Cohen, Adam. "Where They Stand." 4 November 1996, 44-45.Kluger, Jeffrey. "Deep Divide." Time, 10 February 1997, 65-66. Beyond political campaigns and individual party differences, the policy initiatives undertaken by entire governments provide insight into the philosophies guiding each government's approach to politics. Two separate environmental disasters offer telling examples. The incident at the nuclear power plant on Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania gave Western democracy its first real taste of the catastrophic dangers posed by this relatively new source of energy. As embarrassing a public relations problem as the incident was, its most enduring legacy was to spark an ongoing and energetic argument on the relative merits of nuclear power, a conversation which continues to this day and which has caused the development of nuclear power to proceed at an extremely cautious rate. Three Mile Island became a symbol for democracy's ability to field complicated public debate and learn from mistakes. A study of theories of state can be an extraordinarily useful tool in understanding the myriad other systems and policies affected by the underlying philosophies. Examining one particular issue, such as environmental policy, offers insight into the way each theory can be put into practice. Under a restrictive system, such as communism or fascism, concerns about the environment could be expected to take a back seat to economic issues or policies that allow the state to exercise control over the populace. Under some of the more liberal forms of democracy, the environment could be expected to take a more central place in the establishment of policy. However, studying precisely how that policy is formulated, through combinations of government regulations, public pressure, international actions, and other factors, can be extremely instructive to an understanding of the complex ways in which theory is applied to practice. mple, tend to believe that preserv |
