The environment as a policy problemand an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease provoked a public debate about
thenature of intensive agriculture that destabilised agricultural policy com-
munities across Europe. The 1989Exxon Valdezoil spill in Alaska Sound pro-
duced immediate local improvements in the safeguards against marine oil
pollution (Busenberg 1999 ).
- A policy community may also be disturbed when a government is con-
fronted by anew problem,suchasclimatechange or food safety, for which
the dominant interests in the policy community have no immediate solu-
tion. In such circumstances governments seeking answers to policy puzzles
may turn to alternative interests outside the established network. The need
toreduce carbon emissions from road traffic has prompted policymakers to
look beyond powerful road lobbies in their search for alternative transport
policies. The development of new technologies such as GMOs may similarly
disrupt established methods of consultation in the agricultural sector, forc-
ing governments to listen to a wider range of interests, including consumers
and environmentalists. - Changes inexternal relationscan disrupt the structural conditions under-
pinning a policy community. International agreements such as the ban on
chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) or commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emis-
sions impose new external obligations that may require a national govern-
ment to override the resistance of powerful producer interests. The exten-
sive privatisation of public assets since the 1980s has also undermined some
established policy communities, particularly in Britain where, for example,
greatercompetition transformed the energy market (resulting in a major
shift from coal to gas as the source of electricity generation) and there-
fore disrupted the established energy policy community (see Box12.5). EU
environmental directives in those areas where policy has been most strin-
gent, such as drinking- and bathing-water quality, have destabilised some
policy networks (Maloney and Richardson 1994 ). In the British water indus-
try, the combination of regulatory restructuring arising from privatisation
and tough European directives prised open a previously cohesive policy com-
munity (consisting of engineers and water scientists) to provide a window
of opportunity for environmental groups to politicise water quality issues.
This flux eventually forced the government to make several significant pol-
icy changes, including a shift away from the established policy of low-cost,
long-pipe sewage disposal at sea that was blamed by many for the low quality
of bathing water in many tourist resorts (Jordan 1998 ). - The emergence ofnew social movements and pressure groupshas con-
tributed to the growing importance of environmental issues on the political
agenda. It has become harder for politicians, civil servants and even producer
groups to ignore these issues and many environmental groups are now rou-
tinely consulted by most governments across a wide range of issues (see
Chapter6). - Political actors, notably ministers, have the capacity to use theirdespotic
powertobreak up a policy community and to allow access to new groups.