The limits of civic environmentalism

Two key components of civic environmentalism are the devolution of policy c ontrol of environmental policy from the federal government to states and lo calities and the increase of local citizen participation in policy decision making. Using a combination of case studies and interviews, the authors su ggest that devolution of policy making and policy implementation may not in crease the role of citizens. Rather, due to both the participatory mechanis ms used and the larger trends in political participation in democratic soci eties, citizen involvement may be limited in significant ways. Although evi dence is found that citizens can and do influence policy under certain circ umstances, there is also cautionary evidence to suggest that this influence is not widespread and does nor include representative samples of local com munities. The authors conclude that for civic environmentalism to be truly civic, barriers to participation must be acknowledged and overcome.