Norman Wengert

Norman Irving Wengert (November 7, 1916 – July 28, 2001) was an American political scientist who wrote about the politics of natural resources, advanced a seminal theory of the "politics of getting", and had a number of significant roles in his public and academic career. He was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Eugene F. and Lydia Semmann Wengert. He pioneered the revival of the study of political economy in the United States with publication of Natural Resources and the Political Struggle, and later authored more than fifty monographs and studies on the political economy and public administration of environmental resources. His scholarship explored the politics of natural resources and environmental policy formation and administration, with emphases in national energy policy, urban water planning and management, land use planning and controls, national forest management, and citizen participation in administrative processes.

Wengert helped establish the doctoral program in Environmental Politics and Policy at Colorado State University; published numerous notable scholarly books, research monographs, journal articles and chapters in anthologies; served as a consultant to government agencies, and received numerous awards and honors. He died at age 84 in Stoughton, Wisconsin. During his education he attained degrees in several different fields. He attended Concordia College in Milwaukee during the period 1930–36, and received a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Wisconsin in 1938 and a master's degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in 1939. He served as an ensign in the U.S. Navy Reserve during 1944–45. Returning to the University of Wisconsin, he was awarded a degree in law from its University of Wisconsin Law School in 1942, and a doctorate in political science in 1947. He was also a member of the Wisconsin Bar Association. of the Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission (1959–60), which provided the basis for Interior Secretary Stewart Udall's successful program for quadrupling the acreage of the National Park System in eight years, and for enactment of the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act of 1965, providing money for recreational land acquisition. He also served as a member of the Policy Analysis Staff in the Office of the Chief, U.S. Forest Service (1978–79). He achieved some early renown when his book Natural Resources and the Political Struggle which pioneered the revival of political economy in the United States but he is probably best known Later in his career he advanced a seminal theory of the "politics of getting" in which he asserted: "American politicians will get as much as they can for their constituents, with only casual attention to the merits of the case and to the extent that they are not likely to be held directly accountable for costs". This theory was accepted by others and extended into the study of international relations and comparative politics. Unafraid of courting controversy, he also published a research monograph that argued that the U.S. Forest Service had substituted its professional values for the legal requirements of their Organic Act of 1897 by allowing timber to be clearcut on the national forests for almost 80 years before they were authorized to do so by the National Forest Management Act of 1976. Overall, he authored more than fifty monographs and studies on the political economy and public administration of environmental resources. an uncommon honor for a university professor. On that occasion, his 1976 Natural Resources Journal article "Citizen Participation: Practice in Search of a Theory" was reprinted in the hearings record in its entirety, something that is also unusual for an academic.

Wengert served for many years on the board of directors of the Forest History Society (1979–1987) and as associate editor of the Water Resources Bulletin (1971–1987; now Journal of the American Water Resources Association).

Selected publications "The Land, TVA, and the Fertilizer Industry." Land Economics. 25 (February 1949): 11–21. "TVA: Symbol and Reality." Journal of Politics. 13 (August 1952): 369–392. Valley of Tomorrow: TVA and Agriculture. Knoxville: Bureau of Public Administration, University of Tennessee, 1952. "Program Planning in the U.S. Department of the Interior" (coauthor). Public Administration Review. 14 (Summer 1954): 193–201. Natural Resources and the Political Struggle. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1955. "Public Administration and Policy Formation". Southwestern Social Science Quarterly, 39(September): 158–159, 1958. Perspectives on Government and Science. Philadelphia: American Academy of Political and Social Science, 1960. Administration of Natural Resources: The American Experience. New York: Asia Publishing House, 1961. Political Dynamics of Environmental Control, with Dennis C. McElrath and Daniel R. Grant. Bloomington, Indiana: Institute of Public Administration, Indiana University, 1967. Urban Water Policies and Decision Making, with George M. Walker, Jr. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Interior, Office of Water Resources Research, 1970. Urban–Metropolitan Institutions for Water Planning, Development and Management. Fort Collins: Environmental Resources Center, Colorado State University, 1972. Institutions for Urban–Metropolitan Water Management: Essays in Social Theory. Fort Collins: Environmental Resources Center, Colorado State University, 1972. The Energy Crisis: Reality or Myth, with Robert M. Lawrence. Philadelphia: American Academy of Political and Social Science, 1973. Impact on the Human Environment of Proposed Oil Shale Development in Garfield County. Boulder: Thorne Ecological Institute, 1974. Community Development Studies. Denver: Colony Development Corporation, 1974. Property Rights in Land: A Comparative Exploration of German and American Concepts and Problems. Fort Collins: Environmental Resources Center, Colorado State University, 1974. Public Participation in Water Resources Development with a View to the Improvement of the Human Environment. Fort Collins: Environmental Resources Center, Colorado State University, 1974. Patterns, Policies, and Problems in Colorado Land Use and Development: Transferable Development Rights and Land Use Control, with Thomas Graham. Fort Collins: Cooperative Extension Service, Colorado State University, 1975. The Political Allocation of Burdens and Benefits: Externalities and Due Process in Environmental Protection. Berkeley: Institute of Governmental Studies, University of California, 1976. Regional Factors in Siting and Planning Energy Facilities in the Eleven Western States: A Report to the Western Interstate Nuclear Board, with Robert M. Lawrence and Michael S. Hamilton. Lakewood, Colorado: Western Interstate Nuclear Board, 1976. The Physical and Economic Effects on the Local Agricultural Economy of Water Transfer from Irrigation Companies to Cities in the Northern Denver Metropolitan Area, with Raymond Lloyd Anderson and Robert D. Heil. Fort Collins: Environmental Resources Center, Colorado State University, 1976. "The Energy Boom Town: an Analysis of the Politics of Getting." Policy Studies Journal, 7(Autumn): 17–23, 1978. "The Energy Boom Town: An Analysis of the Politics of Getting." In Robert M. Lawrence and Norman I. Wengert, eds. New Dimensions to Energy Policy. Lexington, Massachusetts: Lexington Books, 17–24. The Purposes of the National Forests: A Historical Re-interpretation of Policy Development, with A. A. Dyer. Fort Collins: Colorado State University, 1979. "Symposium on Land Use Planning." Natural Resources Journal. vol. 19, #1. 1979. (editor). Environmental, Legal, and Political Constraints on Power Plant Siting in the Southwestern United States: A Report to the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, with Michael S. Hamilton. Fort Collins, Colorado: Colorado State University Experiment Station, 1980. Summaries of Selected Federal Statutes Affecting Environmental Quality, with Michael S. Hamilton. Fort Collins: Colorado State University, Cooperative Extension Service, 1980. "Land Use Policy." Encyclopedia of Policy Studies, 2d ed, Stuart Nagel, ed. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 1994.