Introduction - Comparing Environmental Policies in 16 Countries - page 9

government. Political scientists consider parties (along with interest
groups) to be a bulwark of democracy. Parties are the means for organizing
legislatures and are the means for electing prime ministers and presidents.
Citizens participate in parties as members, campaign volunteers, financial
donors, and candidates. This is considered conventional. In those coun-
tries without a viable green party, those goals are represented via other
parties. In the United States, the Democratic Party is favorable and the
Republican Party is not. Denmark has been divided among many parties,
but from 1982 to 1993, several of them found they could cooperate on
the subject of environmental protection, teamwork that was labeled the
“Green Majority,” even though it was not official. Around the world, busi-
ness interests often ally more with one party than the other. In the United
States, they ally with the Republicans, in Britain with the Conservatives,
and in Germany with the Christian Democrats.
Outside the democracies, one-party rule is standard. From 1917 to 1990,
in the Soviet Union the Communist Party was the only one permitted.
In Eastern Europe, the Communists were the sole party from about 1946
to 1989. In China, it still is virtually the only party. A central tenet of
Communism is the control of the means of production, that is, the factories
and mines. Controlling pollution went against the goal of maximizing
production. On the other hand, these governments during the 1970s and
1980s granted a small degree of toleration for those opposed to pollution.
For example, during the 1980s a few party members in Siberia voiced objec-
tions to the pollution of Lake Baikal by a cellulose cord factory, and were
not punished. More dramatically, the 1986 explosion of the nuclear plant
at Chernobyl was so big that it could not be hidden. The new head of the
Communist Party, Mikhail Gorbachev, used the accident to force reforms
on the old timers in the party. Beside the Communist block, one-party
governments have been found, at least in the past, in many Third World
countries like Kenya and Egypt.
Structure: Political scientists comparing countries routinely analyze
the importance of structures like federalism, or parliament, or the chief
executive, yet these concepts do little to explain environmental policy.
How governments are constituted makes little difference. One of the
favorite aspects is whether the country has a federal or unitary structure.
Federalism means a system such as the United States, Germany, Canada,
India and many others whereby the national government is separate from
the state or provincial government. The contrast is with unitary systems
like France and Britain where the national government can directly