December 2003

ISSN: 1076-7975

Review: Environmental Politics and Policy in Industrialized Countries
By Uday Desai (Ed.)

Reviewed by M. Tayyeb Javed
Islamabad, Pakistan

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Uday Desai (Ed.). Environmental Politics and Policy in Industralialized Countries. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002. 403 pp. ISBN 0-262-54137-8 (paperback, alk. paper). US$25.00

To protect the scenic beauty of our global village from environmental degradation by high-production and high-consumption lifestyle (mostly in developed and partially in developing countries) for ourselves and for future generations, it is the duty of every human and nation to take an active role in environmental protection.

Environmental Politics and Policy in Industrialized Countries, edited by Uday Desai, professor and chair of the Department of Political Science at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, and the editor-in-chief of Policy Studies Journal, presents the environmental policies and their causes, consequences, and effectiveness in seven major industrialized nations: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Australia and Japan.

Comprised of contributions by eminent social and political scientists (Uday Desai, Michael E. Kraft, Glen Toner, John McCormick, Helmut Weidner, Rudolf Lewanski, Angela Liberatore, K. J. Walker, and Jeffrey Broadbent), this work is an excellent collection for sociologists, political scientists, public administrators, engineers, and doctors (indeed, anyone who is engaged in fighting environmental pollution) to understand the environmental policy and politics in these seven major industrialized countries. The book is divided into nine chapters, The first is an introduction to the book's content and the last is a summary and conclusion on three basic concerns:  when and how the state has intervened to protect the environment, the role of the institutions, and the effectiveness of intervention in the examined countries. The remaining seven chapters deal with each of the seven individual countries. The contents of these chapters are presented with a common framework.  Each chapter describes the history of environmental problems and policies, discusses the environmental policy process, and concludes with a discussion of policy performance.

Environmental Politics and Policy in Industrialized Countries is an excellent guide for developing countries to monitor environmental problems and to formulate policies and assess their effectiveness. Of great importance to research is the solidly referenced statistical profile that includes land, population, GDP, energy consumptions, road vehicle stock, air profile and pollution abatement expenditures for each country.

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