Robertson (2015) argues environmental governance is shaped by what?

• A. It solely driven by market forces.
• B. It is shaped by state power and political-economic processes.
• C. It ignores institutions.
• D. It is unrelated to governance structures.

Answer: (C)

Environmental governance is shaped by power dynamics within the state and the broader political-economic landscape. Robertson emphasizes that who has authority, how rules are made, who bears costs and gains benefits, and how policies are implemented and enforced all come from interactions among government actors, markets, and institutions. Markets matter, but they operate inside a framework created by laws, agencies, and political choices that determine environmental outcomes. This view contrasts with the idea that governance is driven solely by markets or that institutions don’t matter; it also rejects the notion that governance has nothing to do with governance structures, since those structures are precisely what organize and constrain environmental action.