The social bases of environmental treaty ratification, 1900-1990

Most accounts of environmental treaty ratification emphasize the boundednes s of states, characterizing ratification as a calculated "choice" of intere sted rational actors. Here I present an alternative to this view; depicting nation-states as constructed of globally legitimated models, including tho se seen to promote environmental protection. Countries with dense connectio ns to world society are most likely to embody global models of nation-state environmentalization regardless of measures of national interests, such as natural degradation, economic development, scientific capacity, or politic al openness. I test the alternative views in a series of structural equatio n models with latent variables, analyzing cross-national variation in the n umber of international environmental treaties ratified during the periods 1 900-1945, 1946-1962, 1963-1972, and 1973-1990. In every analysis a nation-s tate's linkage to world society is the strongest predictor of its number of ratifications. The results lend support to the notion that nation-states a re constituted within a wider world social system, in which environmental p rotection forms a central and highly legitimate node of discourse and activ ity.