The environmental state under pressure: An introduction

Abstract

Environmental quality has traditionally been perceived as a common or public good which cannot readily be provided via the market, and thus the state has been assumed to be the principal actor in environmental protection (albeit with great variations in the processes and efficacy of state environmental management institutions across nation-states). It is worthwhile noting, however, that the presumption of state responsibility for ensuring environmental quality is a relatively recent phenomenon. Particularly during the early years of nature protection at the turn of the twentieth century it was generally not the state, but rather civil society groups, that took the initiative in safeguarding natural areas and protecting the habitats of endangered species (Hays, 1987). The growing middle class was the key driving force behind the notion of preserving national parks and endangered species. Ultimately, though, states played growing roles in codifying these notions of nature protection in the form of government regulations and establishment of state-protected natural areas (Andrews, 1999). In the industrialized countries of North America, Europe, and Oceania the institutionalization of environmental tasks in state policies and politics and

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