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How do different societies respond politically to environmental problems around the globe? Answering this question requires systematic, cross-national comparisons of political institutions, regulatory styles, and state-society relations. The field of comparative environmental politics approaches this task by bringing the theoretical tools of comparative politics to bear on the substantive concerns of environmental policy. This book outlines a comparative environmental politics framework and applies it to concrete, real-world problems of politics and environmental management.
After a comprehensive review of the literature exploring domestic environmental politics around the world, the book provides a sample of major currents within the field, showing how environmental politics intersects with such topics as the greening of the state, the rise of social movements and green parties, European Union expansion, corporate social responsibility, federalism, political instability, management of local commons, and policymaking under democratic and authoritarian regimes. It offers fresh insights into environmental problems ranging from climate change to water scarcity and the disappearance of tropical forests, and it examines actions by state and nonstate actors at levels from the local to the continental. The book will help scholars and policymakers make sense of how environmental issues and politics are connected around the globe, and is ideal for use in upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses.
Paul F. Steinberg is Associate Professor of Political Science and Environmental Policy at Harvey Mudd College and the author of "Environmental Leadership in Developing Countries: Transnational Relations and Biodiversity Policy in Costa Rica and BoliviaM".
Stacy D. VanDeveer is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of New Hampshire and the coeditor of "Changing Climates in North American Politics: Institutions, Policymaking, and Multilevel Governance".
The field of global environmental politics has been waiting for this book. The chapters show the value of taking a theoretically rigorous comparative approach to pressing environmental questions of the day, including the prospects for greening the state, opportunities for and constraints on social mobilization, the dynamics of multi-level governance, and the relative effectiveness of environmental policies. Comparative Environmental Politics is a case of superb collaborative scholarship.
- Ken Conca, Professor of International Relations, American University School of International Service
"An ambitious and pioneering effort to integrate the study of environmental policy into the sub-field of comparative politics. Its informative essays demonstrate the wide range of contemporary scholarship on comparative dimensions of environmental politics."
- David Vogel, Solomon P. Lee Professor of Business and Professor of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley
"Comparative analysis may be one of the most important and promising areas for further enriching our understanding of environmental politics and policy. This book by Stacy VanDeveer and Paul Steinberg is one of the most important contributions to this field in recent years."
- Barry G. Rabe, Arthur Thurnau Professor, Gerald Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan
