Citation:
Environmental Politics and Policy: Theories and Evidence, James P. Lester (ed), (North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1989), 398.
Environmental Politics and Policy: Theories and Evidence is an examination of the relationship between politics and environmental policy. The work is a collection of works by multiple authors.
Environmental Politics and Policy: Theories and Evidence is required reading for ARSC 5010/7010 as taught by Dr. Guy Burgess and Professor Charles Lester. This work will be of interest to those who wish to understand the multiplicity of ways in which politics affects the formation and implementation of environmental policy. The work is divided into three parts the first of which addresses the context of environmental policy. The first essay in this section offers an historical perspective on the conservation and environmental movements. The second essay is co-authored by the editor and Charles E. Davis and examines the relationship between federalism and environmental policy.
The second and largest part of the book concerns the actors and institutions active in the formation of environmental policy. The first of seven essays in this section addresses the relationship between public opinion and environmental policy. The remainder of the chapter examines similar relationships of other entities to environmental policy. Interest groups, party politics and Congress and their relationships to policy is examined. The way in which the bureaucracy, the courts and the elites affect the content of environmental policy is also discussed.
The final section of the book focuses upon environmental policy outcomes. Co-authors offer a theoretical view of international environmental politics. The editor and John S. Dryzek present alternative views of the environmental problem. Two appendices follow the text. The first contains selected statistics on environmental policy and the second contains data and sources concerning state institutional capacity.
Environmental Politics and Policy: Theories and Evidence is a systematic examination of how different political entities affect the formation of environmental policy at both the national and international levels.