This dissertation examines the Ontario New Democratic Party government's approach to environmental policy making in light of the theoretical debates on ecological modernization. It is argued that struggles over the respective roles of the state, social movements and corporations within the governance practices of ecological modernization are torn between two discourse coalitions. Market environmentalism seeks to internalize environmental criteria within the neo-liberal political economy and is closely tied to a corporate policy agenda. Social environmentalism is based in the environmental movement and seeks to democratize both the state and the economy in order to develop a more ecologically sound mode of environmental governance.; These struggles over NDP environmental policy in the 1990--95 period took place at a number of levels. Prior to their election, the New Democratic Party had begun to critically rethink the values and goals of social democracy in light of the environmental crisis and once in office they continued to re-examine the relationship between the environment and economy at the level of discourse through the Ontario Roundtable on the Environment and Economy. At the macroeconomic level they attempted to incorporate environmental considerations through the Green Industry Strategy, the Environmental Working Group of the Fair Tax Commission and through measures to green Ontario Hydro. The Environmental Bill of Rights and the Commission on Planning and Development Reform restructured the institutions of government to integrate environmental criteria into government ministries beyond the Ministry of Environment and Energy. The policy making process was opened up to new players through increased 'stakeholder' consultation and the establishment of formal relations between the environmental movement and the bureaucracy to allow for input from the environmental movement prior to the announcement of government policy.; The central argument is that the Ontario NDP's environmental policy, in spite of strong affinities for social environmentalism, was pulled toward the market environmentalist pole within ecological modernization. This was a consequence of five factors: the way in which market environmentalism, as a mode of environmental governance, 'fits' with the emerging neo-liberal, globalized regime of accumulation; the political power of a capitalist class which is increasing organized and proactive on environmental issues; the still-incomplete incorporation of ecology into social democratic theory and practice; the economic recession which foreclosed many of the opportunities for experimentation; and the weakness of the political and social base for social environmentalism.
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