The role of the nation state in environmental policy: the challenge of globalisation

Abstract

During the last years we have witnessed more and more fears that the nation state and its ability to set demanding standards in fields like environmental policy has diminished in the context of globalisation. There is, on the other hand, the hopeful prognosis of neo-classical economists that the same globalisation would be connected with deregulation and fundamental reduction of the role of government. Neither the fear nor the hope of a withering away of the nation state in times of globalisation are supported by empirical research. States in concert have expanded and co-ordinated their regulatory powers. And it is only the nation state, the guarantor of diverse societal interests, that has the competence, the resources, the power and legitimacy to regulate the actions of disparate actors who might otherwise destroy shared environmental resources. There is a remarkable potential at least in the advanced OECD countries to promote change by the adoption of a pioneering policy, the stimulation of international competition and the diffusion of best practice. This potential of the highly advanced countries may be seen as a moral obligation to assume a higher responsibility for the global environmental development. The advanced nations cannot hide behind the fictive monster of globalisation, seemingly legitimising any kind of inactivity. On the contrary, it is their obligation to provide the world with better “demonstration effects”, with a better model of production and consumption overcoming the resource and environment intensive model of the past.