Prakash Kashwan
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- February 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190637385
- eISBN:
- 9780190637415
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190637385.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics, Environmental Politics
How do societies negotiate the apparently competing agendas of environmental protection and social justice? And why do some countries perform much better than others? Democracy in the Woods answers ...
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How do societies negotiate the apparently competing agendas of environmental protection and social justice? And why do some countries perform much better than others? Democracy in the Woods answers these question by explaining the trajectories of forest and land rights—and the fate of forest-dependent peasants—in the forested regions of India, Tanzania, and Mexico. To organize a comparative inquiry that straddles the fields of comparative politics, historical institutionalism, and policy studies, this book develops a political economy of institutions framework. It shows that differences in structures of political intermediation—venues that help peasant groups and social movements engage in political and policy processes—explain the varying levels of success in combining the pursuits of social justice and environmental conservation. This book challenges the age-old notion that populist policies produce uniformly deleterious environmental consequences that must be mitigated via centralized systems of environmental regulation. It shows instead that the national leaders and dominant political parties that must compete for popular support in the political arena are more likely to fashion interventions that pursue conservation of forested landscapes without violating the rights of forest-dependent people. Mexico demonstrates the potential for win-win outcomes, India continues to stumble on both environmental and social questions despite longstanding traditions of popular mobilization for forestland rights, and Tanzania’s government has failed its forest-dependent people despite a lucrative wildlife tourism sector. This book’s political analysis of the control over and use of nature opens up new avenues for reflecting on nature in the Anthropocene.Less
How do societies negotiate the apparently competing agendas of environmental protection and social justice? And why do some countries perform much better than others? Democracy in the Woods answers these question by explaining the trajectories of forest and land rights—and the fate of forest-dependent peasants—in the forested regions of India, Tanzania, and Mexico. To organize a comparative inquiry that straddles the fields of comparative politics, historical institutionalism, and policy studies, this book develops a political economy of institutions framework. It shows that differences in structures of political intermediation—venues that help peasant groups and social movements engage in political and policy processes—explain the varying levels of success in combining the pursuits of social justice and environmental conservation. This book challenges the age-old notion that populist policies produce uniformly deleterious environmental consequences that must be mitigated via centralized systems of environmental regulation. It shows instead that the national leaders and dominant political parties that must compete for popular support in the political arena are more likely to fashion interventions that pursue conservation of forested landscapes without violating the rights of forest-dependent people. Mexico demonstrates the potential for win-win outcomes, India continues to stumble on both environmental and social questions despite longstanding traditions of popular mobilization for forestland rights, and Tanzania’s government has failed its forest-dependent people despite a lucrative wildlife tourism sector. This book’s political analysis of the control over and use of nature opens up new avenues for reflecting on nature in the Anthropocene.
Daniel J. Fiorino
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- December 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190605803
- eISBN:
- 9780190860318
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190605803.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics, Environmental Politics
Green growth is the idea that a society’s ecological and economic goals can be pursued as a mutually reinforcing, positive sum. It accepts that economies increase in scale and efficiency, but that ...
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Green growth is the idea that a society’s ecological and economic goals can be pursued as a mutually reinforcing, positive sum. It accepts that economies increase in scale and efficiency, but that economic growth may occur in less harmful ways ecologically through the use of new policies, patterns of investment, technology innovation, and behavioral change. The ultimate goal is a green economic transition, in which ecological objectives and policies are effectively integrated with many others—energy, transportation, manufacturing, and infrastructure, to name a few—and all sectors of society work more collaboratively to maximize opportunities for positive-sum solutions. The concept of green growth offers a means of reframing ecology–economy relationships and defining a pragmatic framework for making and implementing policy choices. The feasibility of and capacity for green growth depends on three sets of factors: understanding ways of linking ecological and economic goals; having governance capacities for ecological protection and policy integration; and creating the social conditions for acting collectively and valuing ecological public goods. Political systems vary in their ability to meet these conditions. For the United States, which exhibits both advantages and disadvantages in the pursuit of a green growth path, the challenge is to achieve the political conditions for promoting change. Principal among these conditions are to build a political coalition in support of a green economic transition, implement institutional reforms that enhance democracy, reduce economic inequality, and stress global action and interdependency.Less
Green growth is the idea that a society’s ecological and economic goals can be pursued as a mutually reinforcing, positive sum. It accepts that economies increase in scale and efficiency, but that economic growth may occur in less harmful ways ecologically through the use of new policies, patterns of investment, technology innovation, and behavioral change. The ultimate goal is a green economic transition, in which ecological objectives and policies are effectively integrated with many others—energy, transportation, manufacturing, and infrastructure, to name a few—and all sectors of society work more collaboratively to maximize opportunities for positive-sum solutions. The concept of green growth offers a means of reframing ecology–economy relationships and defining a pragmatic framework for making and implementing policy choices. The feasibility of and capacity for green growth depends on three sets of factors: understanding ways of linking ecological and economic goals; having governance capacities for ecological protection and policy integration; and creating the social conditions for acting collectively and valuing ecological public goods. Political systems vary in their ability to meet these conditions. For the United States, which exhibits both advantages and disadvantages in the pursuit of a green growth path, the challenge is to achieve the political conditions for promoting change. Principal among these conditions are to build a political coalition in support of a green economic transition, implement institutional reforms that enhance democracy, reduce economic inequality, and stress global action and interdependency.
