ABSTRACT
This essay contrasts two different types of theoretical basis upon which environmental policy can be built. The first is neo-classical economics, where the core assumption of the rational, utility-maximising individual with given preference functions engenders an approach to policy based on individual incentives and disincentives. The philosophical foundation of neo-classical economics is utilitarianism, the essentials of which are traceable back to Jeremy Bentham and others. Utilitarianism presumes that all means find their justification in the ends they serve, and-at least in this predominant and hedonistic version-this end is seen as individual satisfaction or ‘utility’.1
