TOPICS:
Understanding environmental problems; politics; overall approaches to the environmental policy-making process; applicable to water resource issues; written for the first party participant.
ABSTRACT:
Pollution and Public Policy: A Book of Readings is an examination of the relationship between environmental policy-making and the public policy process with specific consideration of both air and water pollution.
Pollution and Public Policy: A Book of Readings will be of interest to those who seek an understanding of public policy process in relation to environmental issues with a special emphasis on air and water pollution. The text is divided into three sections and is a collection of the work of multiple authors. The first part is an examination of environmental policy-making and the public policy process. The first chapter by Lynton Cladwell discusses the relationship between science, ethics and public policy. Other chapters in this section discuss: public response to environmental problems, systems ideas, a framework for dealing with the urban environment, and public administration and environmental quality. Of particular note is chapter two in which Aaron Wildavsky discusses "...the triumph of the sensitive minority over the vulgar mass". Morton Kroll offers hypotheses and designs for the study of public policies in the United States.
Section two addresses public policy and air pollution. The section begins with a summary of the facts relating to the Air Conservation Commission and the sociological aspects of same. George Hagevik discusses legislating for air quality management and the possibility of reducing theory to practice. The case of air pollution control in the Boston area is examined, followed by a discussion of Congress and clean air.
The final part is an examination of public policy and water pollution. Allen V. Kneese carefully addresses the: nature, effects, treatment, and alternatives to treatment of water pollution. After consideration of the setting of purity standards the case of stream pollution in the Buffalo River is presented. The chapter and the book end with M. Kent Jennings' examination of legislative politics and water pollution control.
Pollution and Public Policy: A Book of Readings is a practical examination of the development of public policy regarding air and water quality. The separate chapters are carefully annotated and the text is followed by a bibliography.
T. A. O'Lonergan