ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE AND POLICY REGIMES - EXPLAINING VARIATIONS IN 18 OECD-COUNTRIES

Although we are witnessing an increasing interest in the comparative s tudy of environmental pollution in the social sciences, there is sharp disagreement over how the state of the environment and the changes in recent decades should be assessed. Furthermore, the debate on environ mental policy has no conceptual focus on societal development. Therefo re, the article presents, on the one hand, an index of environmental p ollution that integrates the levels of pollution in 1990 and their cha nges in the 1980s, and, on the other hand, an index that incorporates the ideological aspects of social development. Using this distinction it is possible to identify different paths of societal development in 18 OECD countries. The final part of the article explores various stru ctural, economic, institutional and political characteristics which ma y be used to explain the different outcomes. The results show that ins titutional factors are important for a successful environmental perfor mance. However, when it comes to change in policy regime the degree of mobilization of ecological movements and parties is essential.