Negotiating climate legislation: Policy path dependence and coalition stabilization

This article investigates the nature of policy path dependence through analysis of climate policy formation in the United States. In 2008 the US Congress attempted to pass the Lieberman–Warner bill, a comprehensive climate and energy package that would have capped greenhouse emissions and established a nationwide cap and trade program. In the same year, California successfully enacted the Global Warming Solutions Act. This article explores the circumstances of both cases and raises the question of why legislation at the state level was successful and took such a divergent form from legislation at the federal level. The divergence of these cases is used to highlight the nature of coalition formation and policy path dependence in the legislative process. Explanations of policy tend to gravitate toward either the generalizability of game theoretic approaches or the empirical depth of case studies. This article suggests a combined approach that uses case studies to analyze the positions and motivations of actors and to then model policy development over time. The approach examines policy through the formation and negotiation of policy coalitions. Drawing on the Advocacy Coalition Framework and omnibus analysis, the approach expands these coalition theories first by analysing legislative development at the interface of legislators and constituent interest groups, and second by adding temporal dimension to the analysis. The findings suggest that policy is path dependent in that it is negotiated between coalitions that in turn create stability in the policy process and insulate policy fields from external shocks. Policy path dependence suggests that theory alone is insufficient to predict policy outcomes; policy results depend strongly on prior policy efforts, historically and socially contingent coalitions, and the resulting framing of policy possibilities.     

The political economy of regulatory change: The case of British merger control

This article aims to explain the broader evolution of British merger control. To this end it outlines a novel critical political economy perspective on regulation and regulatory change which differs from established political economy approaches, such as the regulatory capitalism/state perspectives, in three main ways: it places regulatory ideas at the heart of the analysis, it differentiates between different degrees of regulatory change, and it links regulatory change in delineated issue areas with changing power balances between fractions of capital and labor. The application of this perspective to the analysis of the evolution of British merger control provides some important new insights, most notably that the content, form, and scope of merger control in Britain have been deeply transformed in accordance with neoliberal ideas since the 1980s and that this process, which was part of a broader regulatory and ideational shift, was premised on the ascendancy of transnational capital.     

Institutional shrinkage: The deviant case of Swiss banking secrecy

Using the Mahoney–Thelen causal model one would expect “layering” to be the dominant kind of institutional change affecting Swiss banking secrecy. Our research into governance in Swiss banking shows that it does not fit this theoretical model. Applying deviant case analysis we have refined our understanding of institutional change. We argue that the removal of rules and the momentum of pressure should be acknowledged when explaining variations of institutional change and we suggest that the processes of shrinkage should not be ignored.     

THE LOGICAL LIMITS OF BEST PRACTICE ADMINISTRATIVE SOLUTIONS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Developing countries are pressured to adopt administrative solutions that the international community considers best practice. Some claim that these practices do not fit such contexts. How could one assess the fit or relevance of a best practice? This article suggests a basic answer: Look at the degree of difference between the proposed adoption context and the context in which such practice emerged as ‘best’. This answer emerges from a discussion on the basis of the new institutional ideas about change and diffusion. An empirical analysis of public financial management reform in African countries suggests support for this answer: Good practices are most evident in countries least different to the developed nations where practices originated and least evident in countries most different to these developed nations. The article contributes to a literature on best practice and yields fundamental messages for development, including the point that best practices are limited as administrative solutions in many developing countries. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fractured International Environmental Governance and the Potential Role of the Commonwealth in Biodiversity and Climate Change

Abstract

This paper begins by examining the reasons behind most failures of governance, including fault lines in institutional and professional specialisation, and in ideology. These three, forever competing within and between themselves, frustrate attempts to find solutions to some of the world's most pressing challenges. Not least among these are environmental challenges, where preferences and priorities that are geographically, professionally or ideologically narrow inevitably fail to achieve solutions for the greater good. What role can the Commonwealth play in addressing the fracture lines that bedevil solutions for climate change and biodiversity? It may help to stimulate global action on these issues if it can encourage agreement across multidimensional global boundaries. We know the Commonwealth is not a leading global force for controlling climate change or biodiversity loss; but if it had the political will it could be an exemplar of how, between a group of vastly diverse countries across the globe—and on the global political stage—binding agreement and positive action on climate change and biodiversity could be promoted and perhaps achieved. One of the strongest features of the Commonwealth is the generation of long-standing legal and ethical norms whose appeal is obvious even if their implementation is lacking. These norms should not be limited to the rule of law, democracy and human rights, but should include environmental norms because these too are fundamental to a satisfactory human condition.     

气候变化损害的国家责任:虚幻或现实

人类活动导致的气候变化是当前全球生态系统和人类生存所面临的最大威胁之一。受历史积累因素的影响,无论各国如何控制、削减温室气体排放,气候变化造成的损害仍不可避免,而气候变化损害的国家责任也日益成为国际社会无法回避的现实问题。作为一种特殊的跨界损害,气候变化损害无论在国际不法行为的认定还是因果关系的确定方面,都对现行国家责任制度提出了挑战。由于诸多障碍的存在,追究气候变化损害的国家责任在目前尚不具备充分的现实可行性。不过,来自国家责任的潜在压力至少有助于敦促各国积极改善温室气体排放政策,并就气候变化损害的救济尽快制定切实有效的全球性解决方案。     

论气候变化语境下的国际服务贸易法适用问题:以一般例外规则为视角

各国日益重视采用服务贸易措施应对气候变化,我国WTO服务承诺亦与气候变化相关。因措施通常视成员是否承担减排义务而给予不同待遇,容易违反非歧视原则,一般例外是判断措施合法性的关键。一般例外适用于气候变化时将面临措施性质认定、必要性测试、发展中成员可否利用引言获得特殊待遇等诸多难题。为确保一般例外适用的可预见性并妥善平衡贸易与气候变化,需强化贸易与气候变化的相互支持,解决一般例外法理的连贯性不足等缺陷,避免僵化解释,力争规则更新修改。     

Reform of Nuclear Disasters＇ Legislation Adapting to Climate Change

核灾害的应对重在预防,而气候变化改变了核灾害的成灾机理,强化和放大了灾害风险。适应气候变化的核灾害应对制度变革：立法理念必须从减轻灾害向减轻灾害风险转变;内容创新必须重点突出核设施选址中夯实程序的完整性、非居住区和规划限制区制度中补充发展权补偿内容、防灾规划在体系完善基础上“融入主流”等三个方面;运行机制改革应该在国际层面创建多中心的灾害风险治理框架,在国内层面推进“三元、三级”的统舍与协调。     

循环经济本质研究的新视角

循环经济是一种技术范式,发展循环经济技术创新是关键,应依靠科技进步,突破发展循环经济的技术瓶颈,尽快完善发展循环经济的技术支撑体系;循环经济是一种生态经济,生态经济就是一种尊重生态原理和经济规律的经济,按照生态规律利用自然资源和环境容量,实现经济活动的生态转向;循环经济是一种产业生态化模式,是产业生态化的过程,表现为一系列的产业形态,要不断推进产业结构的优化、产业集群式发展,实现传统产业集群向生态结构转型。     

艾伦·梅克森斯·伍德对技术决定论的批判

艾伦·梅克森斯·伍德认为马克思不是技术决定论者。她从三个维度批判了技术决定论:从阶级和历史维度,伍德认为技术决定论否定阶级的存在,忽视对具体社会的特殊性分析,主张超历史的和普遍的历史观,认为技术革新是社会变革的主要动力;从资本主义维度,伍德认为资本主义本身是反技术的,技术的发展会加剧自身的特殊矛盾;从社会主义维度,伍德认为社会主义追求的不是技术决定论意义上的阶级消亡和生产主义,而是自然、人与社会之间的和谐,以及生产者的自由联合体。