Evaluation of Polycentric Governance

Abstract We often mistakenly assume that institutional design will remain effective indefinitely. Complex long-term environmental challenges illuminate the disparity between institutions and state boundaries. While globalization has challenged monocentrism, we must look beyond traditional measures and design resilient governance systems, such as polycentric governance, that combine trust and local expertise in small-scale governance with the governance capacity of large-scale systems. These harness globalization’s benefits and provide solutions for the effects of ecosystem changes. This work examines the lessons – benefits, challenges, limitations, and unanswered questions – that may be learned from polycentric governance in the case of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) in the Arctic, where a polycentric political system has developed as a result of a mismatch in environmental, jurisdictional, and temporal scales. Section One examines characteristics of polycentricity, focusing on actors, multilevel governance, degree of formality, and the nature of interactions. Section Two concentrates on the tools utilized. Section Three applies the outlined framework. Finally, Section Four examines three lessons that global environmental governance may learn from the case study: (1) Peak organizations are effective tools for managing polycentricity, allowing for the inclusion of non-state actors, such as indigenous peoples organizations (2) and epistemic communities (3), in bridging the human-environment nexus.

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Polycentric Governance

Handbook of Science and Technology Convergence ◽

10.1007/978-3-319-04033-2_71-1 ◽

2014 ◽

pp. 1-11 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

David Feldman

Keyword(s):

Polycentric Governance

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Business and Human Rights: Alternative Approaches to Transnational Regulation

Annual Review of Law and Social Science ◽

10.1146/annurev-lawsocsci-113020-074527 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 17 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Surya Deva

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

Corporate Culture ◽

Annual Review ◽

Publication Date ◽

International Human Rights Law ◽

Polycentric Governance ◽

Business And Human Rights ◽

Treaty Reform ◽

And Control ◽

Investment Agreements

In recent years, various approaches to transnational regulation of business conduct have evolved as an alternative to the command-and-control model focusing on conduct of domestic businesses and the soft law approach of international human rights law to regulate corporations. On reviewing the potential of five such approaches (i.e., polycentric governance, extraterritorial regulation, proposed international treaty, reform of corporate laws, and rebalancing of trade-investment agreements), this article makes two arguments. First, although polycentric governance is critical to fill regulatory deficits of state-based regulation, this approach should not ignore or weaken further the role and relevance of states in regulating businesses, given the dynamic relation between state-based and other regulatory approaches. Second, greater attention should be paid to nonhuman rights regulatory regimes to change the corporate culture, which tends to externalize human rights issues. The increasing focus on the role of corporate laws and trade-investment agreements should be seen in this context. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Law and Social Science, Volume 17 is October 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

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