ABSTRACT
The second of two dimensions that determines how states prove environmental protection are the administrative capacities for doing so. Administrative capacity is the ability to operationalize political will in order to achieve a policy goal. The author first discusses what administrative capacities entail and how they create limitations to environmental protection. The author then draws data from the US Environmental Protection Agency’s State Review Framework for Compliance and Enforcement Performance, as well as from previous scholarship, to construct indices that enable inter-state comparisons of state capacities for making effective policy, managing and organizing information, and creating accountability internally within government and externally for sources of pollution. The author presents data on the distribution of administrative capacities across states and discusses regional patterns. Finally, the author also combines these three factors into an administrative capacity index that creates a comprehensive measure of state-level administrative capacities for environmental protection.
