Comparative perspectives on political culture and political institutions as approaches to North American public policy analysis: The case of acid rain

This dissertation is an intensive comparative study of the acid rain policies in the United States and Canada from the mid-1960s to 1991. Drawing on the strengths of the political cultural and political institutional approaches to public policy study in the United States and Canada, the twin thesis of this dissertation is: (1) political culture has a greater impact on long-term acid rain policy trends than political institutions and the American political culture makes the U.S. acid rain policies more stringent than the Canadian ones; and (2) political institutions have a greater impact on short-term acid rain policy shifts than political culture and the Canadian political institutions make the acid rain policy shifts easier and smoother than the American institutions. I argue that the Canadian parliamentary institutional system with party discipline and the fusion of the legislative and executive branches leads to easier and smoother acid rain policy shifts than in the American presidential institutional system, which is characterized by the lack of party discipline and the division of powers between the legislative and executive branches. The Canadian version of the separation of powers between the federal and provincial governments is much less confrontational and combative than the American separation of powers between the presidency and the Congress. American individualist, antistatist and litigious political culture engenders more stringent acid rain policies than Canadian political culture which is communitarian, statist and consultatory.