The Effectiveness of International Environmental Regimes: Causal Connections and Behavioral Mechanisms (Global Environmental Accord: Strategies for Sustainability and Institutional Innovation) [Paperback]

Oran R. Young (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Global Environmental Accord: Strategies for Sustainability and Institutional Innovation | Publication Date: July 2, 1999

To be effective, an international regime must play a significant role in solving or at least managing the problem that led to its creation. But because regimes--social institutions composed of roles, rules, and relationships--are not actors in their own right, they can succeed only by influencing the behavior of their members or actors operating under their members' jurisdiction.This book examines how regimes influence the behavior of their members and those associated with them. It identifies six mechanisms through which regimes affect behavior and discusses the role of each through in-depth case studies of three major environmental concerns: intentional vessel-source oil pollution, shared fisheries, and transboundary acid rain. The behavioral mechanisms feature regimes as utility modifiers, as enhancers of cooperation, as bestowers of authority, as learning facilitators, as role definers, and as agents of internal realignments. The case studies show how these mechanisms can cause variations in effectiveness both across regimes and within individual regimes over time.One of the book's primary contributions is to develop methods to demonstrate which causal mechanisms come into play with specific regimes. It emphasizes the need to supplement conventional models assuming unitary and utility-maximizing actors to explain variations in regime effectiveness.Contributors : Lee G. Anderson, Ann Barrett, Marc A. Levy, Moira L. McConnell, Natalia Mirovitskaya, Ronald Mitchell, Don Munton, Elena Nikitina, Gail Osherenko, Alexei Roginko, Marvin Soroos, Olav Schram Stokke, Oran R. Young.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This collection makes significant contributions to our understanding ofhow international regimes can influence the behavior that matters forconserving natural resources and protecting the environment, and hence whatconditions can make for more effective international environmentalmanagement." Edward A. Parson , John F. Kennedy School of Government,Harvard University

About the Author

Oran R. Young is Professor and Codirector of the Program on Governance for Sustainable Development at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California, Santa Barbara, and Chair of the Scientific Committee of the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change, sponsored by the International Council Of Science (ICSU), the International Social Science Council (ISSC), and the United Nations University (UNU). He is the author of The Institutional Dimensions of Environmental Change: Fit, Interplay, and Scale (2002) and coeditor (with Leslie A. King and Heike Schroeder) of Institutions and Environmental Change: Principal Findings, Applications, and Research Frontiers (2008), both published by the MIT Press.

Product Details

• Paperback: 342 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press (July 2, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262740230
• ISBN-13: 978-0262740234
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,705,651 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)