Water resources management : in search of an environmental ethic /

Feldman, combining political analysis of water policy in the US and a critique of the philosophical or ethical grounds for such policy, does better at the former task than the latter. The empirical analysis is based on case studies of the Garrison Diversion project, the Blue Ridge Pump Storage Project, and the recurring problem of salinity in the Colorado River system. Feldman draws on his political science background and his experience as a public sector policymaker and analyst to present clear accounts of the institutional and ideological obstacles to environmentally sound water policy. By contrast, the ethical discussion, based on a combination of social choice and Rawlsian contract theories, seems rather arid. The author calls for a new social contract, organized in river basins, to underpin a revised water management regime. Although he notes the importance of democratic participation to the authenticity and success of such an effort, he does not deal with the crucial problems of making such dramatic change actually happen. The book will be of use to graduate students of natural resource policy and to political scientists interested in public choice theory.-R. M. Rakoff, Hampshire College