Postindustrialization and Environmental Quality: An Empirical Analysis of the Environmental State

Abstract

Existingsociological analyses express differingexpectations about state controlover economic actors and the political feasibility of environmental regulation. Recent literature on the environmental statesees environmental protection as becoming a basic responsibility of postindustrial states, with economic actors no longer having the autonomy they once enjoyed. In contrast, much of the workin environmental sociology expects commitments to environmental state responsibilities to be largely symbolic. Scholars working from this perspective tend to see environmental damage as proportionate to economic prosperity. To assess the differing expectations, we analyze actualenvironmental performance among the mostprosperous nation-states focusing on national-level emissions of carbon dioxide. The strongest predictors ofemissions are found to be measures of ecological efficiency, which tend to be associated with potentially less symbolic policy decisions. For thefuture, there isa needto movebeyond broadassertions, devotinggreater attention to the conditions under which states are more or less likely to impose constraints on economic actors.The social consequences of modernity have been of interest to sociologists at least since the days of Weber ([1904-5] 1958), Tonnies ([1887] 1963), Durkheim ([1893]1933), and Marx (1889), but the nature of the interest has changed significantly in recent decades. Two types of transformations are particularly noteworthy; both of them result, in part, from the magnitude of the social, economic, and technological changes that have taken place over the past century. First, sociologists now focus routinely on the social structure of "advanced" * The authors would like to thank the Social Forces reviewers for valuable comments on this manuscript. Please direct all correspondence to: Dana R. Fisher,

Explaining national environmental performance: approaches, evidence, and implications

“…Although some pollutants (fecal coliform) decline with increased freedom, the levels of nitrates, cadmium, and biological and chemical oxygen demand rise, perhaps, because they are not directly perceived as threats to public health. In this and other studies, this relationship is not always linear or consistent across indicators (Duwel 2010;Fisher and Freundenberg 2004).…”

“…The problem with using outcomes as the dependent variable, the authors of one study argue, is that they depend on factors unrelated to regime type (Gates et al 2002; for a contrary view, see Fisher and Freundenberg 2004). Environmental conditions and endowments vary widely.…”

Bringing the Material Back In: Understanding the U.S. Position on Climate Change

“…One particularly relevant case in point is the sociological research that explores the relationship between greenhouse gas emissions and the social characteristics of nation-states (e.g., Dietz and Rosa, 1997;Roberts and Grimes, 1997;York et al, 2003b; see also Fisher and Freudenburg, 2004;Roberts, 2001). Generally, this work tends to focus on the relationship between emissions and affluence, as well as other social characteristics, analyzing how they are related to national emissions.…”

Light-Weight Composite Environmental Performance Indicators (LWC-EPI)

“…Therefore, it is assumed that higher technological experience leads to higher expectations on the environmental footprint level. Research and publications such as (Fisher, et al, 2004), (Dietz, et al, 2007), and (Gandhi, et al, 2006) support this assumption. Figure 33 depicts the four hypotheses between the factors of the ECET model.…”