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Worldwide, half a million people die from air pollution each year-more than perish in all wars combined. One in every five mammal species on the planet is threatened with extinction. Our climate is warming, our forests are in decline, and every day we hear news of the latest ecological crisis. What will it really take to move society onto a more sustainable path? Many of us are already doing the ""little things"" to help the earth, like recycling or buying organic produce. These are important steps-but they're not enough. In Who Rules the Earth?, Paul Steinberg, a leading scholar of environmen

This article considers the role of generalization in comparative case studies, using as exemplars the contributions to this special issue on climate change politics. As a research practice, generalization is a logical argument for extending one's claims beyond the data, positing a connection between events that were studied and those that were not. No methodological tradition is exempt from the requirement to demonstrate a compelling logic of generalization. The article presents a taxonomy of the logics of generalization underlying diverse research methodologies, which often go unstated and unexamined. I introduce the concept of resonance groups, which provide a causeway for cross-system generalization from single case studies. Overall the results suggest that in the comparative study of complex political systems, case study research is, ceteris paribus, on par with large-N research with respect to generalizability.

There is a substantial literature documenting the spatial mismatch between the geographic location of biological resources and the spatial jurisdiction of the institutions responsible for their management. But little attention has been paid to the disjuncture in temporal scales between the long-term requirements of biodiversity conservation and the short time horizons governing public and private decisions affecting the survival of species and ecosystems. How can we create socially agreed-upon rules governing the long-term use and conservation of biodiversity when ongoing change is one of the defining characteristics of modern society? This article describes a new approach to biodiversity conservation—conservation systems—that addresses this question by providing design criteria that can be used to construct resilient social safety nets for biological diversity.

The identification of cause‐and‐effect relationships plays an indispensable role in policy research, both for applied problem solving and for building theories of policy processes. Historical process tracing has emerged as a promising method for revealing causal mechanisms at a level of precision unattainable through statistical techniques. Yet historical analyses often produce dauntingly complex causal explanations, with numerous factors emerging as necessary but insufficient causes of an outcome. This article describes an approach that renders complex causal narratives more analytically tractable by establishing measurement criteria for ranking the relative importance of component causes. By focusing on subjectively useful measurement attributes, the approach is well suited to the policy sciences' unique combination of explicitly normative aspirations and a commitment to the systematic assessment of causal claims.

National policy reform is a prerequisite for improved stewardship of the global environment and figures prominently among the goals of international environmental diplomacy and transnational advocacy campaigns. Yet research on global environmental politics has proceeded absent models of policy change in developing countries, where most of the planet's people, land, and biological diversity are found. In this article I present a theoretical framework to explain the domestic responses of developing countries to global environmental concerns. Drawing on research in Costa Rica and Bolivia, I situate the impact of global environmentalism in the context of complex, decades-long domestic struggles to create effective institutions. When international outcomes depend on protracted reforms in nations that are sovereign yet poor, policy change is driven by actors who successfully pair international resources (technical, financial, and ideational) with the domestic political resources needed to see through major policy innovations.

National policy reform is a prerequisite for improved stewardship of the global environment & figures prominently among the goals of international environmental diplomacy & transnational advocacy campaigns. Yet research on global environmental politics has proceeded absent models of policy change in developing countries, where most of the planet's people, land, & biological diversity are found. In this article I present a theoretical framework to explain the domestic responses of developing countries to global environmental concerns. Drawing on research in Costa Rica & Bolivia, I situate the impact of global environmentalism in the context of complex, decades-long domestic struggles to create effective institutions. When international outcomes depend on protracted reforms in nations that are sovereign yet poor, policy change is driven by actors who successfully pair international resources (technical, financial, & ideational) with domestic political resources needed to see through major policy innovations. 2 Figures, 21 References. Adapted from the source document.