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

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  • 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

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  • 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
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. 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.

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