During the last years we have witnessed more and more fears that the nation
state and its ability to set demanding standards in fields like environmental
policy has diminished in the context of globalisation. There is, on the other
hand, the hopeful prognosis of neo-classical economists that the same
globalisation would be connected with deregulation and fundamental reduction
of the role of government. Neither the fear nor the hope of a withering away
of the nation state in times of globalisation are supported by empirical
research. States in concert have expanded and co-ordinated their regulatory
powers. And it is only the nation state, the guarantor of diverse societal
interests, that has the competence, the resources, the power and legitimacy to
regulate the actions of disparate actors who might otherwise destroy shared
environmental resources. There is a remarkable potential at least in the
advanced OECD countries to promote change by the adoption of a pioneering
policy, the stimulation of international competition and the diffusion of best
practice. This potential of the highly advanced countries may be seen as a
moral obligation to assume a higher responsibility for the global
environmental development. The advanced nations cannot hide behind the fictive
monster of globalisation, seemingly legitimising any kind of inactivity. On
the contrary, it is their obligation to provide the world with better
“demonstration effects”, with a better model of production and consumption
overcoming the resource and environment intensive model of the past