Environment, Equity and Globalization: Beyond Resistance

Some assessments of the new global economy are overstated and this, with environmentalism's predisposition to decentralization, has limited global environmental politics. While globalization does provoke equity and environmental failures, it does not "universalize" unemployment, nor is it necessarily financially unstable. It may be successful in its own terms-advancing total global GDP. As well, it is arguable that some wage restraint in rich nations is ultimately necessary to the simultaneous achievement of sustainability and global-scale equity. Rather than resisting globalization, the better strategy for progressive greens might be to promote a global policy agenda including the democratic control of global media, harmonized tax shifts to energy and material throughputs (and/or higher commodity prices), environmental treaty enforcement using trade-based sanctions, and the establishment of a global minimum wage. Copyright (c) 2001 Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Environnementalisme et syndicalisme au Canada anglais et aux États-Unis

Cet article décrit et analyse les rapports entre deux mouvements : le syndicalisme et le mouvement environnemental en Amérique du Nord anglophone. L'auteur discute d'abord des origines du mouvement environnemental dans les mouvements de conservation, qui sont distincts et plus imciens, en examinant les conflits possibles entre le mouvement environnemental et la gauche traditionnelle. Il présente ensuite un bref historique des contacts récents au niveau orga-nisationnel entre les syndicats et les groupes environnementaux et rend compte de la documentation sur deux sujets importants et connexes : l'hygiène industrielle (pollution sur les lieux de travail) et l'impact des demandes des groupes environnementaux sur les niveaux d'emploi. En conclusion l'auteur analyse les perspectives à long terme pour la coopération entre les groupes environnementaux et le mouvement syndicaliste.This article describes and analyses the relationship between two movements : trade unionism and environmentalism, in English-speaking North America. It begins with a discussion of the origins of environmentalism in the earlier and distinct conservation movements. It discusses potential conflicts between environmentalism and the traditional left. It then presents a brief history of recent organizational contacts between trade unions and environmental groups and reports on two important and related bodies of literature : that on occupational health (work place pollution) and that on the impact of environmentalist demands on employment levels. By way of conclusion the article analyses the long-term prospects for cooperation between environmentalists and the labour movement.Este artículo describe y analiza la relación entre dos movimientos : sindicalismo y ecología en la. parte de habla inglesa de América del Norte. En primer lugar analiza los orígenes de la ecología en sus comienzos y distintos movimientos de conservación. Discute sobre los conflictos potenciales entre el movimiento ecológico y la izquierda tradicional. Luego presenta una breve historia de los contactos recientes entre los sindicatos y los grupos ecológicos. Informa sobre dos importantes y relacionados temas de las publicaciones : la salud en el trabajo (contaminación de los lugares de trabajo) y el impacto de los requerimientos del movimiento ecológico a nivel del empleo. Como conclusión el artículo analiza las perspectivas de cooperación a largo plazo entre el movimiento ecológico y el movimiento obrero

The political inactivity of the less advantaged : the approaches of Marxism and empirical social science

The thesis begins by outlining some of the major findings of political sociology regarding the demographic characteristics of those persons who are typically less inclined to participate in the political process within liberal democratic systems. It has generally been found that participation is positively related to income, education, and occupational status; and that generally men and racial, ethnic and religious majorities tend as well to participate more than women and minorities. The third chapter isolates seven alternative explanations of the relative political inactivity of the less advantaged from the recent literature of empirical social science. There is then an attempt to show that to a considerable extent though by no means universally, the explanations of empirical social science can be usefully seen as fitting into a 6-part 'conservative understanding' of the non-participation of the less advantaged. Associated claims such as those which state or imply that low levels of participation have positive effects for political systems because the less advantaged are less informed or more intolerant are critiqued by a detailed questioning of research techniques, by a gathering of empirical evidence from less familiar sources, and by doubts regarding the degree to which some researchers findings follow from their own evidence. Included as part of these sections is an analysis of recent introductory texts in political science wherein the elements of the 'conservative understanding' mentioned above are found, in some cases, to be badly (and erroneously) stated. Lastly, towards the close of the fourth chapter there is some discussion and analysis of recent American intellectual history in an attempt to place in historico-social perspective several aspects of the recent study of political participation. At several points there is a discussion of aspects of the methodology of empirical social science and its relationship to the findings under consideration here. Chapters 5 and 6 focus on the contrasts between, on the one hand, the analyses of empirical social science regarding the relative non-participation of the less advantaged, and on the other, the explanations of Marxists of the seeming disinclination of the working class in 'late capitalist' societies to pursue political activity (in particular revolutionary socialist political activity). Chapter 5 isolates and develops 13 separate but related explanations found in the writings of contemporary Marxists, Chapter 6 offers a critique of explanations, the evidence supporting them, and aspects of the methodology underlying them. The assumptions, approaches and methods of Marxism and empirical social science are treated comparatively. Among the conclusions reached is the view that while Marxism is often imprecise and generally slow to adapt to changing empirical conditions it has an important capacity for developing explanations which are comprehensive, integrated and theoretically useful. A series of suggestions are offered whereby Marxist explanations might be, at least in part, tested empirically. The final chapter discusses some of the weaknesses of both empirical social science and Marxism and makes some tentative suggestions about how they might be avoided in both theoretical and detailed inquiry.Arts, Faculty ofPolitical Science, Department ofGraduat

Chapitre 3. Espace biophysique et sens des proportions : pour une politique environnementale à la bonne échelle

Quel est le niveau de juridiction le mieux adapté aux décisions en matière d’environnement ? Cette question fait depuis longtemps l'objet de vives discussions, discussions sans fin parce que les constitutions et modèles de juridiction sur lesquels nous fonctionnons ont été établis bien avant la montée — dans l’immédiat après-guerre ou encore dans les années 1960, selon les versions — des préoccupations écologiques et d’un mouvement politique correspondant. Ce flottement dans les compétences e..