Environmental policy. Vol 1: National environmental policy. Vol 2: International environmental policy

Book abstract:

This two-volume set presents significant published literature on both the national and international dimensions of environmental policy. They are designed to address the state of the art of comparative environmental policy and therefore all articles selected for the volume - with a few exceptions - have a strong cross-national focus and focus on individual nation states as the major organising principle. The first volume offers reviews of the comparative literature on national environmental policies, and compares the changes in awareness of environmental issues in Europe, the USA and Japan. It investigates how different countries have established the institutions to deal with environmental policy, and explores how the policies are implemented and the results they achieve.

The second volume is devoted to the international scene. It reviews the theoretical research on international environmental policy, explores the politics and problems of international policymaking, examines the connections between national and international environmental policies, and investigates the impact of international policy agreements on individual nations and their effectiveness. In particular there is analysis of the environmental activities of the European Union with three papers addressing the issues of the 'Europeanisation' of environmental policy and the explanation of the impact and behaviour of individual national actors in EU policy-making processes.

Volume 1 is split into four parts: Comparing environmental policies: the research agenda; Issue emergence and agenda setting; Creating institutions and making policy; and Implementation and outcomes. Volume 2 consists of: Inter-, trans- and supra-national environmental policy: the research agenda; Supra-national environmental policy making: the institutional dynamics; Exploring the international-national policy nexus; and The impact of international environmental policy.

This volume is part of The International Library of Comparative Public Policy. The editor, Wolfgang Rudig, is Reader in Government at the University of Strathclyde.