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Wild Spaces or Polluted Places: Contentious Policies, Consensus Institutions, and Environmental Performance in Industrialized Democracies

Author

Listed:
  • Joshua Ozymy

    (Joshua Ozymy is an associate professor of political science at Texas A&M University—Corpus Christi.)

  • Denis Rey

    (Denis Rey is an assistant professor of government and world affairs at the University of Tampa.)

Abstract

This article contributes to the literature on environmental governance in industrialized democracies by showing that effectively conserving biodiversity requires different institutional strategies than reducing air emissions. Institutional effectiveness diminishes as the politically contentiousness of the issue increases, moving from biodiversity to air pollution, and then climate change. Drawing on Lijphart's theory of consensus democracy and theories of functional and actorcentered federalism, we use the 2010 Environmental Performance Index and panel analysis on twenty-one OECD countries to show that consensus-based party systems improve performance. We find that centralization generates greater improvements with respect to air pollution than biodiversity, but that decentralized strategies can improve biodiversity when implemented alongside corporatist bargaining structures. © 2013 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Suggested Citation

  • Joshua Ozymy & Denis Rey, 2013. "Wild Spaces or Polluted Places: Contentious Policies, Consensus Institutions, and Environmental Performance in Industrialized Democracies," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 13(4), pages 81-100, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:tpr:glenvp:v:13:y:2013:i:4:p:81-100
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    Cited by:

    1. Denis Rey & Joshua Ozymy, 2019. "A political–institutional explanation of environmental performance in Latin America," International Area Studies Review, Center for International Area Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, vol. 22(4), pages 295-311, December.
    2. Todd A. Eisenstadt & Daniel J. Fiorino & Daniela Stevens, 2019. "National environmental policies as shelter from the storm: specifying the relationship between extreme weather vulnerability and national environmental performance," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 9(1), pages 96-107, March.
    3. Silvia London & Mauro D. Reyes Pontet, 2021. "El Desarrollo Sostenible y el rol de las Instituciones: un análisis preliminar," Asociación Argentina de Economía Política: Working Papers 4487, Asociación Argentina de Economía Política.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    environmental governance; biodiversity; climate change; air pollution;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q53 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming
    • Q57 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Ecological Economics
    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy

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