The Voluntary Approach to Environmental Policy: Joint Environmental Approach to Environmental Policy-making in Europe - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0199241163 ISBN 13: 9780199241163

Publisher: OUP Oxford, 2000

Synopsis

Voluntary agreements and other approaches based on co-operation between public authorities and (agro) industrial polluters are rapidly gaining importance throughout Europe. This so-called Joint Environmental Policy-making (JEP) is increasingly being presented as a 'third way', alongside direct regulation through laws and the use of financial sticks and carrots in the form of eco-taxes and subsidies. Successes and failures are reported from JEP experiences in various European countries.

This book seeks to evaluate these experiences. Is JEP really the panacea it is sometimes claimed to be? To what extent does JEP actually fit into different national policy systems and cultures? Is the application of JEP dependant on specific circumstances? In answering these and other questions, the book focuses on the forces and institutional conditions that are likely to promote the introduction, determine the form, and contribute to the successful functioning of JEP arrangements. Against the background of both deregulation and ecological modernization tendencies in European environmental policy, this book offers detailed analysis of JEP in three European countries (Austria, Denmark, and the Netherlands) and in three areas: industrial energy efficiency, food labelling, and package waste.

The volume contributes to a better understanding of JEP in Europe and formulates policy recommendations for its successful implementation. But it also contributes to comparative environmental policy studies in providing an innovative approach.

About this title

Review

This book makes a significant theoretical and practical contribution in the field of voluntary environmental policy by explaining why/how JEP [joint environmental policy-making] emerges and by discussing useful policy lessons. It also opens new opportunities for research (Journal of Environmental Planning and Management)

The book is accessibly written, responds to a gap in the literature on policy instruments and offers rich theoretical and empirical detail that will be of interest to a wide readership (Environmental Politics)

The collection definitely fills a gap in the literature in policy instruments, in both theoretical and empirical terms (Environmental Politics)

The strength of this collection is that the practical application of JEP (joint environmental policy-making) is analysed in three different nation-states and across three policy areas using a common analytical framework (Environmental Politics)

The editors of this book powerfully confirm that a very tightly-edited book can capture the subtle comparative politics of a particular issue as well as a single authored monograph (Political Studies)

Edition details

• Publisher: OUP Oxford
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0199241163
• ISBN 13: 9780199241163
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 278
• Editor: Mol Arthur P.J., Lauber Volkmar, Liefferink Duncan