Environmental Policy and Societal Aims

Abstract

In a democratic society environmental policies need to be related to the full range of objectives to be held important by that society. Without understanding the relevance of this relationship we might expect, for example, that strong resistance from polluters would be the normal situation in all cases where authorities have the intention of implementing policies involving strict environmental rules. This resistance would be successful in many instances, especially when there is weak or poorly co-ordinated support for such strict rules. The successful implementation of legal restrictions, which can be observed in many democratic societies, implies that environmental policy can be established while reinforcing and supporting a range of societal aims. However, the conclusion that the relationship between environmental policies and societal aims is therefore well defined does not follow from this observation.