Complex global governance and domestic policies: four pathways of influence

TLDR

Standard environmental governance models assume single‑issue regimes with binding obligations, yet many pressing global problems are governed by diverse legal, non‑legal, governmental and non‑governmental mechanisms. The study seeks to broaden the focus from regime compliance and effectiveness to influence factors beyond state borders by examining how international and transnational efforts affect domestic or firm policies. The authors propose a framework distinguishing four pathways—international rules, norms and discourse, market interventions, and direct access to domestic processes—along with propositions on the conditions and mechanisms through which actors influence domestic and firm policies, and illustrate it with a forest governance case.

Abstract

Standard works on international environmental governance assume single-issue regimes with binding obligations designed to govern the behaviour of states. Yet many of the most pressing global environmental problems, including climate change, forest degradation and biodiversity loss, are governed by an array of mechanisms—legal, non-legal, governmental and non-governmental—in complex arrangements. Examining the combined effects of these international and transnational efforts on domestic or firm policies and practices—the usual targets of such efforts—requires expanding a focus on regime 'compliance' and 'effectiveness' to 'influence' factors from beyond state borders. To facilitate such a move, the authors develop a framework that distinguishes four distinct pathways through which actors and institutions influence domestic policies: international rules; international norms and discourse; creation of, or interventions in, markets; and direct access to domestic policy processes. Propositions are then developed on the conditions under which, and processes through which, actors and institutions affect domestic and firm policies and practices along each pathway. The framework is applied to the case of forest governance, a prototypical example of complex global environmental governance.