The comparative study of environmental politics: from garbage to gold?

This paper is an effort to evaluate the existing literature on comparative environmental politics and policy from the viewpoints of intra‐disciplinary accumulation of knowledge and extra‐disciplinary, or “practical,” relevance; the notion being that political scientists can better promote practical solutions to pressing environmental problems by bringing their disciplinary heritage to bear on studies of environmental politics, than by trying to become ecologists or engineers. On the basis of the evaluation, a number of propositions are put forward for further testing and research.