1997 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
A Comparative Study on the Environmental Policy Formation in the United States and Japan : The Case of the Pollution Prevention Idea
| Project/Area Number |
07452010
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Politics
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| Research Institution | Keio University |
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Principal Investigator |
KUBO Fumiaki Keio University, Department of Political Science, Faculty of Law, Professor, 法学部, 教授 (00126046)
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| Project Period (FY) |
1995 – 1997
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| Keywords | pollution prevention / the United States / politics / political process / environmental organizations / expertise / zero-emmision / Environmental Protection Agency (USA) |
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| Research Abstract |
This project has put its focus on how an idea of pollution prevention as an alternative to the so-called command-and-control approach was born, spread, accecpted by a wider policy circle, and finally legislated into law by U.S.Congress. It also analyzed the extent to which it has been backed up by the Environmental Protection Agency since it was legislated in 1990.
This research found that various actors such as state governments, private companies, environmental organizations, grass-roots organizations, and some research institutes playd an importnat role in developing the idea of pollution prevention.
lt also made it clear that an issue-network in this particular policy area contributed much to the formation and the sophistication of the pollution prevention bill, which included several environmental groups, staff to some Congressmen, staff to congressional committees, the Office of Technology Assessment, a few research institutes, and a congressional caucus.
There was an opposition in
… More
the Senate. Several Republican Senators from the Western States were opposed to the Pollution Prevention Bill, but it was mostly through the power of the idea of pollution prevention, an idea to cut the pollution at its source, that the bill was able to muster enough support in the Congress both from the Democrats and Republicans.
It is also important that environmental groups are not only political organizations exerting political presureon the politicians, but also research organizations or even think-tanks, employing on a full time basis a number of specialists and experts in many fields having so much of expertise. They were able to translate results of scientific research into politically relevant reports, ideas or bills. They were able to form a central part of the issue-network in the policy domain of pollution prevention.
After legislated, the pollution prevention approach was regarded as the most promising method by the EPA leadership to deal with contemporary pollution problems that the conventional conmmand-and-control approach cannot effectively solve.
The idea of pollution prevention thus developed was conveyed to and absorbed by the envionmental specialists in Japan as an zero-emmision approach. It is a very good illustration of the ideas and movements crossing national boundaries very fast and very easily. Less
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