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ABSTRACTThe environmental "crisis" is now a top priority in many industrialized countries. Perceived of as a threat to a society's resources, the environmental problem raises important questions regarding competing system goals. The problem cuts across traditional political and administrative structures and thus carries several implications for political change. Since the environmental issue has gained political recognition at the same time in many political systems, the auspices for comparative research are good.This paper contains an analysis of the Swedish response to the environmental problem. The most spectacular changes seem to have appeared in policy content, and in the performance levels of the actors, while the structures of the system remain almost unchanged. A general framework for comparative environmental analysis is developed, followed by a discussion of certain aspects of environmental policy and political change. Drawing from Swedish, American and Canadian data, the complex adaptation processes between innovative agents, public opinion and institutionalized power mechanisms are discussed. Some propositions are offered for further comparative research.

This article uses a framework combining the discourse of scalar politics with a social dilemma perspective. The aim is to find answers to why political interests advocate a specific scalar arrangement. Analyzing informant interviews with top politicians and administrators in four municipal governments in the Gothenburg region of southwestern Sweden, we find that although all recognize the social dilemma, the size and capacity of their local government lead to different scalar arguments about responsibility for climate change. Regardless of municipal size and capacity, however, actors' recommendations finally converge in a pattern of path dependence. Already well-entrenched structures of intermunicipal urban cooperation are seen as the scalarly most appropriate vehicle for addressing the social dilemma and for allocating responsibility for climate-related regional action. This opens up for comparative urban research on how new and existing transboundary urban structures handle climate issues in terms of legitimacy and efficiency.