Environmental policy and the reduction of hazardous waste

Environmental policy encouraging hazardous waste reduction began in 1976 with an Environmental Protection Agency statement promoting source reduction as the preferred method of hazardous waste management. In 1984, Congress included a policy statement supporting waste reduction in the Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments (HSWA). However, the cornerstone of HSWA was the land disposal restrictions (LDRs)—a command and control policy prohibiting land disposal of untreated hazardous waste. Consideration of the hazardous waste generation decision in the aggregate would suggest that the price effect resulting from the LDR program and increased hazardous waste management prices in general would lead to source reduction. Although at the firm level there may be interdicting factors, statistical analysis of generation data for Tennessee support this hypothesis. Both the institution of the LDRs and waste management prices have significant negative effects on the level of generation. The analysis, however, reveals the existence of large industry and firm effects, indicating that the response to public policy may exhibit significant variance, especially at the individual generator level.     

Spillovers of state policy innovations: New York's hazardous waste regulatory initiatives

States are often seen as policy laboratories where innovations are tried that may later be adopted by other states or the federal government. Engendering such experiments may, however, promote spillovers on other states. We analyze several of New York State's policy initiatives from the 1980s that were intended to influence the selection of waste management technologies by hazardous waste generators. Time series analysis of hazardous waste manifest data reveals that constraints on land disposal of certain wastes and a tax on hazardous waste generation and disposal were associated with shifts to lower-risk technologies for waste management. The policies also constrained imports to in-state land disposal facilities and may have led to increased exports for incineration and recycling, thus shifting some of the risks of hazardous waste to other jurisdictions with less stringent regulations or lower taxes on waste generation and management.     

Immigration and the French state: problems of policy implementation

"Why is it so difficult for a liberal-democratic state to regulate immigration? Although control of a territory is part and parcel of the definition of state sovereignty, labor-importing countries have found it increasingly difficult to regulate the flow of noncitizens across their borders. This article seeks to address the difficulties of regulating immigration by focusing on the policy-making process and the interaction of politics and markets in France, one of the principal countries of immigration."     

Environmental policy and equity: The case of superfund

This article analyzes the equity implications of the EPA's Superfund program by examining the geographic distribution of sites, who pays for cleanup, and cleanup pace. Although the “polluter pays” principle is used to justify Superfund policy, it is a goal that is not—and indeed usually cannot—be attained for past contamination. Further, the geographic distribution of Superfund sites suggests that the likely beneficiaries of program expenditures live in counties that are on average both wealthier and more highly educated than the rest, and also have lower rates of poverty. The pace of the EPA's cleanups, however, depends mostly on the sites' potential hazard, and is not apparently motivated by the localities' socioeconomic characteristics or political representation. The program is found in several respects to be both inefficient and inequitable, yet Superfund enjoys considerable support for reasons beyond these traditional public policy goals, including its political and symbolic appeal.     

Making economic adjustment work: The politics of policy implementation

This article identifies tentative lessons about successful political management of stabilization and structural adjustment policies in developing countries. It addresses three basic questions: 1) What is the purpose of stabilization and structural adjustment policies and what specific measures are usually undertaken? 2) Who, in theory, is supposed to benefit or lose from such policies and who, in actual practice, supports or opposes them? 3) How have governments in developing countries successfully managed the supporters and opponents of adjustment policies? The article concentrates in detail on how the governments of Panama, Costa Rica and Guatemala managed the actual supporters and opponents of these policies between 1982 and 1987, based on interviews with policy makers, official documents and content analysis of media sources, with the aim of determining what measures were implemented, who protested or supported them, and what the government did to build support or minimize opposition. The lessons from these three experiences are tied to the more general literature on successful political management of stabilization and structural adjustment.     

Environmental performance and policy regimes: Explaining variations in 18 OECD-countries

Although we are witnessing an increasing interest in the comparative study of environmental pollution in the social sciences, there is sharp disagreement over how the state of the environment and the changes in recent decades should be assessed. Furthermore, the debate on environmental policy has no conceptual focus on societal development. Therefore, the article presents, on the one hand, an index of environmental pollution that integrates the levels of pollution in 1990 and their changes in the 1980s, and, on the other hand, an index that incorporates the ideological aspects of social development. Using this distinction it is possible to identify different paths of societal development in 18 OECD countries. The final part of the article explores various structural, economic, institutional and political characteristics which may be used to explain the different outcomes. The results show that institutional factors are important for a successful environmental performance. However, when it comes to change in policy regime the degree of mobilization of ecological movements and parties is essential.     

The effects of administrative linkages on implementation: Welfare policy in Israel

This article focuses on the interaction between local-national relations and the implementation of welfare policy in Israel. It studies the administrative linkages between different levels of governmental jurisdictions involved in the implementing of certain policies of the Ministry of Welfare. It seeks to understand their impact on the original goals and programs of the national government and on actual services provided at the municipal level. These linkages include the arrangements for provision, funding, employment, regulations, and inspection. Without denying the importance of other explanations, the article emphasizes the significance of administrative linkages for understanding welfare policy and practices. In effect, the present study evaluates the extent to which the administrative linkages enable the national government to implement its policies on the one hand, and local authorities to influence national policies and programs on the other.The findings and analysis of administrative linkages suggest four conclusions. First contrary to Government policy the welfare system involving the Ministry, local municipalities and their agencies, is very inegalitarian; services are neither uniform nor adjusted to need. Second, the administrative linkages maximize local output and undermine the ability of the Ministry to implement its policies. Third, it is questionable whether the Israeli government can use its present Welfare Ministry to cope with major aspects of the problem. Fourth, it appears that the operations of the Israeli Welfare Ministry system are more similar to the federal than unitary model.     

Using the Delphi process to analyze social policy implementation: A post hoc case from vocational rehabilitation

This study uses a Policy Delphi to discern differences in perspective among and within groups responsible for formulating and implementing vocational rehabilitation policy. Four groups of players were chosen for our analysis: government officials, academics, directors of rehabilitation centers, and the staff who interface with program participants. Significant differences were found between the groups regarding the relative importance of possible legislative goals. This suggests that the failure of vocational rehabilitation policy to promote a work agenda may be attributed to a lack of consensus among policy implementors. The Delphi technique could help policy planners understand the different perspectives within the implementation community, and hence craft more realistic legislation.     

Problems of transnational policymaking: Environmental policy in the European Community

Abstract. Environmental protection is inherently a cross-border issue, which might be thought to create opportunities for transnational regulation. This has significant potential consequences for European integration. However, two contrasting trends can be identified. On the one hand, the increasing magnitude of environmental problems, along with growing public and elite awareness of these issues, are generating responses which put the European Community at the centre of a process of 'regulation'. It is intended that this role should grow in the twin contexts of the Single Market and of increasing interaction with Eastern Europe with its vast pollution problems. On the other hand, however, the kind of 'political' policy intervention which environmental protection requires has not really developed. EC environmental policies have thus far been rather weak in both formulation and, especially, implementation, and even existing gains are likely to come under increasing pressure from the trend towards economic deregulation characteristic of the Single European Market project. Probably the most significant impact of Community efforts in the environmental field has been to encourage the convergence and strengthening of national regulation among member states, more than to create distinct European policy processes and institutions.     

Decoupling practical and legal compliance: Analysis of member states’ implementation of EU policy

Despite the vast literature on policy implementation, systematic cross‐national research focusing on implementers’ performance regarding different policy issues is still in its infancy. The European Union policies are conducive to examining this relationship in a comparative setting, as the EU member states need to implement various EU directives both legally and in practice. In this study, a first attempt is made to analyse the relationship between legal conformity and practical implementation and the conditions for practical deviations in 27 member states across issues from four policy areas (Internal Market, Environment, Justice and Home Affairs and Social Policy). In line with existing approaches to EU compliance, it is expected that the policy preferences of domestic political elites (‘enforcement’) affect their incentives to ‘decouple’ practical from legal compliance. Instead, administrative and institutional capacities (‘management’) and societal constraints (‘legitimacy’) are likely to limit the ability of policy makers to exert control over the implementation process. The findings suggest that practical deviations arise from policy makers’ inability to steer the implementation process, regardless of their predispositions towards internationally agreed policies. The results have strong implications for the effective application of international rules in domestic settings, as they illustrate that political support for the implementation of ‘external’ policy does not ensure effective implementation in practice.     

Governance modes,policy regimes and operational plans: A multi-level nested model of policy instrument choice and policy design

Policy goals and means exist at different levels of abstraction and application and policies can be seen to be comprised of a number of components or elements, not all of which are as amenable to (re)design as others. Defining and thinking about polices and policy-making in this way is very useful because it highlights how policy design is all about the effort to match goals and instruments both within and across categories. That is, successful policy design requires (1) that policy aims, objectives, and targets be coherent; (2) that implementation preferences, policy tools and tool calibrations should also be consistent; and (3) that policy aims and implementation preferences; policy objectives, and policy tools; and policy targets and tool calibrations, should also be congruent and convergent. Policy instrument choices can thus be seen to result from a nested or embedded relationship within a larger framework of established governance modes and policy regime logics. In this contextual model, the range of choices left at the level of concrete targeted policy instrument calibrations—the typical subject of policy tool analysis—is restricted by the kinds of decisions made about policy objectives and the appropriate tools to attain them, and both of these, in turn, by the kind of choices made at the highest level setting out general policy aims and implementation preferences.

Philantropic motives and contribution policy: A note

This note analyzes the results of Ben-Zion and Spiegel regarding different forms of transfer from rich persons to poor ones. Assuming a more general utility function, not necessarily additive or homothetic, this note shows that a combined policy of income transfer with specific subsidy to the poor consumer can lead to an optimal solution (first best) from the donor's point of view. If it is not possible to differentiate between consumers, a system of subsidy to all consumers can achieve a second best solution.     

Public Policy and Legitimacy: A historical policy analysis of the interplay of public policy and legitimacy

This article explores the interplay of local government policy and legitimacy from a broad postpositivist perspective where historical accounts and narratives are used in a complementary fashion. The basic assumption is that legitimacy is the product of satisfying felt needs and solving perceived problems. Health and social malaise problems and related policies of the past 120 years are analyzed in 50 Swedish municipalities. The analysis indicates that municipality policies respond to local problems only partly. Generally, local government policies responded dynamically to 'objective’ and perceived problems before the 1970s, but did not resolve the problems. Today’s legitimacy crisis could, to some extent, be explained by the discrepancy between high expectations created in the policy discourse and the central and local government’s incapacity to offer sustainable solutions to ongoing problems. It is suggested that if history is considered more seriously in public policy making it could help policy makers and citizens readjust expectations, illuminate the limits and prospects for public policy, and identify ways to restore legitimacy. Moreover, legitimacy could be restored if more realistic policies are worked out and if a new division of power between the levels of government is introduced.