ABSTRACT
Most of the contemporary research on issues of environmental governance suggests that the whole system of government in the arena of environmental policy-making is in a phase of change, as national governments are under stress from several new political agents. Theoretical debates and empirical studies indicate that, in addition to the traditional nation state-centred policy-making system (which includes international cooperation), political power is also being exercised to an increasing extent at the transnational and local levels of society. A simultaneous movement of political power is occurring upwards to transnational levels of government and downwards to local communities. Sub-national units such as local governments, civic organizations and even loosely constructed networks introduce their own environmental policies. Global sustainability problems are created by the interaction of all societal levels, and a new politics of sustainability involving local, national and regional, as well as global efforts must be implemented to solve these problems. However, even if the nation state handed over some tasks to supra- and transnational or regional actors (Zürn, 1998), and even if the interaction between national, international and regional arenas became more complex than before (Frieden and Martin, 2002), national governments remain important players in the political process. They have also responded to this new situation by introducing programmes promoting ecological modernization as well as new policy instruments that involve local communities and other actors as citizens and stakeholder organizations.
