Environmental Politics in Japan, Germany, and the United States (review)

In this landmark new book, Miranda Schreurs seeks to explain why Japan, Germany, and the United States have pursued markedly different policy approaches to environmental protection since the 1960s. The question is an intriguing one given the roughly similar levels of economic development in these three countries, the globalization of environmental problems such as acid rain and stratospheric ozone depletion, and the fact that the three countries entered the era of national environmental policymaking at roughly the same time. Schreurs's answer to this puzzle is predominantly institutional in orientation: the policy responses of Japan, Germany, and the United States have diverged because of the rules and norms that help structure environmental "policy communities" in each country and that influence relations between those communities and their political adversaries.

The book is organized around three central questions. First, Schreurs asks why the three environmental policy communities look and behave so differently. In the United States, the community is centered on well-financed research institutes and large, relatively well-funded, and highly professionalized nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that have set the standard for environmental NGOs in countries around the world, including Japan. These advantages stem from the relatively large membership bases of American NGOs, pluralist political principles, liberal tax laws, the broad standing to sue of environmental advocates, and the like. Schreurs points out that despite these advantages, the pro-environmental camp has often failed to extract concessions from the state because of resistance from wealthy and politically well-connected business groups.

The German policy community, by contrast, is dominated by the Green Party, which, by virtue of its presence in the federal Bundestag, has given the country's environmental movement a direct voice in the policymaking process while facilitating a more consultative approach to decision making than is customary in the United States. These features can be linked to Germany's proportional representation (PR) electoral system, which is far more likely to give smaller interests a formal voice in politics than the U.S. first-past-the-post electoral system, as well as to a system of state subsidization for environmental and other public interest groups. Japan, with its passive court system, restrictive tax laws, and the lingering legacies of an obsolete electoral system that favored candidates over parties or issues, has the weakest environmental policy community of the three countries. Small and poorly funded, Japanese NGOs rarely play a significant role in policymaking, which tends to be dominated by bureaucrats. But this situation is changing, Schreurs explains, as the environmental movement reaps the benefits of the 1998 Non-Profit Organization Law and the parties adjust to the post-1994 PR electoral system.

Second, Schreurs asks whether differences in the organizational form and strength of environmental policy communities can explain outcomes in national policy. She concludes that while the actual size and strength of the policy community can be important to a degree, what ultimately determines its success within the policymaking process is its relative power vis-à-vis other actors in the polity. Thus, while the United States has the largest and most well-endowed network of environmental NGOs of the three countries, it frequently fails to influence policymaking in the face of the often overwhelming opposition of industry. American environmental policy, consequently, is more producer-friendly than that of Germany, where the rules and norms of decision making have facilitated more of a balance between the interests of business and the environmental policy community. Japan's bureaucracy-centered policymaking process, while favoring business interests, is capable of siding with environmentalists during periods of political crisis (e.g., the period leading up to the so-called 1970 Pollution Diet).

Finally, Schreurs explores how changing values about environmental protection have influenced the goals, strategies, and positions of domestic environmental actors. While Germany's environmental policy community suffered some setbacks as a result of the high social and economic costs of German reunification, the electoral gains...