During the middle and late 1960s, public concern about the environment grew rapidly, as did Congressional interest in addressing environmental problems. Then, in 1970, a dramatic series of bipartisan actions were taken to expand the national government''s efforts to control the volume and types of substances that pollute the air, water, and land. In that year, President Richard Nixon signed into law the National Environmental Policy Act, which established for the first time a national policy on the environment and created the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). Additionally, President Nixon created, with Congressional support, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and he signed into law the Clean Air Act of 1970, which had overwhelming bipartisan support in Congress. The strong bipartisan consensus on the need to protect environmental and human health began to erode, however, during the middle and late 1970s as other domestic and foreign policy problems rose to the top of the public and legislative agendas. Ronald Reagan''s election to the Presidency in 1980 marked a dramatic shift in both environmental policymaking and administration. Over the thirty years that followed Reagan''s election, environmental politics and administration became increasingly polarized. In this book, James K. Conant and Peter J. Balint examine the trajectory of environmental policy and administration in the United States by looking at the development of the CEQ and EPA. They look at changes in budgetary and staffing resources over time as well as the role of quality of leadership as key indicators of capacity and vitality. As well, they make correlations between the agencies'' fortunes and various social, political, and economic variables. Conant and Balint cautiously predict that both agencies are likely to survive over the next twenty years, but that they will both experience continuing volatility as their life histories unfold.
Industry Reviews
"This book offers the best (and most readable) short account of the history of the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). The authors' explanations of the four life-cycle models for federal agencies will primarily interest administrative and political science scholars. However, the relevance with which key books and concepts are selected for discussion makes this slim volume of potential interest to other readers. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division
undergraduates and above; general readers."
--F. T. Manheim, George Mason University
"[Conant and Balint] provide a smart and constructive analysis of the dynamic changes in these two vital environmental policy institutions."
--H-Net
"In this slim volume, Conant and Balint offer a comprehensive and rewarding history of the U.S. CEQ and the EPA. They ground their assessment in organizational lifecycle models and explore a variety of intriguing questions about the two agencies. Of particular importance is their rigorous analysis of EPA funding over time, which has major implications for the agency's effectiveness during periods of heightened political controversy over environmental policy."
--Michael E. Kraft, co-author of Environmental Policy: New Directions for the Twenty-First Century
"Conant and Balint have examined the 45 year history of the US' principal environmental entities and rated their standing through the changes of Administrations and the vicissitudes of public concern for the environment. I applaud their making institutional history an appropriate object for social scientists to put under the microscope. Their rigorous objectivity and focus on budget allocations leads them to surprising conclusions: the agencies fared better
under Republicans than under Democrats. Their extensive research equips them to take the case further, and evaluate the quality of the agencies' performance for which budget numbers are indicative though
not conclusive determinants."
--William K. Reilly, Senior Staff Member at CEQ 1970-73, and US EPA Administrator 1989-93
"This book provides an invaluable perspective on the political economy of federal budgeting from the agency point of view. The insights generated by the authors on resource allocation and bureaucratic politics break new ground that hopefully may stimulate much needed new research on the politics of national budgeting. The authors do the great service to students and interested observers alike of demystifying the often obscure and specialized world of budgeting
by clearly illustrating and demonstrating the broader policy and political consequences of budget choices and routines." --Paul L. Posner, Chairman, National Academy of Public Administration
