Governing the environment : salient institutional issues pt. 1. Institutions : alternative solutions to the problem of assigning powers over the environment pt. 2. Issues in environmental governance : the comparative advantage of different levels of government This book examines how different countries define and address environmental issues specifically in relation to intergovernmental relations: the creation of institutions the assignment of powers and the success of alternative solutions. It also investigates whether a systemic view of the environment has influenced the policy making process. The broad perspective adopted includes a detailed analysis of seventeen countries in six continents by scholars from a range of disciplines economics political science environmental science and law thus producing novel material that moves away from the conventional treatment of decentralisation and the environment in economic literature