What makes agreements work? Or, what can make “soft law” harder?

What makes agreements work?

Or, what can make “soft law” harder?

Two theoretical views(not mutually exclusive)

• Top-Down: “It’s the regime, stupid!”

• Hierarchical, elitist, Westphalian

• Bottom-Up: “It’s the civil society, dummy!”

• Anti-hierarchical, non- (or less) elitist, post-Westphalian

Regime Theory in a Nutshell

• In international relations, a set of norms, rules and procedures around which expectations converge

• Can be created/codified/catalyzed by international agreements like the GLWQA

• Takes on different organizational forms

• Regimes can constrain the behavior of nation-states

How do regimes change behavior of states and other

actors?

• “Epistemic communities”—groups or networks of professionals and experts in a particular domain with shared assumptions and values (e.g., “the invisible university”)

• Provide advice and expert support to sovereign governments

Some flavors of regime theory (or why do regimes affect

behavior)• Structural (organizations—e.g., Invisible U,

CUSIS, IAGLR)• Game theory (iterated prisoner’s dilemma—who

are the stakeholders, how do they punish defectors?)

• Functional (incentives—markets, hierarchies, Great Lakes careers, Canada-US relations)

• Cognitive (virtual or imagined communities—ecosystem approach; scientism in environmental management)

Global Civil Society

• We live in a “post-sovereign” world• Globalization, telecommunications, cultural

homogenization make nation-states somewhat irrelevant

• Networks and NGOs (both for-profit and nonprofit) are what make the world go around

• Globalization may be as empowering as disempowering for progressive grassroots forces (networking, blogoshpere, WikiWorld, GLIN and Great Lakes Town Hall)

Some Great Lakes Civil Society Actors

• Mainline enviros (Greenpeace, Sierra Club, , Audubon, TNC,Riverkeeper NWF,etc.)

• Local enviros (BN Riverkeeper, Zoar Valley groups, Cayuga Creek residents

• Enviro coalitions (GLU, Great Lakes Alliance, Healing Our Waters Coalition)

• Researchers (IAGLR, GL Research Consortium, Great Lakes Programs)

• Council of Great Lakes Industries; shipping interests (lakers, salties), labor unions

• Non-enviro overlaps (League of Women Voters, Chambers of Commerce, community associations, “heritage tourism” etc., etc.)

• Recreational interests (boaters, anglers, divers)

What’s Wrong With Great Lakes Management?(Botts and Muldoon)

• Regime breakdown (less binationalism)– Political orientation of Commissioners– Move away from IJC to BEC– Proliferation outside the Agreement (Annex 2001,

CGLG, GL Commission, Grt Lakes Mayors, etc.)

• Civil Society burnout/freezeout– Shift to SOLEC– “Ghettoization” of public input at Biennial– No institutional structure for citizen input

Alternative approaches to fitting local governance into

larger scales• “Drama of the Commons”—local self-

management of common-pool resources can work, if higher levels of government/governance use it rather than suppress it.

• Ontario Conservation Authorities—Nonprofit entities that bridge between watershed-level conservation, and local governments

How shall we govern Lake Erie, and the other LaMP Regions?