Taking Institutions Seriously: How Regime Analysis can be Relevant to Multilevel Environmental Governance

2003 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 25-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Vogler
Keyword(s):  
General Theory ◽  
Rational Choice ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Global Environmental Governance ◽  
Institutional Facts ◽  
Institutional Approach ◽  
Environmental Regimes ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Regime Analysis

This article starts with the observation that in the study and practice of global environmental governance (GEG) institutions and organizations are often conflated. For regime theorists they are not the same thing and the argument is advanced that, despite its failings, the regime/institutional approach continues to have significant analytical advantages. However, the benefits of regime analysis can only be realized if it avoids becoming an arena for inter-governmental rational choice theorizing and takes institutions seriously. One way of doing this is to utilize John Searle's “general theory of institutional facts.” Searle's work provides the inspiration for a re-consideration of the bases, components, domain and explanation of global environmental regimes. It is argued that it could yield a new institutional approach which overcomes some of the problems of existing regime analyses in ways appropriate to the study of multilevel environmental governance.

scholarly journals When emergent countries reform global governance of climate change: Brazil under Lula

2010 ◽  
Vol 53 (spe) ◽  
pp. 73-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Flávia Barros-Platiau
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Global Environmental Governance ◽  
Analytical Instruments ◽  
Environmental Regimes ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Emerging Country ◽  
Emerging Powers ◽  
The Impact

Due to its recent economic success, Brazil is considered an emerging country, but is it an emerging power concerning global environmental governance? This article argues that although Brazil has a sui generis profile, it can only be considered an emerging power in some environmental regimes, such as global climate change. Thus, international relations theory needs more analytical instruments to assess the impact of emerging powers in global environmental governance

Equity Norms in Global Environmental Governance

2008 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 25-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chukwumerije Okereke
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Ethical Standards ◽  
Global Environmental Governance ◽  
Environmental Regimes ◽  
Common Heritage Of Mankind ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
The Common ◽  
Common But Differentiated Responsibility ◽  
International Environmental Regimes

Contestations over justice and equity in international environmental regimes present striking evidence of the struggle to create institutions for global environmental governance that are based on widely shared ethical standards of responsibility and accountability. Focusing on two key equity norms—the common heritage of mankind (CHM) and common but differentiated responsibility (CDR)—this paper highlights four factors that affect the influence of moral responsibility norms in global environmental regimes: (i) source and force of articulation; (ii) nature of issue-area; (iii) “moral temper” of the international community; and (iv) “fitness” of norms with the prevailing neoliberal economic idea and structure. Consequent upon the argument that the most important of all these factors is the “fitness” with the extant neoliberal order, the paper questions the assumptions of the burgeoning constructivist scholarship that tends to overemphasize the independent role of intersubjective beliefs in international politics. Further, it is suggested that the abiding “responsibility deficit” in institutions for global environmental governance is due mostly to the successful co-optation of equity norms for neoliberal ends.

Movements, Networks, Hierarchies: A Gender Perspective on Global Environmental Governance

2003 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Bretherton
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Women's Movements ◽  
Participatory Process ◽  
Global Environmental Governance ◽  
Women's Participation ◽  
Number Of Factors ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Transnational Mobilization ◽  
Environmentally Sound

Environmental governance may be distinguished from environmental management by the implication that, in the former, some form of participatory process is involved. Here, the focus is upon the potential for women's movements and networks to influence the principles and practices of global environmental governance (GEG). It is contended that, in principle, women are uniquely placed to oppose the dominant norms informing GEG; and that women's participation would, in consequence, be crucial to the achievement of equitable and environmentally sound forms of governance. In practice, however, a number of factors combine to create divisions between women, and hence to impede transnational mobilization by women around environmental issues. This article examines these issues.

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