically in terms of the drug problem, the 1980s
saw a dramatic increase in anti-drug expenditures, while seeing a decline in rehabilitation
programs. From 1981 to 1991, the Department of Defense (DOD) antidrug budget increased from
$33 million to $1.042 billion, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) budget ballooned from $86
million to $1.026 billion, and the FBI antidrug taskforces budget rose from $38 million to $181
million annually (Bain 2012, 52). All the while, over the exact same time period, the National
Institute on Drug Abuses budget dropped from $274 to $57 million dollars and the Department
of Educations (DOE) antidrug funding decreased from $14 to $3 million annually (Alexander
2011, 50). Effectively, rehabilitation ceased to be the primary concern of the criminal justice
system. Rather, incapacitation and punishment are now the unmitigated goals of imprisonment
(Davis 2012, 39). As Foucault further describes, One would be forced to suppose that the prison,
and no doubt punishment in general, is not intended to eliminate offenses, but rather to distinguish
them, to distribute them, to use them (1995, 272). Correctional costs have diverted resources away
from potentially rehabilitating the offender.
Resultant from a system that denies funding for rehabilitation, incarceration is actually
contributing to its own mass effect and is ineffective in reducing crime. The possibility of
improved public safety through increased incarceration is by now exhausted (Western 2010, 17).
Prisons breed and promote criminal behavior. The combination of incarceration with denying the
offender housing, health care, an education, and welfare possibilities creates a self-perpetuating
cycle that returns the majority of individuals to corrections because they are forced to participate
in underground economies for survival (Davis 2012, 62). The earning potential of convicted
offenders is dramatically reduced. Only 16 percent of men previously incarcerated earned over
$36,400 in 2006, while 21 percent made less than $7,800 (Nauman 2013, 877). Furthermore, an
analysis of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) found that being incarcerated was
associated with a 40 percent reduction in earnings and with reduced job tenure, reduced hourly
wages, and higher unemployment. This stems from the offender spending time imprisoned, which
equates to less working experience, a negative social stigma towards them, and negative working
habits partially learned while incarcerated (Western 2010, 13-4). Reduced earning potentials
perpetuate the mass incarceration cycle by imposing poverty on offenders. The result is that many
individuals become recidivists.
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Recidivism rates have increased since the imposition of determinate sentencing. The
primary rationale behind mandatory minimums was to sufficiently deter future crime (Nauman
2013, 865), yet the opposite effect seems to have occurred. Recidivism rates for offenders within
three years of release from incarceration increased from 62.5 percent in 1983 to 67.5 percent in
1994. Similarly, the percentage of parolees successfully discharged from the correctional system
decreased from 54 to 41 percent between 1983 and 2000 (Nauman 2013, 868). In 1980, only 1
percent of all prison admissions were parole violations. In 2000, that number had skyrocketed to
over 35 percent, which roughly equaled the total number of individuals admitted in 1980
(Alexander 2011, 95). As probation and parole now provide a substantial portion of the
incarcerated population, they can be properly construed as an extension of the custodial system, as
opposed to an alternative to it (Wacquant 2014, 38). The increased probability of being trapped
in the system once labelled an offender has not shown to reduce crime, but rather directly
contributes to it.
As individual offenders become a statistic within the correctional system, reduced life
possibilities occur not only for them, but for their family. The attribute that plays the largest into
social mobility is time incarcerated: those who have been imprisoned have the slightest possibility
for advancement, seeing an effect that is even greater than IQ and educational attainment (Western
2010, 14). This type of inequality is self-sustaining. Socioeconomic disadvantage, crime, and
incarceration in the current generation undermine the stability of family life and material support
for children. As adults, these children will be at a greater risk of diminished life chances and
criminal involvement, and at a greater risk of incarceration as a result (Western 2010, 16). In
2010, 52.2 percent of inmates had minor children, while 58 percent of children with incarcerated
parents are under the age of 10 (Nauman 2013, 877). During this transformative period in a childs
life, having an incarcerated parent creates challenges and perpetuates a criminal cycle. This
lifestyle leads to abnormal stress, low self-esteem, the inability to effectively bond with family and
peers for preteens and younger, while simultaneously leading to abnormal behavior, rejected social
norms, and an increased likelihood to engage in criminal activity for teenage children of
incarcerated parents (Nauman 2013, 877). As destitution from decreased social opportunities
occurs, deviant behavior is a nearly inevitable result (Foucault 1995, 268), contributing to the mass
incarceration epidemic.
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Maneuvering for a Better Tomorrow: How Should America Move Forward?

The documented disadvantages to mass incarceration in America are numerous and
substantial: incarceration is a self-perpetuating phenomenon; it is imposed predominately upon a
minority and indigent population who lack the means to combat it; it is extremely costly
economically and socially, in terms of the unrealized potential of millions of Americans; and, it
does not fulfill its stated goal of curtailing crime in America. Although proponents of mass
incarceration can speak to benefits from its imposition, these are heavily outweighed by the
aforementioned consequences. Hence, substantial and significant reform is necessary to return the
American criminal justice system to one that promotes justice, freedom, and equality.
Recent actions by the Supreme Court have been aimed at reforming mandatory minimum
sentencing federally. In United States v Booker, the Supreme Court concluded that determinate
sentencing strips judges of the ability to base the sentence upon circumstantial factors, which deindividualizes the proceedings and imposes injustice. Instead, the justices determined that
mandatory minimums should be seen as only advisory, and that a multitude of factors should
contribute to a defendants sentence (Nauman 2013, 871). This ruling allowed judges to return to
their historically held power of determining individual sentences, something that allows each case
to be understood on its own circumstances, which helps keep drug offenders from receiving
lengthy prison sentences (Alexander 2011, 90). In Brown v Plata, the Supreme Court ruled that
prison overcrowding was an affront to human dignity as it denies the inmate the right to proper
medical attention, clothing, and food (Nauman 2013, 879-80). Furthermore, the ruling required
that California prisons, against which the case was brought before the Court, reduce their number
of detained individuals as quickly as possible (Nauman 2013, 878). As federal prisons are currently
at 135 percent capacity (Nauman 2013, 856), the ruling remains logically sound for federal
penitentiaries as well. These two rulings have established that prison overcrowding is against all
notions of human dignity, that it therefore must be reduced, and that mandatory minimum
sentencing should be viewed as no more than an advisory guideline.
Congress has followed suit with two enactments that speak to the injustices created by
mandatory minimum sentencing. First, the safety valve was introduced to allow low-level, nonviolent drug offenders the ability to avoid severe mandatory minimum sentences (Washington
2015). This ruling gave the first instance of returning to judicial discretion, as sentencing judges
were once again able to lower sentences based upon mitigating factors (Nauman 2013, 872).
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Second, the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 broke precedent from the previous disparity between
crack and powder cocaine amounts necessary to require mandatory minimum sentencing by
substantially raising the amount of crack cocaine that resulted in determinate sentencing (Guthrie
2014, 235-6). As such, Congress realized that there was a negative racial dimension to the original
law, and that the drug possession amounts required for such a severe penalty should be
dramatically increased.
Currently, proposed legislation aims to take these measures even further. The Smarter
Sentencing Act, proposed by Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Mike Lee (R-UT), would give
judges even more discretion in sentencing drug cases. Specifically, it would allow judges the
ability to offer alternative forms of sentencing, aimed at rehabilitation. These alternatives would
include classes or probation, restoring the discretion that judges have historically held (Editorial
2014). Similar legislation is being attempted in the House by Raul Labrador (a tea party Republican
from Idaho) and Bobby Scott (D-VA). To them, mandatory minimum sentencing is neither sound,
fair, practical, nor cost-effective (Editorial 2014). Both the judicial and legislative branches have
established protocol to reduce the imposition of mandatory minimum sentencing.
The rationale behind their actions is that mandatory minimums do not properly affect what
they are designed to: a reduction in the crime rate. Determinate sentencings imposition coincided
with the belief that drug abuse was a societal scourge, a criminal issue, as opposed to a health
concern (Bain 2012, 136). As such, the possibility for rehabilitation was removed from the
equation, as these offenders were framed as dangerous criminals who needed to be removed from
our communities. This framing created the situation in which a human rights nightmare is
occurring on our watch (Alexander 2011, 15). Millions of individuals are trapped within a system
that degrades their dignity and sentences them to decades of incarceration for non-violent drug
offenses. Mandatory minimum sentences deny the individual the value of their intrinsic worth, as
they are relegated to little more than a statistic exhibiting a greater likelihood for recidivism than
for freedom. They are further denied the right to determine the type of life that constitutes success
to them, which degrades their humanity and disregards their worth (Dworkin 2006, 9-10).
Prior to the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, the longest sentence for possession of any
amount of any drug was one year (Alexander 2011, 90). After the Act, a kilogram of heroin carried
a mandatory 10 year sentence and cocaine possession carried a mandated five year sentence
(Alexander 2011, 90). These sentences are on par with murder and more severe than rape or other
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violent offenses (Bain 2012, 60), which is unheard of in the rest of the world. In England, the state
whose criminal justice system bears the closest resemblance to the United States, the penalty for
the exact same kilogram of heroin that bears a mandatory minimum sentence of ten years in
America (which can be increased for aggravating circumstances) is six months of incarceration
(Alexander 2011, 90). It is remarkable and saddening that Americans are penalized at least twenty
times as harshly as their British counterparts for a similar substance abuse issue. Furthermore,
participation in the War on Drugs diverts precious resources away from not only social welfare
programs, but also from the apprehension of serious offenders whom are an actual threat to our
communities (Bain 2012, 139).
The greatest injustice caused by mandatory minimum sentences is that they are incorrectly
framed as an attempt to reduce crime in America. The evidence shows that the opposite holds true,
prisons create the very monsters that they are tasked with rehabilitating (Bain 2012, 88). This
comes from the diminished opportunities that exist allowing ex-offenders the ability to reenter
society. As long as ex-offenders are marginalized by restricting their access to public services,
public housing, employment, college scholarships, parenting, and voting (Wacquant 2014, 38), the
occurrence of their recidivism will necessarily ensue. These measures create and contribute to an
enormous under-caste system within American society (Alexander 2011, 96), which perpetuates
crime far more than any type of illicit drug abuse by ensuring that the ex-offenders only viable
source of income is from an underground economy.
It is true that America faces a drug abuse problem. The solution, however, is not to
criminalize the individuals who need rehabilitative help. Rather, budgetary dollars need to be
redistributed away from corrections towards rehabilitation and social welfare programs aimed at
effectively reintroducing ex-offenders into society. As a nation, we had a choice of how to
respond (Alexander 2011, 51) to the increasing drug epidemic of the 1960s and 1970s.
Unfortunately, we chose wrong. We chose a path of repression and incarceration that contradicts
the American premise that we are the land of the free. If we hope to live up to our own professed
ideals, mandatory minimum sentencing must be universally eliminated.
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References
Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New
York: The New Press, 2011. Print.
Bain, Bryonn. The Ugly Side of Beautiful: Rethinking Race and Prison in America. Chicago:
Third World Press, 2012. Print.
Casey, Sharon N. and Phillip Mohr. Law-and-Order Politics, Public Opinion Polls and the
Media. Psychiatry, Psychology and Law. 12.1 (2005): 141+. Web. 25 March 2016.
Davis, Angela Y. The Meaning of Freedom: And Other Difficult Dialogues. San Francisco: City
Lights Open Media, 2012. Print.
Dworkin, Ronald. Is Democracy Possible Here?: Principles for a New Political Debate.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006. Print.
"Editorial: Mandatory Minimum Sentencing Under Fire." Frederick News-Post [Frederick, MD]
9 Jan. 2014. General OneFile. Web. 22 July 2015.
Editorial. Repeal Mandatory Minimum Drug Sentences. Boston Globe 7 June 2015. Web. 25
March 2016.
Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. 2nd ed. Trans. Alan Sheridan.
New York: Vintage-Random House, 1995. Print.
Guthrie, Robert G. NAAUSA Letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Regarding Mandatory
Minimum Sentencing. Federal Sentencing Reporter. 26.4 (2014): 233-237. Web. 17
July 2015.
Ingraham, Christopher. "Wonkblog: Americans Overwhelmingly Agree it's Time to End
Mandatory Minimum Sentencing." Washington Post 10 Oct. 2014. Academic OneFile.
Web. 24 July 2015.
Kohler-Hausmann, Julilly. The Attila the Hun Law: New Yorks Rockefeller Drug Laws and
the Making of a Punitive State. Journal of Social History. 44.1 (2010): 71+. Web. 23
March 2016.
McGuire, Jo. Trends in Marijuana Legalization: A Wake-Up Call for Employers. Occupation
Health and Safety. 85.2 (2016): 35+. Web. 23 March 2016.
Nauman, Steven. Brown v Plata: Renewing the Call to End Mandatory Minimum Sentencing.
Florida Law Review. 65.3 (2013): 855-893. Web. 20 July 2015.
Rosen, Ruth. The World Split Open: How the Modern Womens Movement Changed America.
New York: Penguin Books, 2006. Print.
Wacquant, Loic. Class, Race, and Hyperincarceration in Revanchist America. Socialism and
Democracy. 28.3 (2014): 35-56. Web. 20 July 2015.
"Washington: Grassley Floor Statement: Mandatory Minimum Sentencing." US Official News 12
Mar. 2015. Infotrac Newsstand. Web. 20 July 2015.
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Western, Bruce, and Becky Pettit. On Mass Incarceration: Incarceration and Social Inequality.
Daedalus. 139.3 (2010): 8-20. Web. 29 June 2015.
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Has Globalization Undermined Democratic Politics?
Huaizhi Yang
International political economists do not agree on the relationship between globalization and
democratic politics. My paper is a contribution to this ongoing discussion. In general, my answer
to this controversial question is yes, globalization does undermine democratic politics. From
my perspective, there are two indispensable components of globalization. On one hand,
globalization brings an increase in free trade and facilitates the flow of technology, information,
and knowledge. On the other hand, globalization creates a platform from which multinational
corporations can seize enormous power. I argue that while the former is helpful in the movement
towards democratization, it is the latter that shakes the foundations of democracy.
Globalization is a complex process and its definition is controversial. The liberal journalist
Thomas Friedman (2007), states that globalization began in 1492, when Columbus set sail to the
Americas. This event opened trade between the Old World and the New World and built
connections among different regions of the world. Meanwhile, the economic geographer Peter
Dicken (2011) agrees that globalization has its historical roots, but he emphasizes the qualitative
changes over time that distinguish globalization during the second half of the 20th century from
the earlier historical periods. He argues that globalization post-World War II (WWII) involves
deep integration which is organized primarily within and between geographically the extensive
and complex global production networks, and through a variety of mechanisms (07). I accept
Dickens definition on globalization. When discussing globalization in this paper, I refer to two of
its indispensable components. First, globalization increases trade, both in goods and services,
while also facilitating the global flow of technology, information, and knowledge. Second, while
globalization since WWII has enabled some global labor mobility, it has made a greater impact on
the mobility of capital. Both of these dimensions of globalization factor into the augmented power
of multinational corporations (MNCs) in the global system.
For the purpose of this paper, I define democracy using several traditionally accepted
democratic concepts. First, people living in democratic states have the opportunity to elect their
leaders and enjoy certain freedoms such as freedom of speech, freedom of press, and freedom of
religion. In order to protect the civil and political rights of their people, democratic systems tend
to have a separation of powers with checks and balances and a well-established rule of law. Second,
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democratic states are often expected to promote the economic wellbeing of their people, especially
low-class laborers. To ensure the economic and social rights of their people, democratic
governments need to possess enough governing capability to provide some social insurance
programs and adjustments to the distribution of wealth.
Globalization has an immense impact on democratic politics. In this paper, I argue that
globalization has some positive effects on the dissemination of democratic values as a result of
increases in free trade and the free flow of new technology, information and knowledge. However,
and more importantly, globalization violates contemporary democratic politics because the power
of MNCs is unregulated, and, as a result, MNCs are remarkably influential in the decision-making
processes of many democratic governments, the United States included. The research method I
use to explore these dynamics is a qualitative one that draws insights from credible scholars in the
field of political science.
In the first section of this paper, I discuss the positive influence of globalization on
democratization movements. In the second section, I investigate the negative influence of
globalization on both the interests of people living in democracies and on the governing
capabilities of democratic states. In the third section below, I use the Trans-Pacific Partnership
Agreement (TPP) as an example to illustrate the global impact of MNCs and the threat they pose
to democratic politics. The United States is a key example throughout my paper, as it is widely
considered the most powerful democracy in the world.
Globalization and the Dissemination of Democratic Politics
In important ways globalization stimulates democratization. In 1993, political scientist
Samuel Huntington put forward his definition of the third wave of democratization: In the fifteen
years following the end of the Portuguese dictatorship in 1974, democratic regimes replaced
authoritarian ones in approximately thirty countries in Europe, Asia and Latin America (21).
Echoing Huntington, the economist Jeffrey Sachs (1995) further argues: With a few notable
exceptions, the market revolution has gone hand in hand with a democratic revolution. That is true
in virtually all of Latin America, Central Europe, and the former Soviet Union, and also in parts
of East Asia (South Korea and Taiwan) and Africa (50). Economic factors partly explain this
international transition to democracy. In the second half of the 20th century, socialist countries
with state-led and autarkic models of development many of which were ruled by dictatorships
were experiencing economic stagnation. Sachs (1995) captured the roots of this trend by stating:
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Countries found themselves saddled with hothouse industries, protected by tariff and quota
barriers, and kept alive by subsidies, but with little use of their outputs (58).
The failure of state-led economies in the 20th century can generally be summarized in two
ways. Domestically, credible pricing systems, producer competition and private property rights
were lacking in the absence of market economies. Therefore, people did not have the proper
incentives to work and produce since they could not own the fruits of their labor (Perry 1995). As
a result of such conditions, the economies of socialist countries were sluggish. In an international
context, neoliberal economists believe that many Second and Third World countries did not
achieve economic success because they did not participate in global trade (Bannister and Thugge
2001). At the same time, democratic countries that embraced globalization in the 1970s and 1980s
such as the United States, Britain, the Federal Republic of Germany, and Japan cut their tariffs and
encouraged multilateral free trade. As a result, these democratic countries had much higher levels
of economic prosperity. Understandably, people who had suffered from economic downturns as
well as human rights violations under 20th century dictatorships eventually stood up for political
and economic transitions and the third wave of democratization occurred.
In the 20th century, the economic success of the West generated by globalization reinforced
perceptions of a positive relationship between globalization, economic success and democracy and
helped to defeat the politics of dictatorship while building global support for democracy. Turning
to the 21st century, the evolution of information technology, encouraged by globalization, offers
much more advanced instruments for those who participate in social movements and
democratization. A prime example is the protestors of the Arab Spring in 2011-2012, who used
Facebook and cell phones to express discontent with their governments and launch their
revolutions (Pevehouse and Goldstein 2014, 02). For those still living in authoritarian states like
China, the Internet offers a window of access to the information censored by their governments.
In China, young students can use software to breach the governments internet firewall and watch
YouTube, which contains videos of the Tiananmen Square Massacre and Beijings repression of
Tibetan movements. These events remain as political taboos in China today, and the countrys
domestic media is not allowed publishing anything about them (Murong 2015).
Globalization and the Threat to Democratic Politics
Although globalization encourages democratization to some extent, it has also become a
major threat to democracy in recent decades. The mobility of capital empowers MNCs and
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diminishes the capacities of local, often democratic governments. The economist Maurice Obstfeld
(1998) writes about global capital mobility and foreign investment:
Absent special features making for an attractive investment locale-like a high level of public
goods or skilled but inexpensive labor - a country must lower its capital tax rates to match
those set by foreign authorities. Otherwise it suffers a diminished tax base and, possibly, a
lower domestic living standard. Moreover, individual countries have incentives to tailor their
tax policies so as to lure business from abroad. There is potentially a race to the bottom as
countries competitively offer tax breaks in a collectively self-defeating scramble for national
advantage (19).
This imbalance of power between MNCs and local governmentsan imbalance that stems in
large part from increases in international trade and capital mobility since WWIIleads to a series
of issues. The economist Dani Rodrik (1997) argues that low-skilled laborers in developed
countries are hurt by globalization as their labor becomes more elastic, which means the services
of large segments of the working population can be more easily substituted by the services of other
people across national boundaries (04). Therefore, as a country becomes more integrated in
international markets, its laborers become more elastic because they are subject to greater
competition from workers abroad.
In many cases, vulnerable laborers put pressure on their governments to protect them from
these risks of globalization. In line with Rodrik, the general request from the vulnerable labors is
for public programs such as social welfare and insurance. Nevertheless, local governments can
hardly respond to such requests. Welfare programs need to be financed, but governments are less
able to tax MNCs because of the capital mobility associated with the globalization of capital
markets. MNCs can always leave countries with higher tax rates and invest in others with more
business-friendly environments. As such, the tension between globalization and labor interests can
be difficult to resolve and may injure social cohesion and the interest of the majority in
democracies. Rodrik (1997) analyzed data for 23 democratic countries in the Organization for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) including Germany, Japan, Britain and the
U.S. In his analysis, Rodrick found that when countries are more open to the global economy, their
taxes on capital decrease while their taxes on labor income increase (1997). This research lead to
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his conclusion that: Globalization presents this dilemma: it results in increased demands on the
state to provide social insurance while reducing the ability of the state to perform that role
effectively (Rodrick 53).
MNCs collect enormous amounts of wealth from the growth of the global market.
According to the historian Bruce Mazlish (2012), by the end of WWII, there was roughly 7,000
MNCs worldwide. By the year 2000, that number had jumped to 63,000. In 2012, the wealth of
powerful MNCs such as the Exxon Mobile and Apple was greater than the GDP of the worlds70
poorest countries. Moreover, the gigantic wealth accumulated by MNCs is often invested in the
politics of democratic countries, including the U.S. where money and power often go hand in hand.
Stephen Kinzer, a former reporter for the New York Times, clarifies this phenomenon. He points
out that when a foreign government begins to bother, harass, restrict, regulate or nationalize some
big foreign company, usually an American company, the American company responds by using
money to launch political campaigns and lobbying activities aimed at convincing American
politicians that the foreign government that violated their interests is anti-American, anticapitalist, evil and repressive (Kinzer 2007). If such efforts are effective, politicians will
champion a military intervention to overthrow the foreign government being targeted, arguing that
an intervention is necessary for the sake of humanitarianism or the national security of the U.S.
The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq fits in this paradigm. Statistics show that the Iraq War cost more than
$2 trillion in taxpayer money, with 4,000 American military casualties and at least 134,000 Iraqi
civilian deaths (Trotta 2013, Huffpost 2014). The Iraq War, driven by MNCs, essentially
undermined American citizens security and economic wellbeing.
In the final section of this paper, I will present a detailed case study of the TPP, an example
of contemporary globalization, to further illustrate how globalization undermines democratic
politics.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement: An Unprecedented Inflation of the Power of
Multinational Corporations
The TPP is a global free trade agreement between twelve countries. On October 5, 2015,
all twelve countries involved reached an agreement after extensive negotiations. The cumulative
GDP of the TPP countries is nearly 40% of the total global GDP (Isidore 2015). MNCs will be
further empowered when the TPP eventually takes effect. First, the TPP requires signatories to
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eliminate tariffs on manufactured products, including innovative and high technology products,
such as industrial and electrical machinery, precision and scientific instruments, and chemicals and
plastics (the US Trade Representative 2015). Ninety percent of goods produced by TPP members
states will enjoy the privilege of zero tax. The zero tax policy will be a great victory for MNCs
since they can become much wealthier by gaining larger markets.
Low-skilled workers in the U.S. and other developed democratic countries such as Canada and
Japan will also suffer. As stated by Robert E. Scott (2015), a senior economist in the nonpartisan
think tank Economic Policy Institute, the TPP would facilitate U.S. foreign direct investments in
its developing Parties such as Vietnam and Malaysia and more service sector jobs in the U.S.
would be outsourced. Meanwhile, Senator Bernie Sanders (2015) warns that the TPP is a new stage
of the race to the bottom, as the negotiation of its terms was driven by MNCs:
The TPP is a treaty that has been written behind closed doors by the corporate world.
Incredibly, while Wall Street, the pharmaceutical industry and major media companies have
full knowledge as to what is in this treaty, the American people and members of Congress do
not. They have been locked out of the processIf TPP was such a good deal for America, the
administration should have the
courage to show the American people exactly what is in
this deal, instead of keeping the content of the TPP a secret (01).
Therefore, it is reasonable to argue that the TPP is a threat to the social and economic rights of
people living in democracies. Indeed, the signing of the TPP has already sparked dozens of protests
in member states such as the U.S. and Japan (RT News, 2016).
Finally, in the context of the U.S., the TPP violates the Constitution. The violation is mainly
ascribed to the provision of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), an issue that speaks to the
concern raised above about the dangerous growth of MNC power in a globalized economic system.
The ISDS empowers MNCs with the ability to sue governments via international extrajudicial
tribunals with privately appointed arbitrators (Weisman 2015). Alan Morrison (2015), a legal
scholar at the George Washington University, pointed out that the ISDS violates Article III of the
U.S. Constitution:
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[The appointed arbitrators] are generally private citizens, often lawyers who specialize in
international trade and investment, for whom serving as arbitrators is only one source of their
income. Indeed, many of those who serve as arbitrators in one ISDS case represent investors
challenging governments in another. Their decisions on the merits of the case are final and not
subject to judicial review in any court (04).
Therefore, Morris asserts that if the U.S. follows the ISDS, it means the U.S. government
unconstitutionally submits the validity of its federal, state, and local laws to three private
arbitrators, with no possibility of review by any U.S. court (05). With the ISDS, the governing
capability of democratic countries would be undermined and MNCs gain greater leverage in
negotiations with local governments.
Conclusion
At the end of the 20th Century, Rodrik (1997) expressed concerns that globalization would
engender the excessively boundless power of MNCs. He proposed a crucial solution to this issue:
there needs to be some generally-accepted multilateral taxes on MNCs (69-85). However, in the
case of the TPP, it bothersome to see the signatory states moving in the opposite direction of
Rodriks advice, TPP Parties not regulating MNCs, instead, they are being disciplined by MNCs.
This paper illustrates both the positive and negative impacts of globalization on democratic
politics. Unfortunately, the negative impacts outweigh the positive. In order to protect peoples
interest in democracies from being undermined by globalization, the power of MNCs must be
carefully examined and regulated.
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Bannister, Geoffrey J. and Kamau Thugge. 2001. International Trade and Poverty Alleviation.
International Monetary Fund.
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2001/12/banniste.htm (Accessed Jan 30,
2016).
Dicken, Peter. 2011. Global Shift: Mapping the Changing Contours of the World Economy, 6th
ed. New York: The Guilford Press, 08-54.
Friedman, Thomas L. 2007. The World is Flat. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux,
09-12.
Gonzalez, Juan, Amy Goodman and Lori Wallachmy, 2013. A Corporate Trojan
Horse: Obama
Pushes Secretive TPP Trade Pact, Would Rewrite Swath of U.S.
Laws. Democracy Now.
http://www.democracynow.org/2013/10/4/a_corporate_trojan_horse_obama_pushes
(Accessed Dec 09, 2015).
Huffpost. 2014. 4,486 American Soldiers Have Died in Iraq. President Obama
Is Continuing a Pointless and Deadly Quagmire. Huffpost.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/h-a-goodman/4486-american-soldiersha_b_5834592.html (Accessed May 01, 2016).
Huntington, Samuel P. 1993. The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth
Century. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
Isidore, Chris. 2015. Trans-Pacific Trade Pact: Negotiators Finally Get It Done. CNN.
http://money.cnn.com/2015/10/05/news/economy/transpacific-partnership-tpp/ (Accessed
Dec 30, 2015).
Kinzer, Stephen. 2007. Americas Century of Regime Change. Guernica.
https://www.guernicamag.com/interviews/americas_century_of_regime_cha/
(Accessed May 01, 2016).
Mazlish, Bruce. 2012. Three Factors of Globalization: Multinational Corporations,
Non-Governmental Organizations, and Global Consciousness. Globality Studies
Journal. https://gsj.stonybrook.edu/view/three-factors-of-globalization-multinationalcorporations-non-governmental-organizations-and-global-consciousness/ (Accessed May
01, 2016).
Morrison, Alan B. 2015. The Investor-State Dispute Settlement Provisions in the
Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement Violate Article III of the United States
Constitution. George Washington University Law School.
http://www.citizen.org/documents/Alan-Morrison-ISDS-letter.pdf (Accessed Dec 09,
2015).
Murong, Xuecun. 2015. Scaling Chinas Great Firewall. New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/18/opinion/murong-xuecun-scaling-chinasgreat-firewall.html?r=0 (Accessed Jan 30, 2016).
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Obstfeld, Maurice. 1998. The Global Capital Market: Benefactor or Menace? Journal of
Economic Perspectives 12 (Autumn): 09-30.
Perry, Mark J. 1995. Why Socialism Failed: Collectivism is Based on Faulty Principles.
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Pevehouse, Jon C.W. and Joshua S. Goldstein. 2014. International Relations, 11th ed.
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Rodrik, Dani. 1997. Has Globalization Gone Too Far? Washington D.C.: Institute for
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Russian Today. 2016. TPP Signing Sparks Dozens of Protests Across U.S. Over
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Sanders, Bernie. 2015. The Trans-Pacific Partnership Must Be Defeated. Senate.
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09, 2015).
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The Negative Impacts of Austerity on Human Development
Michael Parker
Austerity measures can have a negative impact on the Human Development Index (HDI). While
gross national income (GNI) can often increase with austerity measures, the United Nations (UN)
Human Development Report indicates that the HDI is generally either unaffected or, in some
cases, negatively affected, by austerity tactics. This paper will examine the ways that austerity
measures can limit or reduce the human development processes of states.
The HDI was developed to measure the true advancement of a country. The index takes into
consideration three key elements of human development: health, education, and economic
security. Taking a closer look at all the factors included in the HDI can provide a more complete
picture of the progress of a developing state.
According to the 2013 UN Human Development Report (UNHDR), In industrialized
countries, with some notable exceptions, governments are introducing harsh austerity measures
that reduce the governments welfare role and cut back on spending and public services, leading
to hardship and exacerbating economic contractions (21). The report (2013) goes on to state that
there is a risk to the use of such short-term measures, that they may cause long term damage by
eroding the human development and social welfare foundations that enable economies to grow.
The overall health and lifespan of the citizens of a state are part of the HDI. Drastic austerity
programs can deepen and prolong recessions as well as impair the health of the population, the
quality of the labor force (United Nations Human Development Report 2013, 21). When the
state is forced to impose cuts to social programs it can have adverse effects on the health of the
less affluent members of the populace. However, the UNHDR (2013) argues that most of the
damage can be avoided. It is vital to conceder not just the quantity of public expenditure, but also
its composition and how it can be changed (United Nations 2013, 21). When social programs are
cut, the long-term effects will hinder the overall advancement of a large sector of the society.
The countries with highest HDI ratings are all developed nations. These nations are less
affected by debt. The nations who have the lowest HDI are the developing nations who are at the
mercy of the lender nations who encouraged states to borrow with abandon. According to the
UNHDR (2013), there is evidence that deploying drastic austerity programs too quickly can
deepen and prolong recessions (21). The global economic crisis has had negative effects that have
weakened economic conditions and increased unemployment. These conditions have resulted in
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less tax revenue for the debtor nations. Decreases in tax revenue limit the ability of states to repay
the original loan, let alone the interest payments. When the state can spend money on programs
such as health care and education, the society as a whole benefits and the HDI increases.
Health, defined as the lifespan of the population of a state, is another concern of the HDI.
Austerity measures have an effect on the overall health of the poor. In the article Borrowing
Against the Future: Children and Third World Indebtedness, Bradshaw and York (1993) reference
a 1989 study by Portes and Kincaid, who argued that, [The] Debt crisis has resulted in the
reversal of development across much of the third world, during the 1980s as countries were
forced to repay debt and cope with severe economic constrictions (634). The International
Monetary Fund (IMF), a major actor in the implementation of forced austerity measures states:
The shift in the composition of private capital flows may arguably have increased the
vulnerability of the developing countriessince debt requires regular repayments while equity
implies payments only when the investment earns a positive return (York W. Bradshaw 1993,
634). These economic restraints limit the ways in which developing countries can allocate their
revenues. Often it is the social services, such as vaccinations, clean water, and health professionals
attending at births, which are underfunded or cut due to austerity measures.
The United Nations Childrens Emergency Fund (UNICEF) Report of 1990 maintained, A
trained birth attendant would save lives of many infants and mothers; and adequate nutrition could
help sustain the overall health of a society. Structural adjustments may reduce the capacity of
countries to increase their levels of health-care delivery (York 1993, 637).
Progress in developing states must bring about sustainable development. However, austerity
measures can lead to future instability. It is thus important to bear in mind that todays choices
can have a large and decisive influence on the choices available for decades in the future (United
Nations Human Development Report 2013, 34). The finance minister of Brazil has recently
enacted austerity measures. Minister Levey feels that in order to revive Brazils lagging economy,
the countrys budget surplus excluding debt interest payments should be 1.2% of the countrys
economic output. He slashed government spending and raised taxes, in an attempt to achieve the
1.2%. Unemployment benefits were cut. All sorts of incentives to businesses - from subsidies to
tax breaks - were removed. Investment in infrastructure slowed down (Gallas 2015, 2). These
sorts of measures have not shown the results that Leavy and Brazilian President Dilma Rouseff
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had hoped for; according to Gallas, austerity has worsened recession, unemployment, inequality,
and the fiscal situations of developing countries (Gallas 2015, 3).
The HDI is concerned with education as a method of increasing human potential. Austerity
measures can negatively affect government spending on public education. According to Mark K.
Smith There is a direct impact on children. Research sponsored by Kelloggs and administered
by YouGov has suggested that around 1 in 7 children were going to school hungry (Kelloggs
2012). In addition, apparent problems in education both with changing eligibility for free school
meals and the take up of them (Smith 2014, 2). If students are going to school hungry, their ability
to concentrate is lessened; in turn, they cannot learn as well.
The Kelloggs report concluded:
1. Hunger in the classroom is increasing. Problems like squeezed food budgets,
increasingly busy parents and a growing problem of food poverty in the UK are
contributing to the reasons why children are arriving at school already hungry.
2. This in turn is putting an extra burden on teachers, who are spending more time dealing
with the effects of hunger in the classroom and less time teaching.
3. Going without food in the morning has a direct impact on childrens behavior and
concentration in lessons, making them less likely to reach their full potential at school
and could in turn affect their future prospects. (Smith 2014, 2). The lack of proper
education will certainly show effects on the HDI.
Funding for education is often redirected by forced structural readjustments. Due to the
fact that Brazils credit rating has been reduced by Standard & Poor, new austerity measures are
being considered. Brazil could cut spending and increase taxes for a total of 65 billion reais, or
$16.9 billion, to close a budget deficit that led to a downgrade of the countrys credit rating last
week. The austerity measures that must be approved by congress are aimed at popular health and
low-cost housing programs, investments in infrastructure and agricultural subsidies, as well as
salaries and bonuses for government employees (Silva 2015, 1). In Brazil, the constitution
protects education somewhat from harsh austerity measures, unlike many other developing states.
Adopted in 1988 at the end of the military dictatorship, the lengthy document contains 245 articles
that, among other things, require the government to supply education and health benefits for all,
and forbids the firing of most public servants except in extreme cases, such as theft. (Trevisani
2015, 1).
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While income inequality has increased in developing states overall, absolute poverty has
decreased, as is pointed out in the IMF report. Despite rising inequality, on average, poverty rates
have been declining in most developing economies. The data for developing economies reflect
absolute poverty rates (i.e., the percentage of the population with per capita incomes below $1.25
per capita per day in 2005 PPP dollars). In sub-Saharan Africa, the combination of sustained
economic growth and declining average inequality has led to a substantial and sustained decline
in absolute poverty rates. High growth has resulted in even larger decreases in absolute poverty in
Asia and the Pacific, despite rising average inequality. Absolute poverty has also been on a
downward trend in Latin America and the Caribbean as well as in the Middle East and North Africa
since the mid-1990s (Gupta 2014, 10). Income inequality provides insecurity within the poorer
members of society, inhibiting the ability to tap into to the individuals full potential. This
inequality is reflected in the HDI.
If one cannot feel financially secure, the ability to express ones human potential is
severely limited. Based on Oxfams experience of the impacts of austerity measures in Latin
American, South-East Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, it is likely that, inequality will continue to rise
for many years to come (Cavero 2013, 1). If one cannot reach their full potential, the HDI is
lessened.
Neoliberal economics have driven lender nations to enforce strict repayment policies.
These repayments come at the expense of social programs. When social programs are reduced, the
three key elements of the HDI suffer. The tax revenue that would be raised by the government
investing in stimulus spending becomes nonexistent.
If people do not have money to spend, government must. If government spends putting people to
work, it creates demand that puts more people to work. The debt crises in Europe was not a result
of spending (Chirico 2014, 124). JoAnn Chirico goes on to state in her book Globalization:
Prospects and Problems that the US stimulus spending was too small, and that in order to escape
recession, more spending was needed (Chirico 2014, 124). If a country is suffering recession, one
of the key elements of the HDI is affected, that being economic insecurity. Without economic
security people cannot reach their full potential. The other two key elements of the HDI are also
affected by recession as has been pointed out in this paper, therefore it is safe to say that according
to many economists, harsh austerity measures adversely affect the Human Development Index.
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The HDI takes into account economic security. As such, the ability to secure and maintain
meaningful employment is an essential element to human development. According to the United
Nations Report on Austerity Measures and Economic and Social Rights, the right to work is
essential for realizing all other human rights and is the core of human dignity. Work usually
provides livelihood, and insofar as work is freely chosen or accepted, it contributes to selfdevelopment and recognition within community (United Nations 2013, 14). Austerity measures
have a negative impact on job creation in times of financial crises, and cuts in social programs
affect certain groups of society to a much greater extent.
When a single mother loses her employment, it affects her family as a whole. However,
the effect on young girls in developing states is even greater. During times of economic and
financial crisis, austerity measures are seen to have significant and disproportionate negative
impacts on disadvantaged and marginalized individuals and groups (United Nations 2013, 21).
The negative effects of forced cuts on social programs through austerity measures often cause
young girls to drop out of school in order to help with domestic and household chores. This is a
contributing factor to the cycle of poverty.
We can attribute the economic slowdown of the early part of the 21st century in emerging
and developing States to many factors. These factors include ongoing macroeconomic adjustments
in certain large countries, such as China, as they moved to more domestic-led growth. There were
also some periods of financial instability, which saw reductions in capital out flows from emerging
markets. These reductions were in expectation of a less accommodative monetary policy, for
instance, in the United States (International Labour Organization 2014, 1). This economic
slowdown, in developing as well as developed countries, is a result of austerity measures that have
diminished vital contributions to a global economic recovery. As these measures have stifled
economic recovery, they have also stifled human development. Austerity measures which reduce
spending for critical social welfare programmes [sic] during times of crisis can undercut human
rights norms and threaten the most vulnerable members of society (United Nations 2013, 9).
The term austerity is most times used to convey the implementation of spending cuts in
general. Austerity is usually proposed to achieve two distinct outcomes. The first is to restore
balance in government spending, while the second is to stimulate growth and jump-start a stifled
economy. These spending cuts are undertaken as a means to restore balance in government
spending. Most often, spending cuts are administered in the area of individual and collective forms
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of utilization such as education, health care or compensation for the elderly. While the cutting of
these programs appears to help balance government deficits they are often coupled with tax
increases, which result in less private income and reduced individual spending. To achieve the
second goal, stimulating growth, neoliberal tactics such as reducing labor costs through wage and
benefit decreases are often employed.
Austerity measures target individual and collective consumption. It is often recognized
that cuts to programs in the infrastructure of a state will lead to short-term balance in spending but
long term problems in economic stability. Without individual consumption, the three major factors
of the HDI are adversely affected. When the Government makes cuts to social programs, the
possibility of achieving ones highest potential is severely curtailed.
Major changes to healthcare in 2010 had adverse impacts on low wage workers. One fast
food worker remarked in the magazine Jacobin, The last government started to make you pay a
copay of 5 just if you wanted to go see the doctor. It doesnt sound that bad, but many people
cant afford this, so they dont go to see the doctor. What is worse than the copay is that now many,
many people have no health insurance at all and cant afford medicines (Forman 2015). The
minimum wage in Greece has been reduced so the working class has little to no extra income to
pay for health care that was previously subsidized by the government and the employer.
The article goes on to address the plight of the workers in the public sector, First they cut
the pensions and salaries in the public sector. People used to dream of getting a job in the public
sector, it was secure. This was the first thing that New Democracy targeted. They cut pensions
almost in half. The New Democracy government accepted everything came from the troika. The
monthly minimum wage used to be around 700, they reduced it to 500. Businesses have laid off
lots of people. Unemployment has gone way up (Forman 2015). The interviewee goes on to tell
of how the people are coping with the new austerity measures he claims that now the suicide rate
is out of control. There have been many, many suicides. Its terrifying. But now the majority of
people are used to it. Its terrifying to accept you are used to your neighbors killing themselves
(Foreman 2015).
The young people in Greece can no longer find work in the field of study they were
educated in so they are fleeing to other European countries, which only makes the economic
situation worse. This situation has truly impacted the people of Greece. We can see the frustration
in the words of the fast food worker: Here in Greece, if you walk in the streets in the big cities,
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you can see the impact of the crisis more and more in the last five years, from people looking
through the trash to find something to eat, to people getting angry over nothing, just starting to
fight each other for no reason. All this pressure you have inside, it has to come out in some way,
and it sometimes comes out in anti-social ways like fighting (Forman 2015). Again, the HDI is
negatively disturbed due to the loss of a sense of economic security.
Austerity measures are affecting the factors of human development to a greater extent than
they are facilitating economic progress. The results of the new austerity measures, not only in
Greece but in a plethora of developing states, would seem to reflect a drop in the growth of not
only individual human development but also the continued expansion of states as a whole. When
you take the major factors of the HDI into consideration the neoliberal economic measures being
employed globally have indeed retarded the advancement of many citizens thus negatively
affecting the Human Development Index in developed and developing states.
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References
Chirico, J. (2014). Globalization: Prospects and Problems. Los Angeles, CL: Sage Publications.
Erik Forman, E. E. (2015, 07 12). Life under Austerity. Resaon in Revolt Jacobin. Retrieved 03
3/1, 2016, from http://www.jocobinmag.com
Gallas, D. (2015, Aug 28). BBC News . Retrieved Oct 18, 2015, from BBC News Business:
WWW.bbc.com/news/business.34069222
Gupta, S. (2014, Jan 23). International Monetary Fund Polocy paper Fical Policy and income
inequality. International Monetary Fund. Washington DC: IMF. Retrieved Oct 21, 2015
International Labour Organization. (2014). World of Work Report 2014 Developing with Jobs.
Geneva: ILO.
Khalid, M. (n.d.). Human Development Report 2013 The Rise of the South Human Progress in a
Diverse World. New Yorr: United Nations Development Programme.
Silva, C. (2015, Sep.). Brazil Economy: Tax Increases, Austerity Measures would cut Social
Programs, cut Budget Deficit. International Business times.com, p. 1.
Smith, M. K. (2014). The Impact of Austerity on Schools and Childern's Education and wellbeing. Retrieved Oct 2015, from http://infed.org/mobi/the impact on schools and
childrens educationand well-being
Teresa Cavero, A. K. (2013). A Cautionary tale the true cost of austerity and inequality in
Europe. OFAM International. OXFAM GB.
Trevisani, P. (2015, Sept 14). The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved Oct 21, 2015, from Brazil
Unvails Nearly $17 Billion in Austerity Measures: WWW.Wsj.com/articles/brazilunvails-measures-to -balance 2016 budget-1442265652
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. (2013). Report on Austerity Measures
and Economic and Social Rights. United Nations Office of Human Rights. Geneva:
ohcar.org.
York W. Bradshaw, R. N. (1993, March). Borrowing Agianst the Future: Children and Third
World Indebtedness. Social Forces, 71(no. 3), 629-656. Retrieved from Jstor social
Forces.
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Government and Food Waste: When Bad Governance Wastes Good Food
Paul McClimans
Although countries are looking to address food waste by examining the supply chain and consumer
habits, very little thought is being given to how governments may be contributing to food waste.
The questions this paper answers are how governments contribute to food waste and what can be
done to reduce it. First, it is shown how the Global North creates food waste through fuzzy
legislative language, regulatory guidelines, direct legislation, and a lack of tort reform creating
liability concerns. Section two explains how the Global North is contributing to the problem in
the South. The third section puts forward a complex argument showing that food waste is creating
climate change which in turn leads to more food waste and creates conflict. What is shown is that
a repeating cycle of food waste, climate change, and conflict is being fostered by governmental
actions continually exacerbating the problem.
Food waste has moved to the forefront of the climate debate, as it amounts to the third
largest emitter of Green House Gasses (GHG's) worldwide. Food waste is also a top area of
discussion for considering ways of eliminating food insecurity amongst the worlds impoverished.
Around one billion people suffer from hunger making it one in seven worldwide and the "40
million tonnes of food wasted by US households, retailers and food services each year would be
enough to satisfy the hunger of every one of them" (FeedBack 2015). Like the United States, the
European Union has vast food waste as "100 million tonnes of food are wasted annually in the
EU" (FAO 2015b). This is not to mention that if food waste is not addressed then it "could rise to
over 120 million tonnes by 2020" within the European Union (FAO 2015b). Global greenhouse
emissions produced as a side effect of food waste, either through production and transportation or
through landfill emissions, are a relatively easy problem to tackle when compared to other large
emitters. To further exacerbate the problem food waste also accounts for a loss of water resources
of over 200 liters per person in the world per day giving food waste a larger footprint for water use
globally than any single country (FAO 2013a; FeedBack 2015). The problem of food waste has
become well known in the last decade leading to several large initiatives to reduce food waste. The
United States is calling for a 50% reduction in food waste by 2030, and the European Union is
aiming to reduce by at least 30% even before that time (USDA 2015; FAO 2015a).
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Section One: The Global North

Of the food waste in industrialized countries, over "40% of losses happen at retail and
consumer level" (FAO 2015d). One of the largest factors is "the meaning of 'use-by' and 'bestbefore' dates [and] confusion generated among consumers over food expiration" dates, which leads
to food being discarded (FAO 2013b, 46). Consumers have a tendency to purchase the freshet
foods, avoiding items that are nearing expiration. Once items reach their expiration dates, markets
are forced to throw them out, making room for the fresh items consumers prefer. The underlying
issue is that consumers are confused by the true meaning of best by", "sell by", and "use by" dates
on almost all products that can spoil. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO) states this to be one of the biggest problems for food waste and actually "urges legislators
to repeal regulations which enhance food wastage, such as expiration dates" (FAO 2013b, 44). The
FAO estimates that "20 percent of household food waste is due to consumer misunderstanding of
date label" causing them to throw it away to avoid risk (FAO 2013b, 46). The European Union
requires perishable products to display "the date of minimum durability or the use by date" but
has no guidelines or regulations for life spans (EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 2011). This means
that it is left up to the producers and manufacturers to determine expiration dates and the format
for labeling goods. A large part of the problem can, therefore, be attributed to the industry as they
attempt to maximize profit by setting dates that best serve their
interests. The term "best by" is
the pinnacle of this practice, as it gives no indication of the actual viability of the goods but rather
just the peak of what manufacturers consider the taste profile. Consumers still look at this as an
expiration date even though the food may still be edible and completely nutritious. The fact that
the European Union has no guidelines for this represents a failure of the bureaucracy to mitigate
food wastage issues.
With the exception of baby food, the United States does not require dating labels, not even
on products inspected by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and
Drug Administration (FDA). The USDA does state some requirements such as "if a calendar date
is used, it must express both the month and day of the month... [and] adjacent to the date must be
a phrase explaining the meaning of that date such as 'sell-by' or 'use before'" (USDA 2015a).
Despite the massive amount of information regarding food dating and safety, persistent consumer
confusion reveals a clear breakdown in the system. The FAO reports that it is prevalent in
developed countries for legislators to adopt "overzealous safety standards for expiration date
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labeling", standards which they are now being asked to revise and replace with clearer guidelines
(FAO 2013b, 49).
One of the biggest reasons food is wasted at the top of the food chain is the aesthetic
standards required by wholesalers and retailers. In the case of handpicked fruits and vegetables,
this occurs in the field and anything failing to meet externally desirable characteristics is dropped
there to rot. The practice of discarding "ugly" fruits and vegetables is blamed on consumers as
retailers say they cannot sell them to a finicky public. However, the standards for grading fruits
and vegetables based on external characteristics are set by the USDA in the United States and
similar organizations in the individual European Union countries. Using apples as an example
there are four levels of USDA grading denoted Extra Fancy, Fancy, No. 1, and Utility in ranking
order from highest to lowest grade (USDA 2002). The lowest grading standard, utility grade,
apples "are mature but not overripe, not seriously deformed... free from decay, ...freezing injury...
serious damage..., broken skins, bruises, brown surface discoloration, ...sunburn or sprayburn,
...hail, drought spots, scars, ... or calyx cracks" (USDA 2002, 3). One look at this list makes it clear
how strict even the lowest of grading standards are. Consumers automatically associate higher
grades with better quality even though ugly food still has the same taste, texture, and nutrient value.
The scale of this waste has reached the point that "farmers discard between 20-40 percent of their
fresh produce because it doesn't meet retailer's cosmetic specifications" which are outlined by the
USDA (FAO 2015e). The USDA itself admits their "grade shields, official seals and labels are
reputable symbols of the quality and integrity... [which] buyers such as grocery stores, military
institutions, restaurants, and even foreign governments use" (USDA 2015b). In other words, the
USDA is proud of the fact that their standards are used as the basis buyers use to determine what
is worth buying. The FAO, for its part, suggests that "[r]egulations and standards on aesthetic
requirements for fruit and vegetables could stand to be revised" as a way of reducing food waste
(FAO 2015e).
Overzealous regulations account for higher amounts of food waste evidenced by the United
States in egg production and the European Union in the feeding of pigs. In the United States
"regulations require that USDA-graded eggs be carefully washed and sanitized" prior to sale
(USDA 2015c). The result of this practice is that eggs must be refrigerated or they will spoil in as
little as two hours according to the USDA. This washing method is not used in any other country
in the world as eggs have a natural protective coating to keep out harmful bacteria that can lead to
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spoilage and salmonella contamination. In fact, the FAO states that "eggs when just laid are usually
sterile and contain few organisms capable of causing spoilage... [t]he main cause of spoilage by
bacteria is the washing of dirty eggs before marketing" (FAO 2015c). Strangely, even the USDA
says it is "not necessary or recommended for consumers to wash eggs and may actually increase
the risk of contamination because the wash water can be "sucked" into the egg through the pores
in the shell" (USDA 2015c). Washing, along with a complex supply chain, increases the chances
of spoilage and contamination. To combat this problem, the United States pasteurizes their eggs
to kill any harmful bacteria and extend the shelf life. However, the USDA recommends using eggs,
which must be refrigerated, within 3-5 weeks, and the FOA recommends 3-4 weeks for nonrefrigerated eggs and 7-10 for refrigerated eggs (USDA 2015c; FAO 2015c). This clearly shows
that the process of washing eggs, which is required by law in the United States, shortens their
lifespan. The shortened lifespan of eggs is compounded by the fact that the washing and grading
process takes time as the eggs must be shipped.
In the European Union, the feeding of food waste to pigs has been mostly banned. While
the practice is still technically legal, the strict requirements make it unfeasible throughout the
industry. Laws were passed in response to the foot and mouth disease outbreaks, which resulted in
the need to destroy European livestock. While it is completely understandable to ban the feeding
of any herbivores animal proteins, especially from their own species, the outbreak was traced to
"a single farm that had illegally fed its pigs untreated swill, which was thought to have contained
infected (and perhaps illegally imported) meat" (Colbert 2013). In reality, the practice of feeding
food waste to pigs has been going on safely for thousands of years as a way of not only
supplementing their feed but also eliminating waste (Colbert 2013; FeedBack 2014). The real
problem is that you cannot feed "catering waste as farm animal feed, regardless of whether its
vegetable or meat based or whether it comes from restaurants, households, or other sites"
(GOV.UK 2015). In essence, the law makes it illegal to feed any food waste which has come into
contact with a kitchen as cross contamination may occur. This means you can still feed food waste
from the top of the supply chain such as ugly vegetables, unharvested gleaned goods, or
unprocessed market rejections; however, the cost of obtaining these materials is higher as the
industry does not provide for collection or transportation due to cost. Now, "much of Europes
livestock feed is soy", which is grown, in large part, in all ready deforested South American
rainforests, with imports of as much as "40 million tonnes of soymeal a year" (FeedBack 2014).
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Feeding pigs with scraps can be done safely. In the United States, there are "2,200 licensed
garbage feeders... and nearly 3,000 in Puerto Rico" that do so safely as swill is "heat treated as
mandated by the 1980 Swine Health Protection Act" (Myer and Westendorf 2012). Feeding food
waste "can be a nutritious food source for swine... in comparison to commercial swine rations "
(Myer and Westendorf 2012). When it comes to food waste, it makes sense to feed more of it to
pigs and less to the landfill both economically and environmentally. On the economic side, most
producers "generally spend between 60% and 70% of their costs on commercial feed" , which
leads directly to increases in market prices that could be avoided if food waste destined for the
landfill was used as an alternative (Colbert 2013).
The fishing industry worldwide represents a massive portion of food waste as commercial
netting operations, shark fining, and hazy international regulations lead to hundreds of tons of dead
fish being tossed back into the ocean. Just in northern oceans, "2.3 MILLION tonnes of fish is
discarded [and] each year; 40 to 60 percent of all fish caught in Europe is discarded either because
they are the wrong size, species, or because of the ill-governed European quota system" (FeedBack
2015). The European Union regulations that "allow fishermen to land a limited amount of fish...
has led to fishermen throwing away millions of tonnes of dead fish to avoid breaching the quota
for that species, rather than making use of the whole catch" (Gray 2009). Many in the European
Union are calling for an end to the inefficient quota system in favor of limited and staggered fishing
days. The downside of this theory is that all fish captured would go to market, unless they could
be returned to the sea without harm, meaning there will invariably be more threatened species kept;
however, if they were to die at sea regardless, it makes more sense to keep them as food rather
than allow them to go to waste. The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs in the
United Kingdom says "the [Common Fisheries Policy] CFP needs updating, and we are looking at
all the options... asking for the industrys views on reforming the CFP and we welcome all
contributions to that debate" (Gray 2009). When the very bureaucracies responsible for
maintaining the system say their policy is causing massive food waste, the evidence could not be
any clearer. Another avenue to explore is the idea that the European Union CFP program creating
waste could open them to liability lawsuits as corporate fishing fleets begin to lose profits. This
would be similar to the practice of corporations suing nations for regulations leading to profit loss
with big tobacco being the most prevalent example.
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Most liability claims come out of safety issues rather than profit loss, and in the food sector
liability concerns are creating more food waste. In the United States, the Bill Emerson Good
Samaritan Food Donation Act (Emerson Act), United States Code Title 42 'The Public Health and
Welfare' 1791, protects donors from liability should a health concern arise from donated food.
The Emerson Act states that persons "shall not be subject to civil or criminal liability arising from
the nature, age, packaging, or condition of apparently wholesome food or an apparently fit grocery
product that the person or gleaner donates in good faith" (US Code 2015). Though age is exempted
in the law, foods donated beyond their labeled 'sell by', or 'use by', or 'best by' dates can still subject
a donor's discretion to questioning.
The possibility of a civil suit being brought against a company stops companies from
donating. The fact that they can win the case easily is of little concern to corporations, businesses,
and individuals considering they would still need to pay legal fees to defend themselves. The belief
is strong enough that a Food Waste Reduction Alliance (FWRA) survey indicated that 50 percent
of the manufacturing industry, as well as 67 percent of retail and wholesale, stated they do not
donate food based on liability concerns (FWRA 2014, 13). One of the largest donors of food in
the United States is Wal-Mart; yet, even they will only donate food well before the dates on the
products themselves. "Wal-Mart, the nations largest food retailer," has made it clear that they
have "doubts the Good Samaritan Act will protect the companys interests when they donate
perishable food items" (Cohen 2006, 481). Even large food donation networks such as "Second
Harvest has noted, the Good Samaritan Act has not prompted companies to donate excess food"
calling for a re-evaluation of the law (Cohen 2006, 480). In reality, liability fears stem from the
litigious nature of the United States.
Within the European Union, only Italy has a Good Samaritan law in place. Currently, the
United Kingdom is the only European Union country debating passage of Good Samaritan
legislation (OConnor, Gheoldus, and Jan 2015). In the European Union, the General Food Law
(GFL) is applicable to "all food and organisations placing food on the market, including nonprofit
organisations such as food banks"; therefore, "food business operators are responsible for the
safety of foods at all stages of the food chain"(OConnor, Gheoldus, and Jan 2015, 5). In other
words, anyone in the supply chain that could have affected the safety of food is liable. This applies
to both criminal and civil liability, for example, a grandmother in Italy accidentally prepared out
of date hot chocolate for her family, resulting in them getting sick, "has been charged with causing
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injury, with a file passed to prosecutors for consideration" (Pleasance 2015). Granted, this is an
extreme case, as the hot chocolate was 25 years old; however, she had no idea that powdered hot
chocolate mix could spoil, and she should have been protected under Italy's Good Samaritan law
since she had no intention to cause harm.
The National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH), in the United States, publishes a report
on legislation restricting access of donated food to the homeless. In their third report on the issue,
they explain how these types of policies have increased in recent years, with thirty-three United
States cities adding new laws in 2014 alone. They also admit that this type of legislation is hard to
identify and track as many cities throughout the United States could have legislation they have yet
to identify (OHara 2014). According to the report, food safety concerns were cited for legislation
in Middletown (Connecticut), Atlanta, Miami, and Nashville. Additionally, many of these laws
revolve around the use of public areas, limits on the number of people served, zoning restrictions,
and (in the case of the New York police) harassment (NCH and NLCHP 2010). In Huntington,
New York, police acted against the Food Not Bombs' donation network when they "detained
volunteers in handcuffs for approximately three hours before charging one of them with peddling"
(NCH and NLCHP 2010, 15). These charges were ultimately dropped as the volunteers were not
charging for food. Since this incident happened, police have "visited Food Not Bombs
Farmingville food share site with regularity... [to] enforce new requirements that included
prohibiting... using area trash receptacles, and forcing them to relocate a certain distance off the
road so that they wouldnt be in sight of community members" (NCH and NLCHP 2010, 15).
Within the European Union, the law allows the donation of food past the "best before" date; but,
countries such as "Denmark, Greece, Hungary, Spain, and Sweden have introduced national
provisions that present barriers to donating food which has passed its best before date"
(OConnor, Gheoldus, and Jan 2015, 5).
Of course, direct legislation and regulations prohibiting food donation are just the tip of
the iceberg, as thieving laws also prevent people from taking food that was discarded. In the United
States, the laws on "dumpster diving" revolve around privacy and private property laws. The basic
rules for dumpster diving are trash is considered public domain unless in an enclosed area, up
against a building, or marked with no trespassing/private property signs and thereby acceptable to
take unless a specific local ordinance prohibits such activities (freegan.info 2015). The legality of
dumpster diving is upheld by case law in the United States through "a 1988 Supreme Court Ruling
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(California vs. Greenwood)" (freegan.info 2015). Therefore, most cases against dumpster divers
stem from people intentionally breaking the law to gain access to discarded food. The exact
numbers of these violations are hard to ascertain as most are charged with trespassing or theft
making it hard to tell if they were taking discarded food or were up to something actually nefarious.
Inside the European Union, these cases have been taken up by the media to shed light on
the injustice of the situation. One such case involves a twenty-two year old mother from the United
Kingdom who "admitted handling stolen goods after being accused of taking potato waffles, pies,
and 100 packets of ham from a bin" (BBC 2011). The store had discarded these goods after a
power outage had created possible spoilage (BBC 2011). In the United Kingdom, "if it can be
proven that the property that was thrown away had a rightful owner, it would be illegal to take it"
(BBC 2011). Trash obviously had an owner at some point thereby making it always illegal to take
anything from the trash in the United Kingdom. France is more lenient towards the activities of
people dumpster diving for food. Although, cases still occur even in France as a group of three
students "face up to seven years in prison and 100,000 euro fine" for taking food from the trash
outside a local supermarket (Barbier 2014). The charges they face are for "fraudulent removal of
perishable goods with exceeded Date, an offense treated as a theft and aggravated here by three
circumstances: At night, meeting and climbing" (Barbier 2014). Returning to the argument of
liability concerns, many businesses choose to press charges as they fear allowing dumpster diving
could open them up to liability suits. Throughout the "Freegan" community, credible stories
abound of businesses going to extreme lengths, including pouring bleach in dumpsters, to make
discarded food inedible or to prevent people from accessing it.
Section Two: the Global South

The largest concern regarding food waste in the Global South is the effect that the North
has on their production. Within developing countries, "40% of losses occur at post-harvest and
processing levels" as products are either discarded for not meeting aesthetic standards or disposed
of when buyers cancel orders (FAO 2015d). Northern companies are turning to cheaper markets
of the Global South for food production. Kenya is one such market, wherein there "is little to no
local demand for the french beans, mange tout and baby corn grown for export", and any rejected
materials often go to waste (Neilson 2015). The two distinguishing factors that have been shown
as leading to the waste of Kenyan crops grown for export are "last-minute order cancellations or
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alterations, and cosmetic specifications" (Neilson 2015). The main reason for cancellations is that
farmers grow to expectations set by those that order from them; however, the importers and
retailers are continually trying to get the best deals, while ensuring peak freshness, which leads to
them hedging their bets. Companies order from multiple sources early and then only claim what
they need when the time comes (Neilson 2015). This practice ensures that losses are not incurred
by the companies but rather further up the supply chain. Usually "exporters take the hit, but
sometimes it gets pushed further down to farmers who can incur losses of up to 100%" depending
on the timing of the cancellation or alteration (Neilson 2015).
Within the United States and the European Union, there are laws regarding fair trade that
would make these practices unacceptable. Under the Uniform Commercial Code Article 2 2-206
'Offer and Acceptance in Formation of Contract' placing the order with the producers constitutes
an acceptance of the contract which requires non-conforming goods for rescinding (LII 2012). In
the European Union, a universal code is still in the production phase; however, using the United
Kingdom as an example, the Grocery Supply Code requires "the Retailer to conduct its trading
relationships with Suppliers in good faith, without distinction between formal or informal
arrangements, without duress and in recognition of the Suppliers need for certainty as regards the
risks and costs of trading, particularly in relation to production" (Department for Business
Innovation & Skills 2015). Cancellation or alteration of orders in the manner practiced with
Kenyan farmers is considered unfair trade, but the fact that it is being done internationally makes
enforcement and punishment for such practices unfeasible absent international agreements.
Shockingly, "44.5% of food grown within Kenyas horticultural export industry is rejected before
it has left the country, sometimes before it has even left the field" (Neilson 2015). Kenya is just
one example of many countries throughout the Global South that produce food for the Northern
countries.
Section Three: The Cyclical Nature of Conflict and Climate Change

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been a war using resources as a weapon since the
beginning. Israel has made a policy of blocking or delaying aid throughout the Palestinian conflict.
The United Nations has stated that Israeli activities are "putting food distribution and other
humanitarian activities at risk" (UNOCHA 2014, 7). The problem is only compounded by the
bombings interrupting power supplies so that electrical "shortages are affecting the storage
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capacity of fresh food for both shops and households" (UNOCHA 2014, 7). Absent an adequate
and reliable ability to store food supplies, loss cannot be avoided. This is not to mention the amount
of food left to rot as farmers and ranchers are forced to flee their lands as a result of the conflict.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimated the 2014 conflict resulted in
"direct damage to Gaza's 17,000 hectares of croplands as well as much of its agricultural
infrastructure, including greenhouses, irrigation systems,
animal farms, fodder stocks and
fishing boats" (UNOCHA 2014, 3). The scale of this loss equates to "some 28,600 households
relying on farming ..., livestock raising ... and fishing ... for their livelihoods" not being able to
feed themselves or others as a result (UNOCHA 2014, 3).
A recent research study looked into the case of Syria and Egypt prior to the events of the
Arab Spring to see if the Failed State Index (FSI), with its state fragility indices, and the Notre
Dame Global Adaptation Index (ND-GAIN) showed indications of the coming uprisings.
Surprisingly, they came to the conclusion that not only did the FSI and the ND-GAIN not present
any indicators but that the indexes showed the opposite. The authors account for this by saying the
ND-GAIN appeared to have overestimated the two countries ability to cope with climate change
and factors of food security have failed to be considered in the FSI (Werrell, Femia, and Sternberg
2015). In Syria a rural farm town named Dara'a became "the focal point for protests in the early
stages... [after] five years of drought and water scarcity, with little assistance from the government"
(Werrell, Femia, and Sternberg 2015, 34). In response to the drought affecting Syria, most farmers
and ranchers resorted to drilling wells which did function as a temporary reprieve; unfortunately,
the Syrian government compounded the drought by subsidizing "water-intensive wheat and cotton
farming and encouraged inefficient techniques... wherein 60 percent of the water used is wasted"
(Werrell, Femia, and Sternberg 2015, 33). The results of this were profound, as "75 percent
experienced complete crop failure... [and] herders... lost around 85 percent of their livestock" in
some regions affecting some 1.3 million of the population (Werrell, Femia, and Sternberg 2015,
33).
Egypt is reliant on wheat imports, and when global supplies dropped, as a direct result of
climate change, prices escalated in the two years prior to the Arab Spring, leaving many people
hungry (Werrell, Femia, and Sternberg 2015, 3436). When the wheat production forecast came
in low as a result of climate change reducing crop production China made "significant wheat
purchases to ensure domestic supply; these measures contributed to spikes in global wheat prices"
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(Werrell, Femia, and Sternberg 2015, 35). Egypt "is the largest wheat importer in the world,
accounting for 9.8 metric tons" a year and with supply prices higher so were retail prices (Werrell,
Femia, and Sternberg 2015, 35). In parts of Egypt, riots began to break out as "access, distribution,
and availability of the army-controlled wheat supply contributed to shortages..., as well as price
spikes of more than 300 percent in rural areas" (Werrell, Femia, and Sternberg 2015, 35). The
FAO reports that in "low-income regions, food wastage is mostly caused by financial constraints;
that is, when producers are unable to purchase inputs", and when they can it raises the prices they
must charge (FAO 2013b, 17). When food is not sold it is thrown away and with few able to afford
the escalated prices much had to go to waste. If there is any doubt that this had an influence,
consider the lead-up events of the Arab Spring. Newspapers were reporting bread riots had broken
out, which "coincided with a significant spike in global food prices and occurred while urban
protests, centered primarily on socio-economic issues" were underway (Werrell, Femia, and
Sternberg 2015, 35).
Long-term concerns over climate change are well known as sea levels are expected to rise
up to three meters, temperatures up to 5 degrees, and severe weather patterns are expected to
increase. These factors will significantly affect the ability to grow and store food, which inevitably
affects regional stability. This is not to mention that as restrictions designed to reduce greenhouse
gas take effect, cultivation, transportation, and distribution costs could rise and further exacerbate
the problem of food security. Just on the supply side, the "global water footprint of food wastage
is higher than that of any country" in the world, close to double that used in China, and five times
that of the United States (FAO 2013a, 29). Food waste results in massive GHG emissions through
the machinery used in production and distribution, livestock emissions, landfill methane
production, and many other areas, making it the third highest emitter of GHG's behind the United
States and China (FAO 2013a, 17). This amount of GHG emission equates to almost as much as
Russia and India's combined food waste footprint, as a driver of climate change, which is a concern
for every government around the world.
Japan produces more than enough rice to feed its population but "every year since 1995,
Tokyo has bought hundreds of thousands of metric tons of rice from the U.S., Thailand, Vietnam,
China, and Australia" in order to meet World Trade Organization (WTO) rules (Hall 2008). The
rice is stored in massive warehouses and only tapped into when Japan sends out food aid. The
outcome, millions of tons of surplus rice is piled in an ever expanding warehouse system,
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transported there from around the world in oil fueled ships, producing methane emissions from
farming, and stored in climate controlled environments to avoid spoilage. All of this is done so the
Japanese can be a partner in the WTO while contributing to the climate crisis. This directly affects
food waste. A study from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
found "strong evidence that the winter precipitation decline in the Mediterranean littoral... was
likely due to climate change" (Werrell, Femia, and Sternberg 2015, 33). This was the event that
led to the drought that affected Syria and Egypt, causing widespread crop failure and livestock
loss. This shows how climate change is resulting in food waste at the top end of the food chain.
Once all of this is put together, a pattern emerges that cannot be ignored. A vicious circle
is created as food waste creates climate change and climate change creates food waste, continually
making the problem worse and worse. An FAO study found that "every year, the production of
food that is wasted generates '3.3 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases'" (FeedBack 2015). In the
United States and the United Kingdom "10 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions... comes from
producing, transporting, storing and preparing food that is never eaten" (FeedBack 2015). When
evidence that climate change was a contributing factor to the Arab Spring is considered, the circle
is complete. Climate change creates food waste and conflict; food waste creates conflict and
climate change, and conflict creates food waste and climate change.2
Section Four: Conclusions and Policy Recommendations
The relationship between governments and food waste is a complex interaction of factors
including legislation/regulation, trade, standards, criminal and civil liability, and environmental
impacts. Most looking into the issue of food waste are concentrating their efforts on trying to fix
inefficiencies in the supply chain or finding creative ways to divert food from landfills. Those
studying these things often receive grant money from the very governments that are adding to the
problem. This leads to recommendations using soft language like could, should, or might when
pointing out governmental failures regarding food waste. Governments are creating food waste,
and in a world with nearly a billion hungry people, those responsible for their security can no
longer ignore their role.
Starting with suggestions for the Global North, a campaign by governing bodies to
distribute food safety information and dating needs to be implemented. Governments need to
While not the focus of this paper, the environmental impacts of conflicts leading to climate change should be selfevident.
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implement ad campaigns to raise awareness about the proper interpretation of dating systems and
the viability of food. These same ads can also raise awareness for those with liability concerns by
better explaining Good Samaritan laws. Secondly, governments need to begin implementing
regulations against the discarding of still viable goods. France has recently taken steps in this very
manner as "supermarkets will be banned from throwing away or destroying unsold food and must
instead donate it to charities or for animal feed" (Chrisafis 2015). Next, all guidelines and
regulations revolving around aesthetic standards need to be removed from record. The removal of
aesthetic guides will not have an immediate effect; yet in the long term, it could prove to be the
biggest factor in reducing waste. Finally, governing bodies need to require that businesses under
their jurisdiction transacting abroad practice fair trade standards.
Within the Global South, governments can take initiative by enforcing trade standards
against exploitative companies. The governments of the Global South must also implement
national training programs to help limit water waste from poor farming practices. This will help to
alleviate food waste by buffering against climate events such as drought. These changes will help
to mitigate climate change, which in turn benefits Global South nations. Positive action against
climate change helps countries raise world standing and protect their future endeavors. Therefore,
making these changes will help decrease food waste and elevate the Global South.
Internationally, a United Nations Good Samaritan resolution should be developed to
include language that makes it clear that no one donating food can be held liable for anything
happening to the end user with the exception of intentional infliction of harm. The practice of the
Global North exploiting Southern farmers also needs to stop. The WTO should issue a statement
condemning these practices; likewise, they need to state that they will take action if the states do
not take steps to stop the practice from within. Additionally, the WTO members need to reevaluate
some of the agreements previously made. Some agreements, such as the one requiring Japan to
buy rice have long term effects that should not be overlooked.
Finally, the cyclical nature of food waste creates conflict along with climate change. By
eliminating food waste, GHG emissions would be lowered by 3.3 billion tons. It stands to reason
that reducing any of the factors in the cyclic model would thus reduce the others. In essence, I
believe it is possible to flip the cyclic model to create a deescalating rather than inflating scenario.
Less food waste means less conflict and less climate change. Therefore, eliminating food waste
means helping to reduce violent conflicts in the world.
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Praxis: Politics in Action V. 3, Issue I: Contemporary Issues in Global and Domestic Politics

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Praxis: Politics in Action V. 3, Issue I: Contemporary Issues in Global and Domestic Politics

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VOLUME 3, ISSUE 1 Contemporary issues in global and domestic politics

Department Chair: Anthony Robinson, Ph.D.

Letter from the Editor:

Hydraulic Fracturing and Policymaking in Colorado

Americas Failed Experiment: Understanding Mass Incarceration through

Has Globalization Undermined Democracy?

The Negative Impacts of Austerity on Human Development

Student Intellectual Property: Policy to Shape Student Innovation Within

Figure 1 Student Intellectual Property ownership percentages as defined by university

Student IP Royalty Share

Metro State University of Denver

Figure 4 details royalty shares obtained from IP policy.

Figure 4 Student Intellectual Property royalty percentages as defined by university

The University Environment

What can be done?

"Intellectual Property - Statement of Principles." Intellectual Property - Statement of Principles.

Hydraulic fracturing and policymaking in Colorado

Hydraulic Fracturing (Fracking)- What it is?

From the Executive.

Americas Failed Experiment: Understanding Mass Incarceration through

Maneuvering for a Better Tomorrow: How Should America Move Forward?

Has Globalization Undermined Democratic Politics?

courage to show the American people exactly what is in

The Negative Impacts of Austerity on Human Development

Section One: The Global North

interests. The term "best by" is

Section Two: the Global South

Section Three: The Cyclical Nature of Conflict and Climate Change

animal farms, fodder stocks and

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