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I concur with this pragmatic viewpoint in arguing that it would not be
possible to challenge the drivers of ecological degradation without the
involvement of a body possessing the necessary capacities to set in train
societal initiatives for a more sustainable future and to direct them towards
the realisation of this goal. However, I also recognise that there are
limitations on the state
s ability to secure desired change through its
own efforts. In particular, the stimulation of public interest in, and support
for, action to lessen threats of harm to ecosystems would be essential if the
state
'
s environmental policies are to be effected. In view of this, achieving
an ecological transition would not, as some green theorists have argued,
involve a reprise of the state
'
s historic role as dictator of outcomes.
38
Rather, a system of ecological governance would need to establish a new
relationship between lower levels of government and the state in which the
former are given more scope to shape policy initiatives whilst the latter
would retain the authority, through indirect and direct means, to in
'
uence
and oversee the outcomes of decision-making processes. The state
s direct
involvement with deciding how policy should be implemented would be
reduced under this relationship. However, its involvement with the gov-
ernment of governance (or metagovernance) as it is practised by others
would see a corresponding increase.
39
Accounts of the relations between central government and other actors
involved with governance where aspects of state authority have been
devolved have used analogies to games and game players to describe the
different roles of participants in decision-making. This analogy could also
be applied to the different respects in which the state would need to relate
to other levels of government and non-governmental actors in a system of
ecological governance. The state, through its authority to make legislative
proposals, would retain
'
to
be played by regional and local levels of government and by ad hoc
institutions for deliberative public participation.
40
It would, at times,
need to be a player itself in the game it has created, to carry out its own
'
a powerful role in setting the rules of the game
'
38
Dobson,
, refers at p. 105 to the arguments made by Heilbroner
and Ophuls amongst others that only a strong (authoritarian) state would be capable of
dealing with the environmental crises which confront the world. See also Giddens,
'
Green Political Thought
'
'
The
7.
39
G. Haughton and D. Counsell, Regions, Spatial Strategies and Sustainable Development
(London: Routledge, 2004), p. 35.
40
G.Haughton,P.Allmendinger,D.CounsellandG.Vigar,The New Spatial Planning:
Territorial Management with Soft Spaces and Fuzzy Boundaries (Abingdon: Routledge,
2010), p. 11.
Politics of Climate Change
'
,pp.76
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