Understanding Environmental Policy Convergence

Over recent decades national environmental policies have converged. This book analyses the international and domestic driving forces behind this process.

Over recent decades national environmental policies have become increasingly alike. This book analyses the driving forces of this process of policy convergence, providing an in-depth empirical analysis of the international forces at work. It does so by investigating how four countries - France, Hungary, Mexico and the Netherlands - have shaped their domestic environmental policies in the context of international institutions and relationships, while taking into account various domestic factors and national conditions. Employing a qualitative approach, the authors seek to deepen understanding of the processes and mechanisms through which international forces such as legal harmonisation, institutionalised information flows and global trade dynamics affect domestic environmental policy change. Together with its companion volume Environmental Policy Convergence in Europe: The Impact of Trade and International Institutions (2008) this book provides a 'showcase' of mixed methodologies, combining quantitative and qualitative approaches in an innovative way.

Over recent decades national environmental policies have become increasingly alike. This book analyses the driving forces of this process of policy convergence, providing an in-depth empirical analysis of the international forces at work. It does so by investigating how four countries - France, Hungary, Mexico and the Netherlands - have shaped their domestic environmental policies in the context of international institutions and relationships, while taking into account various domestic factors and national conditions. Employing a qualitative approach, the authors seek to deepen understanding of the processes and mechanisms through which international forces such as legal harmonisation, institutionalised information flows and global trade dynamics affect domestic environmental policy change. Together with its companion volume Environmental Policy Convergence in Europe: The Impact of Trade and International Institutions (2008) this book provides a 'showcase' of mixed methodologies, combining quantitative and qualitative approaches in an innovative way.

Has globalization led to a convergence in policy-making across nations and, if so, what are the causal mechanisms? This book analyses the extent to which the environmental policies of nation states have converged over the last thirty years and whether this convergence has led to a strengthening or weakening of environmental standards (a race to the top, or a race to the bottom). It also analyses the factors that account for these developments. Based on a unique empirical data set, the study covers the development of a wide range of environmental policies in twenty-four OECD countries, including EU member states as well as Norway, Switzerland, Japan, Mexico and the USA, with particular emphasis on the impact of institutional and economic interlinkages among these countries.

Over recent decades national environmental policies have become increasingly alike. This book analyses the driving forces of this process of policy convergence, providing an in-depth empirical analysis of the international forces at work. It does so by investigating how four countries - France, Hungary, Mexico and the Netherlands - have shaped their domestic environmental policies in the context of international institutions and relationships, while taking into account various domestic factors and national conditions. Employing a qualitative approach, the authors seek to deepen understanding of the processes and mechanisms through which international forces such as legal harmonisation, institutionalised information flows and global trade dynamics affect domestic environmental policy change. Together with its companion volume Environmental Policy Convergence in Europe: The Impact of Trade and International Institutions (2008) this book provides a 'showcase' of mixed methodologies, combining quantitative and qualitative approaches in an innovative way.

The first edition of this pragmatic course text emphasized the policy value of a "big picture" approach to the ethical, political, technological, scientific, economic, and management aspects of environmental issues. The text then applied this approach to real-world case examples involving leaks in underground storage tanks, toxic waste cleanup, and the effects of global climate change. This second edition demonstrates the ongoing effectiveness of the book's framework in generating meaningful action and policy solutions to current environmental issues. The text adds case examples concerning congestion taxes, e-waste, hydrofracking, and recent developments in global climate change, updating references and other materials throughout and incorporating the political and policy changes of the Obama administration's first term and developments in national and global environmental issues.

A fresh analysis of policy convergences across nations, which identifies their key driving forces. To what extent and in which direction can we empirically observe a convergence of national policies? In which areas and for which patterns of policy is convergence more or less pronounced? This text addresses these central questions with clarity and rigour. With growing economic and institutional interlinkages between nation states, it is often assumed that there is an overall trend towards increasingly similar policies across countries. Comparative research on the domestic impact of globalization and European integration, however, reveals that policy convergence can hardly be considered as a dominant and uniform tendency which can be taken for granted. Although a number of factors have been suggested in order to account for the rather mixed empirical picture, we still have limited knowledge about the causes and conditions of cross-national policy convergence. In particular, the central mechanisms and conditions affecting both degree and level of cross-national policy convergence are yet not well understood. This book will be of great interest to all students and scholars of the European Union, European politics, and international relations. This is a special issue of the leading Journal of European Public Policy.

Examines the impact of economic globalisation and international institutions on the development of national environmental policies.