Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction: Environmental Politics – the New and the Old
- 1 From Conservation to Environment
- 2 Variation and Pattern in the Environmental Impulse
- 3 The Urban Environment
- 4 The Nation's Wildlands
- 5 The Countryside: A Land Rediscovered, yet Threatened
- 6 The Toxic Environment
- 7 Population, Resources, and the Limits to Growth
- 8 Environmental Inquiry and Ideas
- 9 The Environmental Opposition
- 10 The Politics of Science
- 11 The Politics of Economic Analysis and Planning
- 12 The Middle Ground: Management of Environmental Restraint
- 13 Environmental Politics in the States
- 14 The Politics of Legislation, Administration, and Litigation
- 15 The Reagan Antienvironmental Revolution
- 16 Environmental Society and Environmental Politics
- Notes
- Index
15 - The Reagan Antienvironmental Revolution
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 March 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction: Environmental Politics – the New and the Old
- 1 From Conservation to Environment
- 2 Variation and Pattern in the Environmental Impulse
- 3 The Urban Environment
- 4 The Nation's Wildlands
- 5 The Countryside: A Land Rediscovered, yet Threatened
- 6 The Toxic Environment
- 7 Population, Resources, and the Limits to Growth
- 8 Environmental Inquiry and Ideas
- 9 The Environmental Opposition
- 10 The Politics of Science
- 11 The Politics of Economic Analysis and Planning
- 12 The Middle Ground: Management of Environmental Restraint
- 13 Environmental Politics in the States
- 14 The Politics of Legislation, Administration, and Litigation
- 15 The Reagan Antienvironmental Revolution
- 16 Environmental Society and Environmental Politics
- Notes
- Index
Summary
The presidential administration of Ronald Reagan brought a new era in environmental affairs that helped to define their role in American history. Earlier Democratic and Republican administrations had responded to environmental objectives with some degree of favor. But the Reagan administration began with a pervasive and determined commitment to turn the environmental tide. Environmentalists were rejected as legitimate participants in the give-and-take of public affairs. The administration set out to undo the environmental work of the preceding two decades of Republican and Democratic leadership.
Implicit in this radical thrust was an assumption that environmental objectives were not deeply rooted in American society and politics but were the demands of a few environmental leaders rather than of the greater public. The environmental phenomenon, it was thought, could be swept aside by vigorous presidential leadership. The resulting drama tested the strength of popular support for environmental objectives, which proved to be much greater than the administration had anticipated. Its opposition, in fact, provided an opportunity for those who shaped environmental institutions to demonstrate the breadth of concern in the broader society. In being forced to recognize that environmental affairs were not momentary, limited, and superficial, the administration, in fact, more firmly rooted their legitimacy on American politics.
This drive for radical innovation was a historical experiment of sorts. For in challenging the environmental movement, Reagan tested its strength and vitality and thereby demonstrated the degree to which it had become a broad and fundamental aspect of American public life.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Beauty, Health, and PermanenceEnvironmental Politics in the United States, 1955–1985, pp. 491 - 526Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1987