The Great Lakes

Abstract

Abstract The North American Great Lakes region provides an excellent policy laboratory to examine the complexity of policy success. Some 50 years ago environmental governance of the Great Lakes was viewed by the public, politicians, and the scientific community as a policy failure. A decade of scientific evidence and public mobilization resulted in government policy action when the Canadian and US federal governments signed the 1972 Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA) and agreed to policy goals that would be implemented through domestic policies and programs. With the fiftieth anniversary of the GLWQA on the horizon, this case presents an opportunity to examine how time, space, scale, and complexity are important dimensions that must be considered when examining policy success. Using the programmatic, process, political, and endurance assessment framework and criteria in this book, this chapter presents an analysis of environment and water policy in the Great Lakes over five decades. The chapter highlights that policy success has been achieved on several fronts and a narrative of policy success continues to underpin policy commitment and action. However, this case also illustrates how there can be simultaneous, emergent, and enduring indicators of policy failure and why it is important to embrace the complexity of policy success in both theory and practice.