Legitimacy and Growth in the Balance: The Role of the State in Environmental Remediation

Abstract

This paper is based on data drawn primarily from original field research con ducted at six environmental contamination sites, in the U.S. and Canada. The data includes interviews with members of affected communities, gov ernment and social movement organization documents, and articles from local newspapers (Gould, 1991a; 1993b). This comparative analysis exam ines the ways in which federal and state/provincial government environmen tal agencies/ministries have responded to the identification of site-specific environmental problems within their jurisdictions. The data indicate that, due to the dual responsibilities of government to both promote economic growth and to protect political legitimacy, the environmental arms of govern ment seek to achieve the minimum socially acceptable level of remediation at the least economic cost, and with the least disruption of the industrial "treadmill of production" (Schnaiberg 1980, Schnaiberg and Gould 1994). Conflicting pressures on the state to provide the public with an acceptable living and working environment, while also minimizing the constraints on corporate economic actors, has lead government environmental agencies/ ministries to pursue non-structural "quick fixes" wherever possible. This research demonstrates the role of government as a centrist force in environ mental remediation, characterized by a desire to achieve some environmen tal protection at minimal cost, in order to attain obligatory bi-national envi ronmental standards.