The Civic Sustainability of Reform

Abstract

The need to consider how contemporary US environmental policy has affected various communities throughout the nation is emphasized. An overview of the traditional managerial approach to realizing environmental policy reform is presented, illustrating this perspective's limitations. Three factors that hampered the environmental movement during the 1980s & 1990s are identified, eg, the emergence of grassroots activists who demanded greater participation in the debate concerning toxic chemical production & waste disposal policy. Several obstacles that have problematized the reform of environmental policy are then noted, eg, the ability of companies & governments to avoid responsibility for past actions & the litigious nature of environmental policy. To overcome these difficulties, it is claimed that government must provide the public with an adequate knowledge base of environmental disputes, augment citizens' capacity to participate, & stipulate guidelines for achieving environmental policy reform. Several additional recommendations for facilitating the policy reinvention process are offered, eg, establishing effective monitoring systems. J. W. Parker