This book is the culmination of a process that started in the summer of 1979. One of the editors was invited to work with several members of the International Institute for Environment and Society. These researchers were in the early stages of a rather ambitious project designed to study differences in the implementation of pollution control laws among European countries. Our discussions soon revealed that there was much to be learned by the sharing of our research findings in the United States and Europe. Discussions among the researchers at lIES suggested that we expected there to be wide cultural and institutional differences among countries and, therefore, significant differences in the operation and effectiveness of control efforts in different countries. It has been argued al most universally that differences in institutional form will lead to differences in pollution control outcomes. By comparing implementation in various countries, we could observe the ef fects of institutional differences. The lIES project was only one study of the implementation process. Perhaps by analyzing the results of various studies by various authors and for a wide variety of countries and situations, more could be learned. The conference idea was born. The idea culminated in two conferences. The first confer ence was sponsored by the Policy Sciences Program at Florida State University and was held in Tallahassee, Florida, March 6-7, 1981. The second conference was sponsored by the lIES and was held in Berlin, Germany, October 1-3, 1981.