Advancing Accumulation and Managing Its Discontents: The U.S. Antienvironmental Countermovement

Changes in U.S. environmental policy direction under the Bush Administration reflect two interdependent trends that have emerged over the past two decades: an increased capability among corporations to shape public policy to benefit their narrow interests, and a marked decline in the efficacy of democratic forces to defend progressive environmental policy. This article theorizes key aspects of antienvironmental thought and practice-facets include scientific production, civil-political societal relations, interclass coalition building, procorporate propaganda, and domination of opposition-to demonstrate the existence of a coordinated countermovement. The theory is guided by a political sociology adapted from the method of Antonio Gramsci that comprehends policymaking in terms of material interests without reducing human agency to structural imperative. Evidence marshaled to support the theory is gathered from the antienvironmental literature, public relations product, and information on political and economic affiliations between and among antienvironmentalists and their organizations.