Environmental Technology Development in Liberal and Coordinated Market Economies: Tweaking Institutions

This book explores the role of institutions in policy-making and the states, role in promotion of technology, focusing on, environmental technology development. Case studies include wind power diffusion in the UK and Germany, waste recycling in a variety of countries, and green automobile technology in the US and Japan.

Table of Contents:
Traditional Institutions Are Ineffective in an Exceptional Policy Sector Tweaking Institutions in The Shadow of the State Different Traits Design Comparisons Varieties of Regulatory State: Wind Power Diffusion in the UK and Germany Varieties of State-Societal Structure: Packaging Waste Recycling Development in the US, the UK, Australia, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland Varieties of State-Societal Relationship: Environmentally Friendly Auto Technology Advancement in the US and Japan Conclusions

About the Author :
SHIUFAI WONG is an independent scholar.

Review :
"This is an excellent dissertation on two currently hot topics in policy debates: the role of institutions in policy-making and the states' role in promotion of technology The dissertation contributes to practical policy-making by showing how states can tweak their institutional arrangements to effectively support their preferred industries The dissertation makes good use of the Variety of Capitalism (VOC) literature to understand states' support for Environmental Technology. The author shows solid understanding of the potential and limitations of the VOC literature and one wishes he used it to suggest improvements in theorization on the subject which continues to treat institutions as more static than is actually the case." - M. Ramesh, Associate Professor in Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore "As the dissertation convincingly explains, existing theories of institutional structures and state-societal relationships are insufficient to deal with this relatively new industry sector in which state and industry goals conflict As a consequence of the distinctiveness of the E-T sector, the author has been able to develop an important original contribution to existing understandings of institutional and state influence over industry development. The concepts of 'pacifying permeation,' 'the rule of bureaucracy' and 'obliging regulation' constitute the original theoretical contribution of the research." - Rachel Parker, Senior Lecturerin Political Science, University of Queensland, Australia"The strength of the thesis lies in the comparative perspective, across industries and countries. Indeed, it is a very ambitious thesis in terms of its empirical scope Another source of strength lays in the focus of itself; the nature of institutions and how they impact on diffusion. In my field, economics of innovation, scholars repeatedly argue for the need for studies unraveling this relationship, yet few undertake such studies." - Staffan Jacobsson, Professor in Science and Technology Policy, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden