Introduction - Comparing Environmental Policies in 16 Countries - page 7

it organizes a structure, at first informal, but increasingly formal. Industry
forms groups, also. These groups are not inherently antienvironmental.
They just do not want to increase their costs by cleaning up the air or pro-
tecting the land. Often they already exist for other reasons, such as lobby-
ing or representation before regulatory agencies. For example, the Edison
Electric Institute in the United States was founded in 1933 to coordinate
opposition to New Deal financial policies unfriendly to private compa-
nies. Alternatively, the rise of environmental interest groups in the 1970s
caused business groups to organize or reorganize to counter them. Some
corporations like the Dow Chemical Company or Exxon are so large and
have so many resources that they are like interest groups all by themselves.
Most political scientists consider interest groups to be a bulwark of
democracy. They believe that groups are inevitable because people always
want certain things for themselves, and in opposition to other people.
Therefore, they join together to promote their interests. These may be
selfish like more money or privileges, or altruistic such as protection of a
remote tropical park. A group begins with a disturbance, such as a pro-
posal to build a toxic waste dump. Local citizens organize in opposition.
Their response is “perhaps we need a dump, but Not in My Back Yard”
(NIMBY). Leadership is important, with policy entrepreneurs mobilizing
citizens, reciting their grievances, and demanding a return to the status
quo. The groups often take on a life of their own. They become permanent,
they gather resources, and they try to influence government and other
groups. Resources are money, leadership, expertise, and a large member-
ship. Their leaders gain permanent positions, a salary, and prestige, and
in turn reward their followers with policy victories like saving a forest
from destruction, or more mundanely by publishing a magazine. Interest
groups are permanent, not temporary, and do not disappear once the ini-
tial disturbance is resolved. They seek new battles to fight, and form new
alliances with other groups. They insert themselves into the public debate.
A citizen's membership in a group is a form of participation. Although
interest groups are ubiquitous in democracies, they are rudimentary in
much of the Third World. Traditionally, they did not exist in Communist
countries because the Communist Party claimed a monopoly on repre-
senting all interests.
Business groups typically find it easier to generate resources like money,
expertise, and contacts. The conflict between environmental and business
interest groups is nearly universal. In the United States, the American
Chemistry Council represents more than two hundred corporations that