Democratization, decentralization, and local environmental policy capacity: Hungary and Mexico

Democracy is thought to promote administrative and political decentralization in countries committed to its practice. This is particularly true in the area of environmental policy which is often associated with public participation, government accountability and responsiveness, environmental stewardship, and the accrual of local policy capacity for environmental protection. Most of the operating assumptions on the relationship between democratic governance and environmental decentralization are drawn from mature democracies, however, not from those emerging from authoritarianism. This study compares the institutional, fiscal, and political experiences of two recently democratized countries, Hungary and Mexico, to ascertain whether democratic transition has been associated with the accrual of local environmental policy capacity. Our findings show that democratic transition is favorably associated with the decentralization of environmental policy responsibility but that many impediments to local capacity accrual remain. Democratization should be treated as a necessary but insufficient condition for developing local policy capacity for environmental protection in countries newly emerging from authoritarian rule. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.