Local Actors and Environmental Policy
Local Actors and Environmental Policy

Author(s): Mihály Fónai, Ferenc Pénzes
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Political Sciences, Governance, Public Administration
Published by: Scientia Kiadó
Keywords: environmental policy;local self-government;Hungarian public administration reforms
Summary/Abstract: The present paper examines the role and possibilities of the local political actors in the decision-making processes of local governments and the way they influence local environment policy. The paper analyses a part of the results of an on-line questionnaire responded to by 516 local governments. The researchers’ hypotheses partly refer to the transformed local state model of the public administration, assuming the strengthening of the state influence. The other hypotheses of the paper refer to the local decision-making mechanism and their characteristic features, e.g. how pro-active the local environment policy is and what the difference is between the ideal and typical local decision-making mechanisms. Based on the research results, due to the strengthening of the local state model (i.e. the growing influence of the central government/the state), the role of the potential actors shows a decreasing tendency in the local environment policy. Local governments seem to be the main formers of the local environment policy, while the impact of non-governmental organizations and citizens is regarded as small. It is interpreted by local governments as a contradiction between the “ideal” vs “actual” local decision-making mechanism.

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