POL 327 Environmental Politics in America (3 credits)

This course analyzes environmental politics in the United States through a careful examination of institutions. We begin by debating the "proper" relationship between humans and the natural world considering the meaning of terms like environmentalism, conservationism, preservationism, deep ecology, eco-racism, and eco-feminism. We examine the rise of environmentalism in America, moving from the progressive conservationism of Teddy Roosevelt through the environmentalism of Earth Day and the 1970s to the present era. The course uses recent works in political science to establish the actors in environmental decision-making and implementation as we consider federalism and state environmental policy, public opinion, interest groups, political parties, markets and free trade, the Presidency, Congress, the Bureaucracy, and the Courts.