Lynton K. Caldwell
Encyclopedia
Lynton Keith Caldwell was an American
political scientist
and a principal architect of the 1969 National Environmental Policy Act
, the first act of its kind in the world. He was educated at the University of Chicago
and spent most of his career at Indiana University Bloomington
, where he received tenure in 1956 and retired as Arthur F. Bentley Professor Emeritus of Political Science in 1984. Caldwell was the internationally acclaimed author or coauthor of fifteen books and more than 250 scholarly articles, which may be found in at least 19 different languages. He served on many boards and advisory committees, as a consultant on environmental policy issues worldwide, and received numerous honors and awards.
to Lee Lynton and Alberta (Mace) Caldwell, and died in Bloomington, Indiana
, at age 92. He earned his undergraduate degree in English at the University of Chicago
in 1934, his Masters degree at Harvard
in History and Government in 1938, and his doctoral degree in political science at the University of Chicago in 1943. He married Helen A. Walcher on December 21, 1940 and they raised two children.
in Chicago. In 1947 he was appointed professor of political science at the Maxwell School
of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University
. In 1952 and 1953 he was part of U.N. sponsored missions in public administration in Colombia
, the Philippines
, and Japan
. His next one-year U.N. appointment was as co-Director of the Public Administration Institute for Turkey and the Middle East in Ankara
, Turkey
. Indiana University then appointed him director of the Institute of Training for Public Service and Coordinator of Indonesian and Thailand Public Administration Programs. By the time of his retirement, further appointments, research and lecture tours and vacations had enabled him to visit nearly one hundred countries around the world as well as every state in the union. In 1956, after a year as visiting professor of government at the University of California, Berkeley
, he returned to Bloomington as Professor of Government at Indiana University, where he remained until his retirement. In the course of his career he secured 21 National Science Foundation grants to support his research.
During his career, Caldwell served on the faculties of the University of Chicago
, Northwestern University
, the University of Oklahoma
, Syracuse University, and the University of California at Berkeley, and had shorter appointments at some 80 other collegiate institutions both within the U.S. and overseas. At various times, Caldwell served as advisor or consultant to the U.S. Senate, UNESCO
, the United Nations
, the Departments of Commerce, Energy, Defense, and Interior, and the National Institutes of Health
. Although not a natural scientist, as part of his work towards establishing interdisciplinary study in universities and achieving a greater merging of the two worlds of science and public policy, he became deeply involved in national and international environmental affairs and worked closely with several important scientific bodies serving, among many appointments, on the Sea Grant Program of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA), the first Environmental Advisory Board of the United States Army Corps of Engineers, the Pacific Science Congress, the President’s National Commission on Materials Policy, the Science Advisory Board for the Great Lakes of the International Joint Commission
, as chair of the first Commission on Environmental Policy, Law and Administration for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), and as advisor to the UNESCO
Man and the Biosphere Program (MAB), and the UNESCO working program for the environmental education and training of engineers.
He also served on the editorial boards of numerous prestigious scientific and professional journals. A lover of nature, bird watching, and botany from an early age, he was a founding member of the South Bend, Indiana chapter of the Audubon Society, and of both the first local chapter of The Nature Conservancy
(TNC) in New York, and the Conservancy's Indiana Chapter. He served on the Board of Governors of TNC from 1959 to 1965.
.
Caldwell is perhaps best known as one of the principal architects of the National Environmental Policy Act
(NEPA), the first act of its kind in the world, signed into law on January 1, 1970. In drafting A National Policy on the Environment in 1968 as consultant to Senator Henry Jackson, the head of the powerful Senate Interior and Insular Affairs Committee, Caldwell realized that more was needed than a mere a policy statement: an “action-forcing mechanism” would be necessary to secure federal agency compliance with the Act’s requirements. The origin of the requirement for preparation of an environmental impact statement
(EIS) has been attributed to Caldwell, whose testimony at the Senate hearing in April 1969 laid the groundwork for inclusion of provisions requiring an evaluation of the effects of all major federal projects significantly affecting the quality of the human environment. In these “detailed statements,” as they were termed in the Act, all reasonably foreseeable social, economic, and environmental effects of a proposed action and any possible alternatives to it must be identified and assessed before any federal action takes place.
NEPA has been emulated, in one form or another, by more than one hundred other countries, and many states have also established “mini NEPAs.” When national government agencies first started to prepare EISs, there were no professional associations dedicated to the planning and problem solving that NEPA demanded. Subsequently, Caldwell's efforts in formulating NEPA, and later promoting it, lead to formation of the National Association of Environmental Professionals (NAEP), a national professional association of persons who prepare EISs.
(1981); the John M. Gaus Award from the American Political Science Association
; and the National Environmental Quality Award from the Natural Resources Council of America (1997). In 1991, he was named one of the United Nations Environmental Program's (UNEP) Global 500 for distinguished environmental services, and in 1997, he was awarded an honorary LLD from Western Michigan University
. In 2001 he was the recipient of Indiana University's Distinguished Service Award. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and an honorary member of the International Association for Impact Assessment. Annually since 1995 the American Political Science Association
has awarded the Lynton Keith Caldwell Prize for the best book in environmental politics and policy published during the previous three years. Shortly after his death in 2006, the Caldwell Center for Culture and Ecology was established in Bloomington, IN to provide environmental education for youth and adults.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
political scientist
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
and a principal architect of the 1969 National Environmental Policy Act
National Environmental Policy Act
The National Environmental Policy Act is a United States environmental law that established a U.S. national policy promoting the enhancement of the environment and also established the President's Council on Environmental Quality ....
, the first act of its kind in the world. He was educated at the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
and spent most of his career at Indiana University Bloomington
Indiana University Bloomington
Indiana University Bloomington is a public research university located in Bloomington, Indiana, in the United States. IU Bloomington is the flagship campus of the Indiana University system. Being the flagship campus, IU Bloomington is often referred to simply as IU or Indiana...
, where he received tenure in 1956 and retired as Arthur F. Bentley Professor Emeritus of Political Science in 1984. Caldwell was the internationally acclaimed author or coauthor of fifteen books and more than 250 scholarly articles, which may be found in at least 19 different languages. He served on many boards and advisory committees, as a consultant on environmental policy issues worldwide, and received numerous honors and awards.
Early life and education
Caldwell was born in Montezuma, IowaIowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
to Lee Lynton and Alberta (Mace) Caldwell, and died in Bloomington, Indiana
Bloomington, Indiana
Bloomington is a city in and the county seat of Monroe County in the southern region of the U.S. state of Indiana. The population was 80,405 at the 2010 census....
, at age 92. He earned his undergraduate degree in English at the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
in 1934, his Masters degree at Harvard
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in History and Government in 1938, and his doctoral degree in political science at the University of Chicago in 1943. He married Helen A. Walcher on December 21, 1940 and they raised two children.
Academic career and public service
From 1944-1947 he was director of research and publications for The Council of State GovernmentsCouncil of State Governments
The Council of State Governments is a nonpartisan non-profit organization in the United States serving the state governments. It serves state legislatures, state courts, and executive branch officials and agencies, and is the only multi-branch organization of state governments in the United...
in Chicago. In 1947 he was appointed professor of political science at the Maxwell School
Maxwell School
For Maxwell School as a graduate school of Syracuse University see Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.Maxwell School is a semi-control for boys and the oldest school in the north of Kuala Lumpur as well as one of the oldest in Kuala Lumpur and Malaysia...
of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University
Syracuse University
Syracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...
. In 1952 and 1953 he was part of U.N. sponsored missions in public administration in Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
, the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. His next one-year U.N. appointment was as co-Director of the Public Administration Institute for Turkey and the Middle East in Ankara
Ankara
Ankara is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city after Istanbul. The city has a mean elevation of , and as of 2010 the metropolitan area in the entire Ankara Province had a population of 4.4 million....
, Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
. Indiana University then appointed him director of the Institute of Training for Public Service and Coordinator of Indonesian and Thailand Public Administration Programs. By the time of his retirement, further appointments, research and lecture tours and vacations had enabled him to visit nearly one hundred countries around the world as well as every state in the union. In 1956, after a year as visiting professor of government at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, he returned to Bloomington as Professor of Government at Indiana University, where he remained until his retirement. In the course of his career he secured 21 National Science Foundation grants to support his research.
During his career, Caldwell served on the faculties of the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
, the University of Oklahoma
University of Oklahoma
The University of Oklahoma is a coeducational public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two became the state of Oklahoma. the university had 29,931 students enrolled, most located at its...
, Syracuse University, and the University of California at Berkeley, and had shorter appointments at some 80 other collegiate institutions both within the U.S. and overseas. At various times, Caldwell served as advisor or consultant to the U.S. Senate, UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
, the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
, the Departments of Commerce, Energy, Defense, and Interior, and the National Institutes of Health
National Institutes of Health
The National Institutes of Health are an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and are the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and health-related research. Its science and engineering counterpart is the National Science Foundation...
. Although not a natural scientist, as part of his work towards establishing interdisciplinary study in universities and achieving a greater merging of the two worlds of science and public policy, he became deeply involved in national and international environmental affairs and worked closely with several important scientific bodies serving, among many appointments, on the Sea Grant Program of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration , pronounced , like "noah", is a scientific agency within the United States Department of Commerce focused on the conditions of the oceans and the atmosphere...
(NOAA), the first Environmental Advisory Board of the United States Army Corps of Engineers, the Pacific Science Congress, the President’s National Commission on Materials Policy, the Science Advisory Board for the Great Lakes of the International Joint Commission
International Joint Commission
The International Joint Commission is an independent binational organization established by the United States and Canada under the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909.The Commission has responsibilities related to the following treaties and agreements:...
, as chair of the first Commission on Environmental Policy, Law and Administration for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), and as advisor to the UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
Man and the Biosphere Program (MAB), and the UNESCO working program for the environmental education and training of engineers.
He also served on the editorial boards of numerous prestigious scientific and professional journals. A lover of nature, bird watching, and botany from an early age, he was a founding member of the South Bend, Indiana chapter of the Audubon Society, and of both the first local chapter of The Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy is a US charitable environmental organization that works to preserve the plants, animals, and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive....
(TNC) in New York, and the Conservancy's Indiana Chapter. He served on the Board of Governors of TNC from 1959 to 1965.
Notable accomplishments
During the 1960s Caldwell was virtually a lone voice in attempting to establish policies for the environment because such a holistic and interdisciplinary approach to solving environmental problems did not then exist. In 1962 his groundbreaking article “Environment: A New Focus for Public Policy?” appeared in Public Administration Review, launching development of a new subfield of environmental policy studies. After 1962, he changed the main focus of his career towards examining policies for protecting the quality of the human environment. In 1972 he was the catalyst for founding the School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA) at Indiana University, Bloomington. His 1976 article "Novus Ordo Seclorum: The Heritage of American Public Administration" in Public Administration Review was a defining paper in the modern history of public administrationPublic administration
Public Administration houses the implementation of government policy and an academic discipline that studies this implementation and that prepares civil servants for this work. As a "field of inquiry with a diverse scope" its "fundamental goal.....
.
Caldwell is perhaps best known as one of the principal architects of the National Environmental Policy Act
National Environmental Policy Act
The National Environmental Policy Act is a United States environmental law that established a U.S. national policy promoting the enhancement of the environment and also established the President's Council on Environmental Quality ....
(NEPA), the first act of its kind in the world, signed into law on January 1, 1970. In drafting A National Policy on the Environment in 1968 as consultant to Senator Henry Jackson, the head of the powerful Senate Interior and Insular Affairs Committee, Caldwell realized that more was needed than a mere a policy statement: an “action-forcing mechanism” would be necessary to secure federal agency compliance with the Act’s requirements. The origin of the requirement for preparation of an environmental impact statement
Environmental impact statement
An environmental impact statement , under United States environmental law, is a document required by the National Environmental Policy Act for certain actions "significantly affecting the quality of the human environment". An EIS is a tool for decision making...
(EIS) has been attributed to Caldwell, whose testimony at the Senate hearing in April 1969 laid the groundwork for inclusion of provisions requiring an evaluation of the effects of all major federal projects significantly affecting the quality of the human environment. In these “detailed statements,” as they were termed in the Act, all reasonably foreseeable social, economic, and environmental effects of a proposed action and any possible alternatives to it must be identified and assessed before any federal action takes place.
NEPA has been emulated, in one form or another, by more than one hundred other countries, and many states have also established “mini NEPAs.” When national government agencies first started to prepare EISs, there were no professional associations dedicated to the planning and problem solving that NEPA demanded. Subsequently, Caldwell's efforts in formulating NEPA, and later promoting it, lead to formation of the National Association of Environmental Professionals (NAEP), a national professional association of persons who prepare EISs.
Honors and awards
The many awards Caldwell received included the William E. Mosher Award (1964) and the Marshall E. Dimock Award of the American Society for Public AdministrationAmerican Society for Public Administration
The American Society for Public Administration is a membership association in the United States sponsoring conferences and providing professional services primarily to those who study the implementation of government policy, public administration, and, to a lesser degree, programs of civil society...
(1981); the John M. Gaus Award from the American Political Science Association
American Political Science Association
The American Political Science Association is a professional association of political science students and scholars in the United States. Founded in 1903, it publishes three academic journals...
; and the National Environmental Quality Award from the Natural Resources Council of America (1997). In 1991, he was named one of the United Nations Environmental Program's (UNEP) Global 500 for distinguished environmental services, and in 1997, he was awarded an honorary LLD from Western Michigan University
Western Michigan University
Western Michigan University is a public university located in Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States. The university was established in 1903 by Dwight B. Waldo, and as of the Fall 2010 semester, its enrollment is 25,045....
. In 2001 he was the recipient of Indiana University's Distinguished Service Award. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and an honorary member of the International Association for Impact Assessment. Annually since 1995 the American Political Science Association
American Political Science Association
The American Political Science Association is a professional association of political science students and scholars in the United States. Founded in 1903, it publishes three academic journals...
has awarded the Lynton Keith Caldwell Prize for the best book in environmental politics and policy published during the previous three years. Shortly after his death in 2006, the Caldwell Center for Culture and Ecology was established in Bloomington, IN to provide environmental education for youth and adults.
Scholarly publications
- The administrative theories of Hamilton & Jefferson: Their contribution to thought on public administration. New York: Russell & Russell, 1944.
- The government and administration of New York. New York: Crowell, 1954.
- Environment: A challenge for modern society. Garden City, NY: Natural History Press, 1970. Published for the American Museum of Natural History.
- In defense of earth: International protection of the biosphere. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1972.
- Man and his environment: Policy and administration. New York: Harper & Row, 1975. ISBN 9780060411473
- Citizens and the environment: Case studies in popular action. With Lynton R. Hayes and Isabel M. MacWhirter. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1976. ISBN 9780253313553
- Science and the National Environmental Policy Act: Redirecting policy through procedural reform. University, AL: University of Alabama Press, 1982. ISBN 9780817301125
- US interests and the global environment. Muscatine, IA: Stanley Foundation, 1985.
- Biocracy: Public policy and the life sciences. Boulder: Westview Press, 1987. ISBN 9780813373638
- Perspectives on ecosystem management for the Great Lakes: A reader. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1988. ISBN 9780887067655
- Between two worlds: Science, the environmental movement, and policy choice. New York : Cambridge University Press, 1990. ISBN 9780521331524.
- International environmental policy: Emergence and dimensions, 2d ed. Durham: Duke University Press, 1990. ISBN 9780822310587
- "Globalizing environmentalism: Threshold of a new phase in international relations. In: American Environmentalism: The U.S. environmental movement, 1970-1990, Riley E. Dunlap and Angela G. Mertig, eds. New York: Taylor & Francis, 1992. ISBN 0844817309
- Policy for land: Law and ethics. With Karen S. Shrader-Frechette. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1993. ISBN 9780847677788
- Environment as a focus for public policy. With Robert V. Bartlett and James N. Gladden. College Station: Texas A & M University Press, 1995.
- International environmental policy: From the twentieth to the twenty-first century, 3d ed. With Paul S. Weiland. Durham: Duke University Press, 1996. ISBN 9780822318613
- Environmental policy: Transnational issues and national trends. With Robert V. Bartlett. Westport, CT: Quorum Books, 1997. ISBN 9781567200799
- The National Environmental Policy Act: An agenda for the future. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998. ISBN 9780253334442