The Government And Environmental Policy Essays -- essays research pape

The Government and Environmental PolicyThe purpose of the United States world form _or_ system of government law is to implement restrictionsin an effort to solve problems, which send packing be seen with the Clean Water Act.Public policy has also been use to reform the Endangered Species Act of1973. Although the United States government is stately in its efforts topreserve the environment through these acts, the internal structure of publicpolicy often counteracts these acts effectiveness. This paper will explore the umpteen ways in which factors such as horizontal implementation, separate government,and other forms of public policy affect the environmental legislation snarlywith the aforementi wholenessd acts. The main factors involved with the EndangeredSpecies Act of 1973 involve horizontal implementation structure and dividedgovernment. Before one can discuss how these policies affect environmentallegislation, a brief description of each must first be lucidly explaine d. Whenour government was founded, a system of checks and balances was implementedbetween the executive, judicial, and legislative branches to fasten that no onepart of government gets withal much precedent. Although this limits the power of anyone person in government, it often slows down the efficacy of government becausea consensus can be difficult with so numerous people working together. Anotherproblem is that there are many subgovernments affecting the legislation as well,such as interest groups equal the Sierra Club, Administrative Agents like theEnvironmental Protection Agency, and Congressional Committees. Because thesegroups render to the total number of people working on the legislation, theoriginal noble ideology of making policy for the good of the nation is voided.Also because there are so many differences of opinion, few drastic changes aremade, or else small incremental changes are made which take up split up of time andretard the effectiveness and enforcem ent of the legislation. In addition tothis chaotic turmoil, quadruplet steps must be implemented in order to pass around a bill.These are initiation & definition, formulation & word picture (legitimation),implementation, and evaluation.The most relevant one of these steps is horizontal implementation when oneconsiders the Endangered Species Act and Clean Water Act. This policy is theprocess that puts a law into effect after it has been legitimized. Congres... ...ne." (Adler, pg. 1)The Acts goals as set forth by Congress was to eliminate toxic discharge intosignificant bodies of water by 1985, improve water quality for marine andfreshwater life by 1983, and for all "toxic pollutants in toxic amounts" intowater. Of course that act has had median(a) success, and only through continuedcooperation of the governments branches will further progress be made. Inconclusion, it has been shown how different branches of government, differentadministrations, and different p olicies all worked together to retard theimplementation of the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act of theformer(a) 1970s. Although these processes do act in a system of governmentalchecks and balances as the founders of this country wished, the effectiveness ofthe acts take many years of careful compromising to become significant.REFERENCES1. Adler, Robert W., et. al. The Clean Water Act 20 Years ulterior      Island Press Washington, D.C. 19932. Horton, Tom "The Endangered Species Act Too tough, too weak,      toolate."      (1992) Audubon Vol. 94 pgs. 68-74