Business Strategy and the EnvironmentBus. Strat. Env. 10, 252–255 (2001)

BOOK REVIEWS

ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY. VOLUME 1: NATIONALENVIRONMENTAL POLICY; VOLUME 2: INTERNA-TIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY edited by Wolf-gang Rudig, 1999. Elgar, xli+1280 pp, £290.00 (hbk).ISBN 1-85278-950-6

These two volumes of journal articles, book extracts anddiscussion papers on environmental policy are part ofan ongoing series bringing together writings by politicalscientists on aspects of governmental policy. This hasconstrained the editor of this collection to avoid policyfields to be covered by other parts of the series, such astransport, tax, urban and regional planning, health, en-ergy, natural resources and science and technology. Thedecision has also been taken to emphasize the contribu-tion made by political science to the comparative aspectsof environmental policy. This restricts the selection inthe first volume to research material comparing nationalpolicy processes and institutions affecting the environ-ment, and in the second volume to comparative studieson environmental policy processes and institutions atinter-, trans- and supra-national levels.

In his lucid editorial introduction, Rudig explains that‘as the main purpose of the present project is to docu-ment the state of the art of ‘‘political science’’ work sincethe early 1970s, the choice of articles for inclusion hasconcentrated on works that contribute to the environ-mental policy research agenda of political science’ (Vol.1, xvii). The result is a collection in which the range anddepth of analysis of environmental policy, judged fromthe perspective of someone not a political scientist, isdistinctly uneven. This impression is reinforced in someof the contributions themselves. David Vogel, in anextract from a 1987 monograph on comparative policyresearch, observes that the ‘comparative environmentalpolicy literature’s most notable feature is its exclusivereliance on case study material. Typically, policies intwo or more countries are examined, their similaritiesand differences are enumerated, and an explanation ofthe observed differences is postulated. None of thestudies. . . incorporated statistical analysis, correlativemethods, or time-series data’ (Vol. 1, pp 19–20). Thecurrent collection remains largely true to this observa-tion. Contributions with a limited quantitative approach

are confined to a few of the papers included in the finalsection of the first volume, which analyse pollution datato provide national comparisons of the implementationand outcome of environmental policies.

Despite these limitations, those researching environ-mental policy from other than a political science per-spective, and who have access to a library capable offunding the cost of such accessions, will find somevaluable insights in this collection. The comparativenational policy aspects of the first volume are sortedinto four sections, beginning with articles reviewing theresearch agenda, and followed by sections on issueemergence and agenda setting, institutions and policy-making and implementation and outcomes. The secondvolume has a similar structure, starting with articleswhich review the international environmental policyagenda, followed by sections on the institutional dy-namics of supra-national environmental policy-making,the international–national policy nexus and the impactof international environmental policy.

A common theme running through the contributionsis that without an understanding of political institutionsand the policy process, it is impossible to explain varia-tions in the state of environmental policy either betweenindividual nations or at international levels. These vol-umes provide a number of salutary warnings to re-searchers from other disciplines seeking to account forthe apparent inability of administrative systems to pro-duce logical and effective environmental policies, thatthey neglect political processes at their peril. LyntonCaldwell opens the collection with the pithy observationin his 1972 paper that ‘among the many reasons thatmight explain the inability of a nation to fulfil its com-mitments, administrative inadequacy is perhaps themost common’ (Vol. 1, p 6). Vogel’s paper then identi-fies environmental policy’s most distinctive feature as‘the magnitude of scientific and technical uncertaintywhich surrounds most environmental issues. . . Govern-ment actions, already burdened by the magnitude of theconsequences of alternative decisions, are doubly ham-pered by the contradictory or illusive nature of theinformation available as a basis for decision-making’(Vol. 1, p 18). This leads him to the cogent conclusionthat research in this field ‘offers a laboratory for thestudy of policy-making under conditions of extremetechnical and scientific uncertainty’ (Vol. 1, p 18).

William Solesbury, comparing environmental policyin Britain, West Germany and California in 1976, offersCopyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

BOOK REVIEWS

an insight into the policy process that still appears tohold, particularly with respect to the reluctant adoptionof the precautionary principle by UK government de-partments. He observes that ‘a distinction must be madebetween the issue that can be related positively to thecontext of ideas, so that the recognition and responses itevokes can be related to prevailing policy norms, andthe issue that can only be recognized and responded toby implicitly or explicitly challenging prevailing policynorms. The latter must be connected to more fundamen-tal ideas to acquire legitimacy’ (Vol. 1, p 172).

Some of the contributions suffer from an inadequateappreciation of developments in other fields of environ-mental research. Corinne Larrue’s 1995 article on thepolitical infeasibility of applying economic instrumentsto environmental policy is the only one to cover animportant area of current international policy research,comparing traditional command-and-control with mar-ket-based forms of environmental regulation. Its argu-ment rests on an outmoded analysis of optimalenvironmental taxes, which neglects the 1972 ‘prices andstandards’ approach of Baumol and Oates, and also failsto consider the revenue raising aspects of ecological taxreform.

Michael Zurn, in a 1998 review of current research oninternational environmental politics, refers to work thatsuggests that international environmental regimeschange behaviour by boosting what are termed the‘three Cs’. These regimes ‘increase government concernthrough normative pronouncements, they enhance thecontractual environment by reducing transaction costsand providing monitoring and verification mechanisms,and they heighten national capacity through technicalassistance and aid’ (Vol. 2, p 127). Also to be found inthe second volume are two useful articles from theinternational relations school of political science re-search, the 1992 review by Paterson and Grubb of theinternational politics of climate change, a precursor toGrubb’s fine recent monograph on the Kyoto Protocol,and Imber’s succinct 1993 appraisal of the post-Rioreform of UN environmental institutions.

Boehmer-Christiansen’s two articles on the involve-ment of international epistemic communities in theglobal warming policy debate provide a valuable con-crete basis to evaluate the claims made by earlier articleson the role of experts in developing and implementingenvironmental policy. She demonstrates convincinglythat such experts are no more disinterested and objec-tive than the layperson in seeking to promote specificpolicy measures. The collection ends with an extractfrom the well-received 1997 empirical analysis by Ecker-berg and Lafferty of variations between European na-tional regimes in implementing Local Agenda 21policies, which categorizes the United Kingdom as a‘pioneer’.

Tony JacksonSchool of Town and Regional Planning,

University of Dundee, UK

DOI: 10.1002/bse.297

LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT IN INDUSTRY AND BUSI-NESS: ADOPTION PATTERNS, APPLICATIONS ANDIMPLICATIONS by Paolo Frankl and Frieder Rubik,2000. Springer, X + 280 pp, DM 129.00 (hbk). ISBN3-540-66469-6

This reviewer was pleased to receive a book on life cycleassessment (LCA), as it is a key method for evaluatingthe environmental impact of products on a cradle-to-grave basis. It is a difficult process to undertake and isfraught with technical detail and complexity. That somerigorous evaluation had been undertaken to corroborateor refute the anecdotes that often pass as evidence wasto be welcomed.

However, it is a somewhat strange book for the prac-titioner. At first glance this medium-sized volume mayappear rather confusing and difficult to get to gripswith. This could be because it is a final report on aresearch project and not a handbook that tries to guideits readers through its subject matter.

The authors are quite clear that this book, or report asthey call it, aims to examine the application of LCAwithin business and the implications of its use for envi-ronmental policy. As such, it does not try to explainLCA and how its use can be improved. The readerstherefore, need to have a reasonable grasp of what LCAis all about and how to go about it.

The work is subdivided into six chapters. The firstsection provides a conceptual framework to understandand study LCAs in relation to management processes.As mentioned earlier, this offers a context within whichthe LCA methodology is applied rather than an exposi-tion of the process itself. The next chapter goes on topresent an overview of the use of LCA in four Europeancountries, namely Germany, Italy, Sweden and Switzer-land, as at the end of 1996. The results of a question-naire-based survey undertaken in the four countries areset out in chapter 3. In order to build a richer and moredynamic picture of the take-up and use of LCA in thefour countries the research features 20 case studieswhich are detailed next. The penultimate chapter ad-dresses the relationship between business and policymakers in terms of the application of LCA. Finally, theauthors bring matters to a close with a comprehensiveset of conclusions and recommendations.

This reviewer was particularly taken with the way theauthors positioned LCA as ‘a tool of judgement inmessy situations’. This really brought home the realityof management, which is all about ‘managing messes’rather than tackling independent and static problems, toquote Ackhoff. Whilst the opening chapter is a touchabstract at times, it does provide a good framework andsets up the rest of the book.

The research itself offers some interesting insights. Forexample, the potential to generate short-term cost sav-ings is cited as a driver for starting LCA in Germancompanies but not for those in Sweden. This split alsoseems to hold true for environmental legislation, whereit is ranked highly as an incentive for Germany althoughconsidered unimportant in Sweden. Less surprising is

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