Environmental Policymaking: Assessing the Use of Alternative Policy Instruments. Edited by Michael T. Hatch. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2005. 265p. $85.00 cloth, $25.95 paper.

There is by now a sizable collection of books that compare the environmental politics and policies of different countries. Some approach environmental policymaking as an exercise in political theory and examine how local political and economic considerations drive local and international environmental regulations (The Political Economy of Environmental Protection: Analysis and Evidence, R. D. Congleton, 1995). Others examine the determinants of such policies or address international questions of negotiation, regulation, and compliance (Globalization and the Environment, Schulze and Ursprung, 2001; The Political Economy of Environmental Regulation, Stavins, 2004). This book focuses on contemporary policies and policy tools themselves, broadly interpreted. What kinds of policies do we see adopted? How were those policies justified, and how well have they succeeded in advancing environmental ends?