ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses in particular on the assumptions that underlie environmental policies and the ways in which these assumptions are reflected in specific policy choices and programs of government. The chapter examines theories of regulation which conceptualize market-based instruments as evidence of a new era of regulatory pluralism that is giving governments more flexibility in their choice of policy instruments in response to changing needs and outcomes. It also examines criticisms of the ‘responsive regulation’ approach and of the marketization of government policy. The chapter establishes an analytical framework to interrogate market-based policy interventions and to reflect on the sorts of circumstances in which various policy instruments may be relevant. Contemporary environmental policy-makers have at their disposal a wide and growing range of regulatory and other policy instruments. Environmental policy-making must wrestle with questions over who benefits from the protection of particular ecological values and who ought to pay for those benefits.
