Policy Design and the Acceptability of Environmental Risks: Nuclear Waste Disposal in Canada and the United States

This article examines the controversial process of developing high-level nuclear waste disposal policy in Canada, with some comparison to experience in the United States. It argues that a policy design perspective can assist in understanding the difficult social and political issues associated with waste disposal and the environmental and health risks that it poses. I examine several critical questions related to such an endeavor and link them to long-term goals of building a sustainable society. Success in formulating and implementing a nuclear waste policy in Canada will depend on the nation's capacity to create requisite processes of public participation. Particularly important are those actions that can help the public understand and assess environmental risks, including related ethical and social issues, and build public trust and confidence in the siting processes and the implementing agencies.     

Voluntary Environmental Programs in the Public Sector: Evaluating an Urban Water Conservation Program in California

Solving conflictual environmental policy problems is increasingly falling under the purview of local governments and public agencies. Nonregulatory approaches, such as the development of voluntary environmental programs (VEPs), could offer a useful policy alternative as they often have greater political traction and flexibility. However, there has been little work examining the use of VEPs in the public sector. This article uses a new dataset from California to examine how political institutions affect decisions by local governments and public agencies to participate in a voluntary urban water conservation program and whether this program has improved the water conservation performance of its members. The results show that special district governments, private utilities, and water suppliers dependent on purchased water are more likely to participate in the program and to join early. However, urban water agencies that have joined the program have not reduced their per capita water use more than those that have not. These results underscore the influence of political institutions in public‐sector decision making and demonstrate that, as in the private sector, commitment to a VEP by local government and public agencies does not guarantee implementation or environmental improvements. While voluntary programs offer political and administrative advantages, in order for VEPs in the public sector to be effective they must be accompanied and supported by credible enforcement mechanisms, performance standards, and rigorous monitoring programs.     

Environmentalism in One Country: Canadian Environmental Policy in an Era of Globalization

In sharp contrast with its international reputation and self-image as a leading national advocate of environmental protection initiatives, Canada has, in the 1990s, reduced its environmental expenditures and initiatives. The most dramatic and visible retreat has been in terms of expenditures, especially at the federal level and in Ontario, the largest and most industrialized province. In addition, again especially in Ontario, following the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the provincial election of 1995, environmental protection has been explicitly and openly curtailed. Possible explanations for the decline of environmental protection in Canada include: a) the effects of globalization on a trade-oriented middle power, b) counterwaves of environmental and economic concern among the public, and c) excessive decentralization of political authority with regard to environmental protection.     

Poor,ill, and sometimes abandoned: tubercular children in Buenos Aires, 1880-1920

Ill children with chronic diseases, such as tuberculosis, have faced difficult lives. Poverty proved a factor in their susceptibility to disease, their abandonment, and their treatment. When public health policies in Buenos Aires shifted from ignoring children to viewing them as victims who needed protection, government agencies, charitable organizations, public schools, and hospitals developed special programs that emphasized both prevention and cure of childhood tuberculosis. Argentine physicians and hygienists supported programs that were similar to those in Europe and the United States. Despite efforts, from 1880 to 1920, diagnosis of tuberculosis remained problematic, health professionals failed to prevent tuberculosis in children, and physicians were unable to cure the disease.     

Ousting the Oligarchs: Assessing the Consequences of Reform and Change on Four House Committees

Abstract

The current system of federal advisory committees in the United States is both extensive and expanding. While there are significant differences between specific advisory bodies regarding their constitution, construction, and role in the process of public policy-making, the system itself facilitates the permanent institutionalization of linkages and dependencies between interest associations and federal administrative agencies. Indeed, it moves the role of pressure group influence on the policy-making process from that of a suspect input to that of a welcome withinput. Utilizing data derived from advisory committee compliance with the 1972 Federal Advisory Committee Act and selected case study material this article begins the process of exploring how the system functions, who participates in it, what impact it has on the development and formation of public policy, and who are its ultimate beneficiaries. It concludes by developing a framework for the assessment of potential advisory committee power and influence on the process of administrative policy-making and advances a preliminary assessment of the domination of industry interests on departmental advisory committees.     

IMPACT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION MEASURES ON THE U.S. ECONOMY

A rapid deterioration in the quality of the environment in the United States has compelled the Government to take a series of actions, including the enactment of remedial legislation. However, the environmental protection measures taken have begun to markedly influence the country's economy, resulting in redistribution of some industries, e.g., the coal mining industry, and in a reduction in the output of some products, for example, a decline in lead production due to the use of nonleaded gasoline. The problems of environmental protection are not purely natural-scientific or technological, but also socio-economic and, hence, class problems. In a capitalist society, environmental protection measures have to be implemented under conditions of sharp conflict between a public value, such as the environment, and private ownership of the means of production, which pollute that environment. (The paper is based largely on materials gathered by the author during a stay of nearly six months in 1974–75 at the University of Illinois. The translation is by R. Bruce Wood, University of Illinois, Urbana.)     

New Responsibilities of Faith-Related Agencies

Nonprofit agencies with a religious base may be strongly affected by recent public policy changes; they tend to deliver services in areas where federal resources are further declining and are eligible for the special government purchase of service contracts that now may be provided to religious entities. Religious agencies also are now widely expected to deliver uniquely beneficial services and to mobilize social capital to compensate for increasing restrictions of some governmental programs. The current article reports on a qualitative, longitudinal, interview-based investigation of program changes and their relation to policy changes in a two-city sample of what are called "faith-related" agencies. In so doing, it investigates the implications of relying on religious agencies for service delivery. Making use of an extensive framework concerning how agencies are organized, the work finds that faith-related agencies mildly contribute to increased variety of service delivery styles in the examined cities, but that they rarely expand services significantly to meet increased need or otherwise provide dramatically unique service content in response to recent public policy changes. The patterns in part reflect trade-offs between fully emphasizing the unique aspects of religion and entering the public arena, and they thus question the likely role of religion in reforming social service systems.     

CANADIAN ENERGY FUTURES: POLICY SCENARIOS AND PUBLIC PREFERENCES

Alternative Canadian energy futures as articulated by forecasting agencies and as perceived by a sample of the Albertan public are examined. The use of environmental world views as a conceptual framework facilitates the analyses of both the energy scenarios and public perspectives in an analogous manner in order to establish areas of congruence and disagreement.
The results indicate that energy projections were consistent with the forecasting methodology selected, as well as the attitudes, values, and assumptions incorporated into the forecasting models. A relationship between environmental attitudes, energy preferences, and reasons expressed for those preferences was also found amongst the public sample.     

IMPACT OF POPULATION AGEING ON INDIA'S PUBLIC FINANCE

This paper integrates the methodology of the National Transfer Accounts and Budget Forecasting Model to compute and forecast the impact of population ageing on India's public finance from 2005 through 2050, based on the fiscal structure in 2004–2005. The empirical results are new and have useful policy implications. The forecasted increase in the share of total public expenditure on elderly individuals is largely accounted for by expenditure on civilian pensions and other cash transfers, government services, and poverty and other social protection. Elderly individuals are found to be not very expensive in terms of public health expenditure. Tax revenues increase and result in a decline of debt-to-GDP ratio because population ageing does not lower tax buoyancy in the long run. Overall, the increasing total budget surplus and fiscal support ratio implies that the long-term impact of population ageing may be fiscally sustainable.     

Negotiating Authority between UNHCR and ‘The People’

Refugee camps are exceptional places that are left to the benevolent governing of international humanitarian agencies, and offer unique opportunities to explore the making and un‐making of public authority. This article examines how certain groups of young men in a refugee camp in Tanzania manage to establish public authority by relating to ideas of a Burundian moral order, while at the same time relating to the ‘development‐speak’ of international relief operations. The refugees' attempts to establish public authority are highly contested and highly politicized, clashing with the relief agencies' vision of the camp as non‐political. Ironically, the young men who engage in politics in the camp are also closely linked to these relief agencies in their role as brokers between the agencies and the ‘small people’. Public authority is partly produced by the powers that are delegated to them by the agencies and partly formed in the ‘gaps' in the agencies’ system. Similarly, authority rests in part on the respect that these brokers gain from other refugees — a respect that is earned in numerous ways, including outwitting the international organizations — and in part on the recognition that they get from the very same organizations. In other words, public authority rests on complex relations between legitimacy and recognition and between sovereignty and governmentality.     

Regulatory Enforcement,Riskscapes, and Environmental Justice

Does environmental regulation vary over poor and minority communities? An uneven governmental response may follow from regulators' varying incentives to negotiate enforcement challenges. We argue that regulators confront two in particular. Regulators can pursue political enforcement, responding to mobilized interests, regardless of environmental risk, or they can pursue instrumental enforcement, responding to at‐risk communities, regardless of political mobilization. To examine these competing strategies, we use an original dataset from the EPA's Risk‐Screening Environmental Indicators model to develop a geographic “riskscape” combined with census tract community data and facility‐level enforcement data. We find that state regulatory agencies pursue a mixture of political and instrumental enforcement, but that these tactics are applied unevenly across traditional environmental justice communities. Specifically, state agencies devote more attention to facilities in communities with relatively higher risk, but less attention in the area of punishment for violations for facilities located in Hispanic communities. Importantly, this lack of attention to Hispanic communities is not mediated by the relative level of risks that they face, but it is to a significant extent in communities in which environmental justice advocacy organizations operate.     

CONCEPTS OF RISK AND SAFETY IN TOXIC SUBSTANCES REGULATION: A COMPARISON OF FRANCE AND THE U.S.

The notions of risk and safety which play a conspicuous role in the regulation of toxic substances have shown a markedly different evolution in France and the United States. American law has moved toward the development of statutory criteria of risk assessment, balancing both the costs and benefits of regulation, while the French legislator has consistently avoided a substantive elaboration of safety concepts through legal texts. This contrast is documented and its implications for the discretionary authority of regulating agencies discussed. Divergent national patterns are explained with reference to four factors distinguishing the legal and political systems of the two countries.     

Grassroots Environmental Activism and the Internet: Constructing a Green Public Sphere in China

The past three decades have seen the resurgence of China's civil society through the blossoming of NGOs that campaign for various marginalised interests, including environmental protection. Many studies have examined the co-evolution of the Internet and China's civil society. This paper examines the role of the Internet in strengthening grassroots environmental activism, taking into consideration the corporatised character of Chinese NGOs. Through a detailed ethnographic case study of a leading grassroots environmental group, the Global Village of Beijing (GVB), I argue that Internet technologies effectively empower resource-poor activists in their self-representation, information brokering, network building, public mobilisation and construction of discourse communities. The Net therefore contributes to the nascent formation of a green public sphere in China by fostering a discourse that counterbalances rapid economic development. Also discussed here are issues that hamper this process, including resource limitations, the fragmentation of online discourse communities, and the marginalisation and “caging” of environmental discourse.     

Is Greener Whiter? Voluntary Environmental Performance of Western Ski Areas

This study analyzes the initial implementation of the Sustainable Slopes Program a voluntary environmental initiative established by the U.S. National Ski Areas Association in partnership with federal and state government agencies. Our findings indicate that participation of western ski areas in the Sustainable Slopes Program is related to institutional pressures in the form of enhanced federal oversight and higher state environmental demands exerted by state agencies, local environmental groups and public opinion. The analysis also suggests that, despite these institutional pressures, participant ski areas appear to be correlated with lower third-party environmental performance ratings. This behavior seems to reflect the lack of specific institutional mechanisms to prevent opportunism in the current design of the Sustainable Slopes Program. That is, the program does not involve specific environmental standards, lacks third-party oversight, and does not have sanctions for poor performance.     

Spatial and environmental impacts on adverse birth outcomes in Ontario

This study assesses the overall spatial variations and neighbourhood‐level “hot spots” of low birth weight and preterm birth incidence within three public health units in Ontario, Canada. The analysis uses a stepwise approach of intra‐class correlation analysis, a spatial scan statistic, and multilevel spatial modeling. Results show that neighbourhood level variation accounts for only 2–3 percent of the total variation of adverse birth outcomes in the study area. However, strong spatial autocorrelation is observed at the neighbourhood level, and spatial clusters of relatively high adverse birth outcome rates exist in areas that are associated with environmental risks, including pollution sources and proximity to highways. Thus, although estimated neighbourhood impacts on adverse birth outcomes are small compared with those of individual‐level risks, local high potential environmental risk areas are identifiable. Environmental surveillance and spatial statistical analysis should be conducted regularly by local health authorities to identify and monitor the impact of environmental changes on health in general and on birth outcomes in particular. Specific community‐oriented health interventions may be required to reduce observed local health impacts.     

THE DECLINE OF CALIFORNIA'S NORTH COAST REDWOOD REGION

The Redwood Timber Region of Northern California has experienced a gradual decline in its natural resource base combined with intensified struggles over preservation and conservation. This region is used as a case study for examining the historic pattern of resource decline, the ambiguous roles of environmentalist pressure, the failure of public regulation, and a range of regional responses to economic decline. In this case, more intense forest management techniques (herbicides, fertilizer, thinning), more public investment in timber regeneration programs, and the emergence of an underground economy in marijuana growing are core elements of the response to resource decline. Theoretical, political, and environmental problems with these approaches are examined.     

The Politics of Environmental Risk: Perceptions of Risk Assessment in the State Legislatures

As state governments increasingly turn to the process of quantitative risk assessment to set environmental policy, the question of what state lawmakers know and believe about risk and the risk assessment process has become critical. The perceptions of state legislators may affect their decisions about a wide range of environmental conflicts, from funding water treatment facilities to siting hazardous waste incinerators. This article reports the results of a nationwide survey of state legislators and their staff that explored their intuitive understanding of environmental risk and risk assessment. The survey revealed strong support for the use of risk assessment by most state lawmakers, but significant differences, by gender and political affiliation, in perceptions of the risks from chemicals, the value of risk assessment for setting environmental policies, and the environmental risks faced by racial minorities.     

Announcing Swine Flu and the Interpretation of Pandemic Anxiety

This paper discusses the ways in which 2009 novel swine‐origin influenza A (H1N1) was announced and resonated with current pandemic anxieties. In particular, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are used as a lens through which recent pandemic anxieties can be analysed and understood. This entails a closer look at the securitisation of public health and the challenges and struggles this may have caused within public health agencies. In that light, CDC' formal entanglement with global health security and its announcement of the H1N1 pandemic are interpreted, followed by an ethnographically informed focus on various people who were engaged in the H1N1 emergency response and their practices and practical struggles in the face of pandemic anxiety.     

Between Borinquen and the Barrio: Environmental Justice and New York City's Puerto Rican Community, 1969–1972

The last decade has seen an upsurge of both scholarly and popular interest in the US environmental justice movement. What is largely missing from this contemporary discussion is any sense of the historical roots of this new wave of environmental activism. This paper explores the emergence of a radical Puerto Rican organization called the Young Lords that was active in a number of US cities in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In New York City, the Young Lords successfully mobilized their community through a series of direct actions devoted to improving public services, the creation of new community spaces and the assertion of cultural identity. I examine the internal tensions within the organization as it sought to extend its role beyond community-based concerns such as sanitation and health care towards more abstract political goals, including demands for Puerto Rican independence. It is argued that the ultimate disarray of this radical phase of Latino political activism cannot be understood separately from a series of wider developments, including the gathering pace of urban decline, the marginalization of the US left and the dissolution of the New Deal era. Although the movement faded away in the 1970s, a legacy of diasporic environmentalism dedicated to the transformation of the urban environment has provided a powerful degree of political continuity with contemporary struggles for environmental and social justice.