ABSTRACT
Much writing on environmental policy starts from an administrative or legal stand point and focuses on the powers and scope of legislation and how this evolves over time. The present chapter has a different starting point. It is concerned with what influences the making of environmental policy at local level and assumes that this can only be discovered by research on the agents involved. The approach is therefore sociological rather than administrative or legal and gives importance to informal pro cesses of influence rather than formal legal powers.
