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
2 - Variation and Pattern in the Environmental Impulse
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
Changes in society and values that underlay environmental action did not come to all areas of America at the same time or in the same way. Moreover, some aspects of environmental affairs made their mark early in the 1960s, but others came later. These variations and the patterns they spawned provide further insight into the nature and meaning of the social roots of environmental politics.
Congressional Voting Patterns
The most comprehensive view of variations in environmental values across the nation can be obtained by analyzing voting patterns in Congress. Beginning in 1971 the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) compiled an annual record of congressional environmental votes. Individual legislators were given a score from 0 to 100. Because they reflect the views of relatively small geographical areas, the records of members of the House of Representatives provide an especially useful portrayal of regional variations.
I have selected for analysis here the data for the Congresses of 1971, 1977, and 1983. The highest level of regional support in 1977, to take the midpoint between the first and last of these years, was in New England with a score of 71.0, followed in turn by the Middle Atlantic states with 62.9, the North Central with 52.0, and the Pacific Coast with 51.5. The lowest-level regions were the South Atlantic with 37.3, the Mountain states with 32.9, the Plains with 25.1, and the Gulf states with 20.5.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Beauty, Health, and PermanenceEnvironmental Politics in the United States, 1955–1985, pp. 40 - 70Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1987