ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a comparative analysis of new environment protection institutions in the USA and Australia. It reviews the key concepts of institutions and values, while highlighting the differences between neo-liberalism and environmentalism. The synthesis of neo-liberal and environmental values produced a very different kind of institution in the Australian National Environment Protection Council (NEPC). The chapter utilizes the theory of reflexive modernization to explain the causes of change in both values and institutions. It analyses the process that led to the establishment and structure of the US Environmental Protection Agency. Both risk society theory and ecological modernization offers some suggestions for reorganizing political and economic institutions to re-engage with the environmental movement and its values. The chapter examines the Australian synthesis of competing values into new policy goals, new legislation and the National Environment Protection Council. Finally, it assesses the effectiveness of these institutions using two key programs: pollution inventories and the cooperative administration of ambient air quality standards.
