2004/06/01 by Sonja Wälti · 82 citations
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Engineering · Social Sciences · #Affect (linguistics) #Business #Climate Change Policy and Economics #Corporate governance #Decentralization #Developed country #Developing country #Economic growth #Economics #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #Energy, Environment, Economic Growth #Engineering #Environmental governance #Multi-level governance #Multilevel model #Political science #Public economics #Sociology #Work (physics)
paper · doi:10.1111/j.1475-6765.2004.00167.x
published in European Journal of Political Research 43(4), 599-634 (Wiley)
openalex publication_date 2004/06/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/25
Abstract Extensive decentralization and devolution efforts among industrialized nations throughout the 1980s and 1990s call for a closer look at the effect these trends have on public policy. This article investigates the impact of these trends on the environmental performance of industrialized countries. There are two competing hypotheses as to how federalism and other multilevel governance structures affect the environmental performance of countries. The first stresses that the resulting institutional fragmentation and regulatory unpredictability is detrimental to the protection of the environment. An alternative hypothesis emphasizes that multilevel systems fare better regarding environmental performance because they can effectively respond to local needs and encourage innovation at the sub‐national level. Based on OECD air pollution data, the study finds that multilevel structures affect the way in which important determinants of environmental performance work. Thus, corporatist accommodation structures, which are known to enhance environmental policy, do so primarily in multi‐tiered systems. A high level of economic development, on the other hand, which has also been shown to contribute to environmental performance, does so mainly in countries that are characterized by weak multilevel structures. The article discusses theoretical and practical implications of these findings.