The Effectiveness of Non-State Governance Schemes: A Comparative Study of Forest Certification in Norway and Sweden

During the last decade, we have seen the emergence, under the auspices of non-state authorities, of market-driven governance schemes for certification of forest holdings and eco-labelling of wood products. Do these schemes affect actual management practices and environmental protection in forestry? This article examines the effectiveness of forest certification in Norway and Sweden – two ecologically and politically similar countries, but with different certification schemes. It is found that certification processes in both countries have resulted in high participation in certification schemes, high market penetration by certified forest organisations, and reduced conflict prevalence over forestry practices. Although forest certification seems to have modified on-the-ground practices in ways that lead to less environmental deterioration of forests, we still know too little about forest certification’s environmental impact and efficacy as a problem-solving instrument. More research is therefore urged in these areas.     

The Transformation of organic regulation: The ambiguous effects of publicization

The regulatory regime for organic products is different from other non‐state‐market driven (NSMD) regimes because it is the only one that evolved from a purely private into a regime where the establishment of minimum standards has become the monopoly of public powers. This article is the first to study the effects of the process of publicization, a term coined to characterize the transformation of private into public standards. The central hypothesis studied is that the process of publicization has empowerment and containment effects at the same time. To test the hypothesis the article analyses the effects of publicization on regulatory capabilities of private regulators as well as on the quality of the standards. The effects of publicization are further explored by comparing the legal and institutional architecture that shapes the coexistence of private and public regimes in the EU and the US, showing important differences between the two systems. The article offers a new perspective to look at the dynamic interaction between private and public regulation and its findings are of general relevance for the debate on the desirability of governmental intervention on private regulatory schemes.     

比较与借鉴：中外青年志愿服务现状透视

国外发达国家青年志愿服务工作已逐渐步入组织化、规范化和系统化的轨道。通过中外志愿服务的比较发现,我国青年志愿服务水平与社会成员的需求仍然有较大的差距。应借鉴与吸收国外的成功经验,以更好地推动我国青年志愿服务工作的持续发展。     

The return of censitary suffrage? The effects of automatic voter registration and voluntary voting in Chile

How does a change from a compulsory voting system to a voluntary one affect election turnout? It is often argued that an electoral regime under which voting is voluntary reproduces class bias or, in other words, that the rich vote more than the poor. This bias is corrected either by the introduction of compulsory voting or the existence of strong left-wing parties and trade unions able to mobilize poorer segments of the population. In this article, we put forward an alternative argument. We assert that when voting is voluntary, class bias can disappear if an election is very competitive since this affects both turnout and its socio-economic composition. To evaluate this argument, we examine the case of Chile's 2012 municipal election when voting was voluntary for the first time, instead of compulsory.     

Much Ado about nothing? A multilevel analysis of the relationship between voluntary associations' characteristics and their members' generalized trust

The last 20 years of research on the micro-level relationship between involvement in voluntary associations and generalized trust has been characterized by a growing theory–data gap. This gap is especially problematic in terms of including diversity across voluntary associations in empirical analyses. This article aims to bridge this gap by using a hierarchically clustered data set (active members nested in voluntary associations) and multilevel analyses to test several hypotheses drawn from prior studies about the relationship between voluntary associations' characteristics and members' level of generalized trust. Overall, the results indicate that in explaining the variability in individual generalized trust levels, differences among the associations in which individuals are involved could contribute marginally at best. Almost all variance (97.6%) in individual level of generalized trust lies between the individuals and not between the associations. Furthermore, the analyses show no correlations for most tested associational characteristics. As for membership diversity, the most pronounced result runs opposite to expectation—thus providing some support for a membership similarity hypothesis rather than for a diversity hypothesis. The article raises the question whether the search for associational differences that might explain the lack of a general relationship between membership in voluntary associations and individual level of generalized trust is in fact a dead end.     

推动共同富裕进程中行业协会商会的新定位

在扎实推动全体人民共同富裕的新阶段,我国行业协会商会应当重新定位自身功能。已有研究认为,不同场景下的行业协会商会功能分别受到会员逻辑、影响逻辑、公共逻辑的型塑,但少有文献探讨上述三种不同逻辑融合如何影响行业协会商会的常态化功能发挥。文章构建了“行业协会商会在会员逻辑、影响逻辑与公共逻辑融合驱动下推动共同富裕”的分析框架。基于案例研究发现,我国行业协会商会通过组织联盟与数字化改革等方式促进会员逻辑、影响逻辑与公共逻辑的融合：坚持以会员逻辑为基础核心,激发各类会员的活力和能力,推动经济高质量发展;以公共逻辑为价值主导,追求社会公共利益,提升基层社会治理能力;以影响逻辑为有力支撑,提升政府治理效能,支持高质量经济发展与高水平社会治理,进而推动共同富裕的实质性进展。行业协会商会推动共同富裕实践有利于形成共同富裕社会格局、优化共同富裕治理体系。     

Issue opacity and sustainability standard effectiveness

Many voluntary sustainability standards govern opaque environmental and social issues, which are difficult to understand and address. Extant studies show mixed evidence around the effectiveness of such standards. We develop a theoretical framework that relates different degrees and types of opacity to standard effectiveness. Systemic opacity results from issues embedded in complex, diverse, and dynamic settings, whereas behavioral opacity stems from human challenges in interpreting and acting upon focal issues. Rigid sustainability standards, oriented toward compliance, are effective for addressing issues that are transparent or enshrouded by behavioral opacity, but are counterproductive for issues with systemic opacity. The trade-off between rigidity and flexibility leads to optimal effectiveness when standards governing systemically and behaviorally opaque issues are moderately rigid. Our ideas are illustrated with two leading sustainability standards in the fisheries and real estate sectors, which effectively address transparent issues but show limited success when facing opacity. We conclude that unpacking issue opacity is instrumental in designing and implementing more effective sustainability standards.