ABSTRACT
Pluralism and environmentalism in the United States evolves significantly in the century. The development of the environmental movement into a major interest group in the liberal pluralist model was crucial to the establishment of much of the United States' environmental policy. The grassroots actors come to criticize the organizational model and focuses of mainstream environmentalism. Critic focuses on nature of the interactions and participation within interest groups. Kariel argues at his study of pluralism, "The organizations which the early theorists of pluralism relied upon to sustain the individual against a unified government have themselves become oligarchically governed hierarchies. Wolfe argues that liberal pluralism does not justify the, it simply ignores it. There was no protection, in the model or practice, for unrepresented minorities, whether racial, cultural, ideological, or class based. The environmental justice movement represents an evolution in pluralism. The generation of pluralists limited the attention to a particular type of experience, that in the economic realm.
