Beyond Backyard Environmentalism (New Democracy Forum) - Softcover

Sabel, Charles; Fung, Archon; Karkkainen, Bradley; Joshua Cohen; Joel Rogers

9780807004456: Beyond Backyard Environmentalism (New Democracy Forum)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0807004456 ISBN 13: 9780807004456

Publisher: Beacon Press, 2000

A bold commitment to experiments and new ways of thinking about how we might save this earth is long overdue. If you care about the environment, you need to be in on this debate.--Hunter Lovins and Amory Lovins, from the Foreword

When we think of environmental action, we draw upon images from the disaster of Love Canal or from A Civil Action-stories of lone activists fighting the government or some corporation against all odds. In their provocative essay, Sabel, Fung, and Karkkainen demonstrate that an effective alternative is emerging. Before environmental disasters occur, citizen groups are collaborating with experts, business leaders, and local and federal governments to figure out what is best for their own neighborhoods. These examples point to more than successful environmental action; they represent a model of grassroots democracy that can be applied to the needs of any community.

The New Democracy Forum is a series of short paperback originals exploring creative solutions to our most urgent national concerns.

"A civic treasure. . . . A truly good idea, carried out with intelligence and panache." --Robert Pinsky

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About the Author:

Charles Sabel is professor of law at Columbia University. Archon Fung is assistant professor at the John F. Kennedy School of Government. Bradley Karkkainen is associate professor at Columbia Law School.

From Kirkus Reviews:

A turgid but well-meant attempt to decentralize environmental standards, embellish grassroots activism, and tap industry goodwill to fashion a new blueprint for environmental action, from academics Sabel, Fung, and Karkkainen.If the national government either overregulates or underregulates when it comes to the environment, and local groups lack scale or encourage a myopic parochialism, what, the authors ask, is an effective middle course? Their proposal: “Local units set their own environmental performance targets and devise means to achieve them. In return, they provide detailed reports on actual performance and possible improvements to overarching public authorities.” They suggest this “rolling-rule regime” will stimulate vast public participation in the process, provide a face-to-face forum for polluters and victims to hammer out solutions (“disciplined consideration of alternative policies leads protagonists to discover unanticipated solutions provisionally acceptable”), and have the immediacy of a perpetual feedback loop to tinker with the system as it needs adjustment to set new standards, targets, and pathways. Their format is call-and-response: Sabel, Fung, and Karkkanien present their idea, offer evidence, and then a panel of experts attempts to shred their grand proposal. The experts usually win here, although they are far from a cohesive group. The sharpest is DeWitt John, who sympathizes with civic environmentalism but worries about cross-border conflicts, and whether people have the time or money to invest: Mr. Practical. The dimmest bulb is Theodore Lowi, who squawks “Propaganda” like Chicken Little and then smacks his lips over Milton Friedman’s 30-year-old inanity: “How much pollution can we afford?” Most respondents simply point out that industry goodwill is not to be expected at this juncture, and why should government abrogate its responsibility to protect the health and safety of its citizens?The book comes full circle, right back to “What now,” and is best fit for those who delight in zero-sum policy wrangling. -- Copyright � 2000 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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