ABSTRACT
Environment as a political issue is perhaps the most recent major issue that has entered the political debate in the Nordic countries. This chapter examines one specific feature of the organisational and institutional aspect, that is, the degree of fragmentation within the political and administrative organisation of environmental policy. In a Nordic comparative study, organisational structures were seen as one of the main variables affecting environmental policy content and therefore also environmental policy performance. The chapter discusses the contextual situation where different forms of fragmentation appear in environmental policy organisation in the Nordic countries. Fragmentation in the political and administrative context is a common phenomenon in modem societies. Horizontal fragmentation seems to be a phenomenon more connected with environmental administration than with the general administrative development in the Nordic countries. A certain degree of horizontal fragmentation can be seen, as environmental concerns are involved in most societal sectors.
