Explaining national environmental performance: approaches, evidence, and implications

Since environmental problems rose to prominence in the last third of the twentieth century, they have been a major area of policy for national governments. A large body of research has explored the explanations for different levels of environmental policy performance among countries. This article be...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Policy sciences 2011-11, Vol.44 (4), p.367-389
Main Author: Fiorino, Daniel J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
20th century
Authoritarianism
Central Government
Climate change policy
Corporatism
Democracy
Dependent variables
Ecological sustainability
Economic Development
Economic growth
Economic indicators
Economic Policy
Energy consumption
Environmental conditions
Environmental Degradation
Environmental effects
Environmental impact
Environmental law
Environmental performance
Environmental Policy
Environmental Protection
Environmental quality
Environmentalism
Federal government
Federalism
GDP
Governance
Government
Green economics
Gross Domestic Product
International agreements
Nation states
Pluralism
Policy making
Political Science
Political Science and International Relations
Political Science and International Studies
Political systems
Principals
Public Administration
Studies
Success
Sustainability
Sustainable development
Twentieth Century
Water pollution
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Summary:Since environmental problems rose to prominence in the last third of the twentieth century, they have been a major area of policy for national governments. A large body of research has explored the explanations for different levels of environmental policy performance among countries. This article begins with a discussion of approaches to measuring national performance before reviewing and assessing four categories of explanations in the literature, which may be summarized in four questions: (1) What are the relationships between economic growth and environmental protection? (2) Do democratic regimes have advantages over more authoritarian ones in adopting effective policies and reducing harm? (3) Do such institutional characteristics as pluralism or neo-corporatism and federalism affect a nation's ability to deal with environmental problems? (4) Are there institutional or societal capacities or relationships within or among nations that may explain policy success? By adopting a broad perspective on the literature on national environmental performance, the article is able to explore and compare the principal findings of these categories of research and assess the relationships among them.
ISSN:0032-2687
1573-0891
DOI:10.1007/s11077-011-9140-8