Understanding Environmental Policy Convergence

The Power of Words, Rules and Money

Helge Jörgens, Andrea Lenschow, Duncan Liefferink

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN:
  9781107037823
• eBook ISBN:
  9781107596832
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Figures
• Tables
• Contributors
• Preface
• Abbreviations
• 1 Introduction: theoretical framework and research design
• 2 Is there convergence of national environmental policies? An analysis of policy outputs in 24 OECD countries
• 3 Regulation of industrial discharges into surface water
• 4 Taming the ‘tiger in the tank’: explaining the convergence of limit values for lead in petrol
• 5 Cross-national convergence of traffic noise policies
• 6 National policies for cleaning up contaminated sites
• 7 Converging ideas about risk regulation? The precautionary principle in national legal systems
• 8 From the outside in: explaining convergence in the legal recognition of the sustainability principle
• 9 Complex causation in cross-national environmental policy convergence
• Index