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What makes agreements work?

Exploring the dynamics between regime theory and global civil society in enhancing international agreements for sustainable governance, highlighting the roles of actors like NGOs, researchers, and industry in Great Lakes management.

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What makes agreements work?

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

  2. 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 Two theoretical views(not mutually exclusive)

  3. 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

  4. 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

  5. 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)

  6. 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)

  7. 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) Some Great Lakes Civil Society Actors

  8. 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

  9. 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

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

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