The Life Cycles of the Council on Environmental Quality and the Environmental Protection Agency: 1970 - 2035

ISBN-13: 9780190203719 / Angielski / Miękka / 2016 / 216 str.

James K. Conant; Peter J. Balint

Opis

In 1970, due to increasing public concern about the environment, a dramatic series of bipartisan actions were taken to expand the national government's efforts to control pollutants. In that year, the Congress and President Nixon established two key federal agencies to address the nation's growing environmental problems: the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). But despite this initial recognition of the pressing problems presented by environmental degradation, support for related policymaking and administration waxed and waned over the next thirty-five years, as other domestic and foreign policy problems rose to the top of the public and legislative agendas. What does the future hold for environmental policy in the United States, given the highly polarized politics surrounding the issue today?

In this book, James K. Conant and Peter J. Balint examine what happened to the CEQ and EPA between 1970 and 2010 by using changes in leadership and budgetary resources as key indicators of the agencies' vitality and capacity for implementing pollution control laws. They also examine correlations between the agencies' fortunes and various social, political, and economic variables. The authors conclude with several scenarios about what the future holds for these important environmental agencies.

Recenzje

This book provides an invaluable perspective on the political economy of federal budgeting from the agency point of view. The insights generated by the authors on resource allocation and bureaucratic politics break new ground that hopefully may stimulate much needed new research on the politics of national budgeting. The authors do the great service to students and interested observers alike of demystifying the often obscure and specialized world of budgeting by clearly illustrating and demonstrating the broader policy and political consequences of budget choices and routines.

O autorze

James K. Conant is Professor in the School of Policy, Government, and International Affairs at George Mason University. Peter J. Balint is Associate Professor in the School of Policy, Government, and International Affairs at George Mason University.