IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/ieaple/v13y2013i2p153-176.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The promise of new institutionalism: explaining the absence of a World or United Nations Environment Organisation

Author

Listed:
  • Marjanneke Vijge

Abstract

In the past forty years, numerous proposals to improve the fragmented international environmental governance (IEG) system have been developed, many of which call for the establishment of an international environment organisation. Although governments and scholars agree that the system needs improvement, no such substantial reform has yet been undertaken. Based on the literature study and more than twenty interviews, this article explains the absence of an international environment organisation, using three theories of new institutionalism: historical, rational choice and discursive institutionalism. Through the notion of path dependency, historical institutionalism explains how the self-reinforcing cycle of a rather diffused development of the IEG system, characterised by incremental changes, has made the system more complicated and prevented substantial institutional change. Historical institutionalism also highlights power inequalities and lack of trust between nation-states, as well as turf wars between international organisations, as key explanatory factors hampering IEG reform. Rational choice institutionalism complements such explanations by showing how incremental institutional changes that do not add up to substantial reform are the result of the fact that neither nation-states nor international organisations are interested in establishing a powerful environment organisation that might encroach upon their sovereignty. Finally, discursive institutionalism suggests that the norm to do at least something to improve the IEG system has prompted nation-states to create “symbolic” institutions. The concept of socialisation helps to explain why incremental institutional developments within the UN system are more likely than substantial reform. The article shows that new institutionalism theories complement rather than contradict one another, resulting in a more holistic explanation of lack of IEG reform. Copyright The Author(s) 2013

Suggested Citation

  • Marjanneke Vijge, 2013. "The promise of new institutionalism: explaining the absence of a World or United Nations Environment Organisation," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 153-176, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:ieaple:v:13:y:2013:i:2:p:153-176
    DOI: 10.1007/s10784-012-9183-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10784-012-9183-0
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10784-012-9183-0?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. ,, 2001. "Problems And Solutions," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 17(6), pages 1157-1160, December.
    2. Frank Biermann, 2001. "The Emerging Debate on the Need for a World Environment Organization: A Commentary," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 1(1), pages 45-55, February.
    3. ,, 2001. "Problems And Solutions," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 17(5), pages 1025-1031, October.
    4. Magnus Lodefalk & John Whalley, 2002. "Reviewing Proposals for a World Environmental Organisation," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(5), pages 601-617, May.
    5. Frank Biermann & Philipp Pattberg & Harro van Asselt & Fariborz Zelli, 2009. "The Fragmentation of Global Governance Architectures: A Framework for Analysis," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 9(4), pages 14-40, November.
    6. Ellen M. Immergut, 1998. "The Theoretical Core of the New Institutionalism," Politics & Society, , vol. 26(1), pages 5-34, March.
    7. John Vogler & Hannes Stephan, 2007. "The European Union in global environmental governance: Leadership in the making?," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 7(4), pages 389-413, December.
    8. Radoslav S. Dimitrov, 2005. "Hostage to Norms: States, Institutions and Global Forest Politics," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 5(4), pages 1-24, November.
    9. Sebastian Oberthür & Thomas Gehring, 2004. "Reforming International Environmental Governance: An Institutionalist Critique of the Proposal for a World Environment Organisation," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 4(4), pages 359-381, December.
    10. Pierson, Paul, 2000. "Increasing Returns, Path Dependence, and the Study of Politics," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 94(2), pages 251-267, June.
    11. Frank Biermann, 2002. "Strengthening Green Global Governance in a Disparate World SocietyWould a World Environment Organisation Benefit the South?," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 2(4), pages 297-315, December.
    12. Hall, Peter A. & Taylor, Rosemary C. R., 1996. "Political science and the three new institutionalisms," MPIfG Discussion Paper 96/6, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Melanie van Driel & Frank Biermann & Rakhyun E. Kim & Marjanneke J. Vijge, 2022. "International organisations as ‘custodians’ of the sustainable development goals? Fragmentation and coordination in sustainability governance," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 13(5), pages 669-682, November.
    2. Frank Biermann, 2013. "Curtain down and Nothing Settled: Global Sustainability Governance after the ‘Rio+20’ Earth Summit," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 31(6), pages 1099-1114, December.
    3. Agni Kalfagianni & Oran R. Young, 2022. "The politics of multilateral environmental agreements lessons from 20 years of INEA," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 245-262, June.
    4. Peter H. Sand & Jeffrey McGee, 2022. "Lessons learnt from two decades of international environmental agreements: law," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 263-278, June.
    5. Björn-Ola Linnér & Henrik Selin, 2013. "The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development: Forty Years in the Making," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 31(6), pages 971-987, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Frank Biermann & Olwen Davies & Nicolien Grijp, 2009. "Environmental policy integration and the architecture of global environmental governance," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 9(4), pages 351-369, November.
    2. Bothfeld, Silke, 2008. "Under (Re-) Construction: die Fragmentierung des deutschen Geschlechterregimes durch die neue Familienpolitik," Working papers of the ZeS 01/2008, University of Bremen, Centre for Social Policy Research (ZeS).
    3. Singer, Benjamin & Giessen, Lukas, 2017. "Towards a donut regime? Domestic actors, climatization, and the hollowing-out of the international forests regime in the Anthropocene," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 69-79.
    4. Adnan Türegün, 2017. "Ideas and Interests Embedded in the Making of Ontario’s Fair Access to Regulated Professions Act, 2006," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 405-418, May.
    5. Burch, Sarah, 2010. "In pursuit of resilient, low carbon communities: An examination of barriers to action in three Canadian cities," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(12), pages 7575-7585, December.
    6. Myunghee Kim, 2024. "Rethinking the Smart Green City Project in South Korea: A Critical Juncture Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(22), pages 1-20, November.
    7. Mevissen, Natalie & Böttcher, Julia, 2011. "Aushandlung nach innen, Legitimation nach außen: Leibniz-Institute im Spannungsfeld zwischen Forschung und Anwendung," Discussion Papers, Research Group Science Policy Studies SP III 2011-602, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    8. Gerschewski, Johannes & Merkel, Wolfgang & Schmotz, Alexander & Stefes, Christoph H. & Tanneberg, Dag, 2013. "Warum überleben Diktaturen?," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 0, pages 106-131.
    9. World Bank, 2002. "Costa Rica : Social Spending and the Poor, Volume 1. Summary of Issues and Recommendations with Executive Summary," World Bank Publications - Reports 15330, The World Bank Group.
    10. Hernández-Hernández, M.E. & Kolokoltsov, V.N. & Toniazzi, L., 2017. "Generalised fractional evolution equations of Caputo type," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 184-196.
    11. Simon Levin & Anastasios Xepapadeas, 2021. "On the Coevolution of Economic and Ecological Systems," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 13(1), pages 355-377, October.
    12. Luis Alfonso Dau & Aya S. Chacar & Marjorie A. Lyles & Jiatao Li, 2022. "Informal institutions and international business: Toward an integrative research agenda," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 53(6), pages 985-1010, August.
    13. Hoang Ngoc Tuan, 2015. "Boundedness of a Type of Iterative Sequences in Two-Dimensional Quadratic Programming," Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, Springer, vol. 164(1), pages 234-245, January.
    14. Wang, Daojuan & Hain, Daniel S. & Larimo, Jorma & Dao, Li T., 2020. "Cultural differences and synergy realization in cross-border acquisitions," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(3).
    15. Zhou, H. & Uhlaner, L.M., 2009. "Knowledge Management in the SME and its Relationship to Strategy, Family Orientation and Organization Learning," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2009-026-ORG, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    16. Turpie, J.K. & Marais, C. & Blignaut, J.N., 2008. "The working for water programme: Evolution of a payments for ecosystem services mechanism that addresses both poverty and ecosystem service delivery in South Africa," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(4), pages 788-798, May.
    17. Koichi Hamada & Asahi Noguchi, 2005. "The Role of Preconceived Ideas in Macroeconomic Policy: Japan's Experiences in the Two Deflationary Periods," Working Papers 908, Economic Growth Center, Yale University.
    18. Jingyi Xue, 2018. "Fair division with uncertain needs," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 51(1), pages 105-136, June.
    19. Dipak R. Pant, 2013. "Managing the global waste in the 21st century: As an anthropologist views it," LIUC Papers in Economics 263, Cattaneo University (LIUC).
    20. Agni Kalfagianni & Oran R. Young, 2022. "The politics of multilateral environmental agreements lessons from 20 years of INEA," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 245-262, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:ieaple:v:13:y:2013:i:2:p:153-176. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.