Partisanship and Environmental Policy

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Abstract
Earlier studies involving the role of party in influencing environmental policies have argued that environmental policies are "'consensus issues," which transcend the partisan differences characteristic of most political issues. The present investigation examined the mediating effect of organizational structures on the relationship between Democratic partisanship and proenvironmental policy adoption within the fifty American states. As predicted, both Democratic partisanship and state organizational structures were positively related to the adoption of environmental control measures. However, withn "modernized" states (those with a professional legislature and a consolidated state environmental agency), partisanship was relatively unimportant in its effect on policy; in "fragmented" states (those with an unprofessional legislature and a decentralized state agency), Democratic partisanship was strongly related to environmental policy adoption. These findings suggest that the organizational structure may provide a stronger impetus for environmental policy adoption than transcient partisan politics.

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