Arresting Technology: Government, Scientists, and Weather Modification

The process of arrest in federally funded technology is illuminated through the case of weather modification. A technology passes through three stages: Birth, opportunity, and decline. Critical to arrest is failure by the advocacy coalition to make maximum use of the opportunity stage to show progress and build support. To do so may require unusual cohesion and consensus among diverse advocates: Scientists, administrators, politicians, industry, and affected publics. Without such consensus, opportunity is missed or misused, and a technology moves into decline. This happens because the advocacy coalition shrinks and government support, essential to advance, diminishes and may even terminate.