The Policy Consequences of Political Corruption: Evidence from State Environmental Programs*

Objective. This study assesses the effect of political corruption on state environmental policy. Method. OLS regression analyses are used to determine if political corruption affects the strength of state environmental programs. Results. The results suggest that political corruption serves to systematically weaken state environmental programs. The effect of corruption is similar in magnitude to conventional explanations of environmental program strength, such as public environmentalism and state wealth. Its impact is particularly pronounced in states with strong organized manufacturing interests. Conclusion. Political corruption may systematically bias the substance of public policy.     

Environmental Policy Attitudes: Issues,Geographical Scale,and Political Trust*

Objectives. This article examines environmental policy attitudes, focusing on the differences in preferences across issue type (i.e., pollution, resource preservation) and geographical scale (i.e., local, national, global). In addition, we study whether an individual's trust in government influences environmental policy attitudes. Methods. Analyzing data from the 2007 Cooperative Congressional Election Study, we estimate a series of OLS regression models to examine the public's environmental policy attitudes. Results. We find stronger public support for government action to address pollution issues than resources issues, and stronger support for local and national pollution abatement than dealing with global problems. We also find that Republicans and ideological conservatives are less likely to support further government effort to address the environment, and that more trusting individuals are more favorable to government action to address pollution and global issues. Conclusion. Environmental policy attitudes vary by the nature of the issue; however, political ideology and partisan affiliation are consistent predictors of preferences across issues, even when controlling for an individual's level of trust in government.     

National Determinants of Cloning Policy*

Objective. This research seeks to identify demographic factors that may account for national stance toward human cloning. Methods. A multiple logistic regression model serves as the basis for analysis. Cloning policy stance is characterized as restrictive or permissive, depending on whether the nation has expressed support for therapeutic cloning research—all nations oppose reproductive cloning. Results. Findings suggest that nations with higher per‐capita incomes and permissive abortion laws are more likely to take a permissive stance toward cloning, supporting an immediate ban on human reproductive cloning, but allowing therapeutic cloning research to proceed. Countries favoring an immediate and total ban on both human reproductive and therapeutic cloning are more likely to have lower per‐capita incomes and restrictive abortion laws. A relationship between the Roman Catholic population and cloning stance was investigated and found not to be significant. Conclusions. This article offers evidence that there may be systematic differences predisposing individual nations to act either restrictively or permissively with regard to cloning technology. Understanding the factors that shape sentiment and impel policy making may help inform the policy process as nations strive to create workable cloning policies both within their own borders and in the global community.     

Social Vulnerability to Environmental Hazards*

Objective. County‐level socioeconomic and demographic data were used to construct an index of social vulnerability to environmental hazards, called the Social Vulnerability Index (SoVI) for the United States based on 1990 data. Methods. Using a factor analytic approach, 42 variables were reduced to 11 independent factors that accounted for about 76 percent of the variance. These factors were placed in an additive model to compute a summary score—the Social Vulnerability Index. Results. There are some distinct spatial patterns in the SoVI, with the most vulnerable counties clustered in metropolitan counties in the east, south Texas, and the Mississippi Delta region. Conclusion. Those factors that contribute to the overall score often are different for each county, underscoring the interactive nature of social vulnerability—some components increase vulnerability; others moderate the effects.     

印度能源政策分析

本文对印度能源现状和能源政策改革、生物能源政策主要内容和特点进行了分析,并从中总结出对中国能源政策发展有启示意义的方面.     

Evidence of Environmental Justice: A Critical Perspective on the Practice of EJ Research and Lessons for Policy Design*

Objective. This article gleans important lessons for environmental justice (EJ) policy from the empirical literature and demonstrates them using EJ analyses of Superfund sites. It constructively critiques the EJ literature and suggests some future directions for designing policy and framing the discourse. Methods. The research methods of many quantitative EJ studies are reviewed. To demonstrate sensitivity to researchers' choices, logit models are estimated to explain the nationwide distribution of Superfund sites (and deletions from the NPL) using various spatial scales, control variables, and definitions of proximity. Results. Most empirical EJ studies examine cross‐sectional distributions for aggregated demographic measures, dwelling on the implied counterfactual or causal mechanism briefly, if ever. The EJ analysis for Superfund sites exhibits much sensitivity to modeling choices and to whether environmental conditions or policy impacts are modeled. Conclusions. The findings highlight the limitations of conventional EJ research designs. Several implications for the design of EJ policy are drawn, emphasizing the importance of clarity about counterfactuals and which sorts of impacts are relevant. Principles for a revised EJ policy framework are proposed.     

An Overall Assessment of China's Environmental Policy

Ｉ.Ｃｈｉｎａ ｓＥｃｏｎｏｍｉｃＡｃｈｉｅｖｅｍｅｎｔｓａｎｄＴｈｅｉｒＥｎｖｉｒｏｎｍｅｎｔａｌＣｏｓｔ　　Ｔｈｅｒｅｆｏｒｍａｎｄｏｐｅｎｉｎｇ ｕｐｈａｖｅｆｉｌｌｅｄｔｈｅＣｈｉｎｅｓｅｅｃｏｎｏｍｙｗｉｔｈｖｉｇｏｒ,ａｎｄｔｈｅｎａｔｉｏｎａｃｈｉｅｖｅｄｕｎｐｒｅｃｅｄｅｎｔｅｄｅｃｏｎｏｍｉｃｇｒｏｗｔｈ ,ｂｏｔｈｉｎｔｅｒｍｓｏｆｓｐｅｅｄａｎｄｍａｇｎｉｔｕｄｅ ,ｆｒｏｍ 1 978ｔｏ 1 999.ＴｈｅａｖｅｒａｇｅａｎｎｕａｌＧＤＰｇｒｏｗｔｈｒａｔｅｗａｓ 6.8%ｄｕｒｉｎｇｔｈｅｓｅ…     

Policy Climates and Reductions in Automobile Use*

Objectives. This study examines how national environmental policy influences individual car‐driving behavior in the European Union. Methods. Using the International Social Survey: Environment II in conjunction with the 2001 and 2002 Environmental Sustainability Indices, we analyze the relationship between macro‐level policy indicators and the reported reduction of individual car driving for environmental reasons, controlling for meso‐ and micro‐level factors. Results. Our results show that individuals report a greater likelihood of driving less for environmental reasons when they live in nations that adopt strong pro‐environmental policies, even when such policies are not directly related to car use. Conclusions. Our finding that a national policy climate focused on environmental sustainability is associated with pro‐environmental behaviors among individuals in that nation encourages us to believe that greater international cooperation on environmental issues (such as the Kyoto Protocol) and increased strength of domestic environmental policies will positively change individual behavior.     

Electoral Support for Community Growth Management Policy*

Objectives. This study seeks to explain the variation in voter support for growth management policy. Interest group theory of local politics and property rights is used as a theoretical framework to explore how competing pro‐growth and anti‐growth interests influence the level of electoral support at the ballot box. Methods. Survey data collected from local planning officials in Massachusetts are analyzed using a two‐stage Heckman selection model. Results. The results indicate that development competition has a negative effect and controversy over development a positive effect on the probability of a community placing growth management policy on the local ballot. The analysis further indicates that environmental interests and suburban communities have a positive influence on the percentage of votes cast in favor of conservation‐oriented growth management policy. Neighborhood‐based interests, on the other hand, have a negative influence on voter support. Conclusions. The findings suggest that compared to the normal legislative process, ballot‐box voting allows anti‐growth and localized interests the opportunity to craft proposals and then mobilize support for policy changes.     

构建我国能源政策体系的思考

能源作为一种重要的战略资源,在国家的经济社会发展过程中起着关键性的作用。我国能源政策目前存在节能政策受阻、宏观能源管理体制不顺等多方面问题,迫切需要制定科学合理的能源政策,加强能源的系统性和战略性管理。从能源供给政策、能源消费政策、能源环境政策、能源安全政策四个方面构建能源政策体系具有很强的理论和实践意义。     

Ignorance in Congressional Voting? Evidence from Policy Reversal on the Endangered Species Act*

Objective. In 1978 Congress weakened several key provisions of the Endangered Species Act (ESA), which had been enacted only five years earlier. The objective is to compare alternative explanations for this policy reversal. Methods. Probit and multinomial logit models are used to explain empirically how senators voted in both 1973 and 1978, and to investigate why many senators switched their vote from supporting ESA to weakening it. Results. The findings here indicate that party affiliation and policy‐maker preferences were not important to the 1973 vote, but they were key variables in the 1978 votes and the vote‐switching decision. Proxies for unexpected economic impacts of ESA on individual states have little explanatory power. Conclusions. Ignorance, as measured here, does not appear to explain this policy reversal; rather, an influx of relatively conservative Democrats between 1973 and 1978 presents itself as the leading explanation.     

By What Authority? Ethics and Policy Analysis*

By what authority do social policy analysts evaluate institutions and propose reforms? They have often relied on past traditions of political and moral philosophy, briefly reviewed here, to answer that question. These sources of authority are now failing, and many analysts are moving reluctantly towards a relativist or historicist standpoint which they nevertheless find unattractive. However, by studying institutions, practices and the traditions developed within them, it is possible to formulate and defend a socially embedded morality which will be helpful to policy analysts. Principles derived from it are contestable and liable to change as social circumstances change. But this is a strength, not a weakness, of the approach. Aesthetic reasoning offers helpful paradigms for policy analysis. Social policies and programmes may be derived from moral and political values, but they also help to change them. Indeed, that may be their most important achievement. The paper concludes with questions which teachers and researchers may wish to explore with the help of the concepts set forth here.     

以非再生能源资源定价改革促进经济增长方式转变

改革开放三十年来,中国取得了举世瞩目的成就。与此同时,一些深层次的矛盾逐步暴露。自20世纪50年代以来,推行重工业优先发展的经济发展策略,特别是近年来宏观经济与城市化快速发展,致使中国经济增长采取高耗能方式。经济增长方式的粗放,导致能源消费增长过快和环境污染加剧。能源与环境成为中国经济增长的双重约束。转变经济增长方式势在必行,而关键点在于非再生能源资源定价改革。非再生能源资源的开发使用制度的变革,目的在于充分体现资源成本与环境成本。资源成本是需要通过完善资源的基础市场即矿业权市场来实现的,而环境(生态)成本是需要通过资源税费制度改革实现的。最终,通过价格信号引导产业结构以及经济增长方式的彻底转变,实现经济的可持续发展。     

Who Lives on the Wrong Side of the Environmental Tracks? Evidence from the EPA's Risk‐Screening Environmental Indicators Model*

Objective. We analyze the social and economic correlates of air pollution exposure in U.S. cities. Methods. We combine 1990 Census block group data for urbanized areas with 1998 data on toxicity‐adjusted exposure to air pollution. Using a unique data set created as a byproduct of the EPA's Risk‐Screening Environmental Indicators Model, we improve on previous studies of environmental inequality in three ways. First, where previous studies focus on the proximity to point sources and the total mass of pollutants released, our measure of toxic exposure reflects atmospheric dispersion and chemical toxicity. Second, we analyze the data at a fine level of geographic resolution. Third, we control for substantial regional variations in pollution, allowing us to identify exposure differences both within cities and between cities. Results. We find that African Americans tend to live both in more polluted cities in the United States and in more polluted neighborhoods within cities. Hispanics live in less polluted cities on average, but they live in more polluted areas within cities. We find an extremely consistent income‐pollution gradient, with lower‐income people significantly more exposed to pollution. Conclusions. Communities with higher concentrations of lower‐income people and people of color experience disproportionate exposure to environmental hazards. Our findings highlight the importance of controlling for interregional variation in pollution levels in studies of the demographic correlates of pollution.