Selecting instruments in environmental policy: a meta-policy perspective

Abstract

This thesis analyses two inter-related environmental policy issues from a meta-policy perspective. It examines the recent increase in support for economic instruments to implement policies in New Zealand, questioning why this interest has arisen now, and what factors influence instrument selection. It also examines the context of environmental policy making to determine the predominant policy approach - thus drawing the comparison between some policy theory, and policy practice. The study starts from the assumption that instrument selection is politically driven, and it examines these influences in the New Zealand political and institutional context. Further, it takes the hypothesis that the prevailing policy approach is a micro-level (analycentric) one, which is limited in its ability to address environmental policy adequately.

This study was undertaken by textual analysis and primary research. A case study of New Zealand's climate change policy is used to test the assumption and the hypothesis (above) in a practical setting. In conclusion, it is argued that environmental policy and instrument selection is heavily influenced by the prevailing political and institutional context, in particular the rise of New Right ideologies; and that complementary to this, the predominant policy approach is analycentric.