After backyard environmentalism - Toward a performance-based regime of environmental regulation

This article develops a model of environmental regulation that promises to be at once more flexible, democratic, and effective than the familiar metho ds of central command or market-based control. Local units-such as firms, f actories, or regional ecosystem management authorities-enjoy the autonomy t o determine their environmental protection goals and methods to reach them. In exchange for this latitude, they report their plans and progress to cen tral authorities that monitor local planning efforts and pool the informati on generated by them to formulate minimum performance standards and identif y effective practices. This arrangement produces contextually tailored regu lation, rich information feedback and continuous adjustment of ends and mea ns in light of new learning. Elements of this model have been adopted in la rge-scale reforms in areas as diverse as toxics use reduction, endangered s pecies protection, and ecosystem management. Writ large, this model entails a fundamental reorientation of government institutions that the authors ca ll neo-Madisonian.