Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The paper sketches an analytical framework for the analysis of a particular dimension of institutional interplay, namely for the study of conflicts among regimes in global environmental governance. Starting from the examination of several incompatibilities among MEAs and international free trade regimes, as well as drawing on the preliminary findings of the few pioneering projects on institutional interplay, this framework is designed in the three steps:
First, it provides a definition of regime conflicts which does not only refer to the contradiction of rules, but also allows for the inclusion of anticipative and manifest controversies among actors, hence exceeding the merely legal dimension of such incompatibilities.
Second, it identifies distinctive criteria (including the degree of conflict manifestation, conflict arenas, actors involved), thereby differentiating between various types of regime conflicts. Moreover, a further typology distinguishes (potential) solution strategies.
In a third step, the paper presents hypotheses about the consequences of international regime conflicts. Clearly eschewing the reductionism of earlier conceptual approaches to the study of institutional interactions, these assumptions are re-framing existing regime theories and their major variables (e.g. situation structure, problem structure, relative gains, consensual knowledge, bureaucratic leadership) in two ways: first, as relational (or interactive) hypotheses which can explain the overall effectiveness-reducing impact of regime conflicts; second, as relative (or comparative) hypotheses which explain the distribution of these consequences among the involved regimes.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Are the concepts and principles developed to study the effectiveness of international environmental regimes applicable to domestic or even subnational environmental regimes? The paper will discuss issues and challenges encountered in measuring and understanding effectiveness of the California coastal zone management system, a complex environmental regime governing land use and development decisions that has been in place for nearly three decades.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In light of the Convention?s focus on responsible scholarship, this paper has a policy-oriented problem solving outlook, namely with regard to an important institutional dimension of environmental degradation. Based on the examination of several incompatibilities between multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) and free trade regimes, the paper intends to uncover supportive conditions for the robustness of MEAs and hence, for the pursuit of their respective environmental objectives. Such conditions shall be identified with the help of a comprehensive framework for the analysis of inter-regime conflicts in the field of sustainable development. In a first step, the paper introduces a conflict typology resting upon distinctive criteria e.g. the degree of conflict manifestation (latent, manifest), the respective conflict arenas (inside and outside of regime architectures) and the involved actors (bureaucracies, [non-]member states, etc.). Building on this typology, a second step comprises thegeneration and first testing of a set of relationally framed hypotheses in order to gain explanatory knowledge about the prevalence of certain regimes in the course of such conflicts. The three independent variables of these assumptions are: the institutional design of regimes, their bureaucratic leadership, and the power constellation among parties and non-parties along and across the North-South divide. Testing these hypotheses on selected cases (such as CBD-TRIPS in particular or the WTO-MEA relationship in general) clearly stresses the plausibility of the third of these three factors: the often deadlocked power constellation among country coalitions is mostly responsible for the insufficient manner in which regime incompatibilities are addressed. Moreover, the study shows that package deals would provide an appropriate tool to overcome such deadlocks. However, so far both bureaucracies and parties have hardly attempted to reach such agreements. This clearly reveals that the emerging academic discussions about issue-linkages need to be translated into adequate and applicable policy proposals.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The impact of political regime type on economic growth has attracted considerable scholarly attention over the years. The results of empirical studies into the matter have returned inconsistent findings and offered little in the way of mechanisms to account for any regime-growth effects. I examine the relationship between democracy and economic growth over the 1980 to 2003 period using cross-national quantitative methods on a sample of 64 developing countries. In particular, I explore fertility rates as the critical factor linking regimes and differential growth rates. I then posit and test, against alternative explanatory factors, family planning program effort as the institutional mechanism in the regime-fertility-growth relationship. My results show a significant positive effect of democracy on economic growth over the time period in question, with a significant mediating role for fertility. Analyses also support the hypothesis that family planning program effort functions as the primary mechanism in that relationship. I discuss the implications of my results for the literature and development policy.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: International regimes have been credited with being able to predict and change state behavior by creating incentives for cooperation. However, a closer examination reveals their limited capacity to influence state behavior. Empirical research provides evidence that regimes foster behavior among states that is counterproductive to the purposes of the regime itself. States find alternative ways that are harder to identify and therefore much harder to deal with, while continuing to be abiding members of the regime. I refer to this phenomenon as the `unintended consequences? of regimes. It is a fairly widespread phenomenon ranging from security regimes like the NPT to economic regimes like the GATT/WTO. Several good examples of UC can be found in the environmental regime as well. For example, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) was set up in 1973 to establish varying levels of protection for species of animals and plants. However, even though CITES has striven to protect several endangered species, there has been a dramatic increase in poaching and black marketing. Some environmentalists believe that the bans have aggravated the situation by driving the trade underground, in other cases the lack of availability merely increasing the price making it more profitable to trade. Similarly, in 1987, the Montreal Protocol was created to help protect the earth?s ozone layer. However, fifteen years later and about $ 2.4 billion in new fluorocarbon R&D later, the ozone hole is still with us, as a black market in illegal chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) and legal trade in recycled CFCs thrives. A careful analysis of environmental regimes reveals that by making the trade in environmentally sensitive products and endangered species illegal, regimes have not achieved success in their goals but only driven the matter out of the hands of the state into the black market, making the situation much more harder to deal with. The purpose of this research is to examine the unintended consequences of environmental regimes, how and why they occur, and under what circumstances they are more or less likely to take place.