What makes agreements work

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What makes agreements work?

• Or, what can make soft law harder?

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Two theoretical views(not mutually exclusive)

• Bottom-Up Its the civil society, dummy!
• Anti-hierarchical, non- (or less) elitist,
  post-Westphalian

• Top-Down Its the regime, stupid!
• Hierarchical, elitist, Westphalian

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Regime Theory in a Nutshell

• In international relations, a set of norms, rules
  and procedures around which expectations converge
• Can be created/codified/catalyzed by
  international agreements like the GLWQA
• Takes on different organizational forms
• Regimes can constrain the behavior of
  nation-states

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How do regimes change behavior of states and
other actors?

• Epistemic communitiesgroups or networks of
  professionals and experts in a particular domain
  with shared assumptions and values (e.g., the
  invisible university)
• Provide advice and expert support to sovereign
  governments

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Some flavors of regime theory (or why do regimes
affect behavior)

• Structural (organizationse.g., Invisible U,
  CUSIS, IAGLR)
• Game theory (iterated prisoners dilemmawho are
  the stakeholders, how do they punish defectors?)
• Functional (incentivesmarkets, hierarchies,
  Great Lakes careers, Canada-US relations)
• Cognitive (virtual or imagined communitiesecosyst
  em approach scientism in environmental
  management)

6
Global Civil Society

• We live in a post-sovereign world
• Globalization, telecommunications, cultural
  homogenization make nation-states somewhat
  irrelevant
• Networks and NGOs (both for-profit and nonprofit)
  are what make the world go around
• Globalization may be as empowering as
  disempowering for progressive grassroots forces
  (networking, blogoshpere, WikiWorld, GLIN and
  Great Lakes Town Hall)

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Some Great Lakes Civil Society Actors

• Mainline enviros (Greenpeace, Sierra Club, ,
  Audubon, TNC,Riverkeeper NWF,etc.)
• Local enviros (BN Riverkeeper, Zoar Valley
  groups, Cayuga Creek residents
• Enviro coalitions (GLU, Great Lakes Alliance,
  Healing Our Waters Coalition)

• Researchers (IAGLR, GL Research Consortium, Great
  Lakes Programs)
• Council of Great Lakes Industries shipping
  interests (lakers, salties), labor unions
• Non-enviro overlaps (League of Women Voters,
  Chambers of Commerce, community associations,
  heritage tourism etc., etc.)
• Recreational interests (boaters, anglers, divers)

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Whats Wrong With Great Lakes Management?(Botts
and Muldoon)

• Regime breakdown (less binationalism)
• Political orientation of Commissioners
• Move away from IJC to BEC
• Proliferation outside the Agreement (Annex 2001,
  CGLG, GL Commission, Grt Lakes Mayors, etc.)
• Civil Society burnout/freezeout
• Shift to SOLEC
• Ghettoization of public input at Biennial
• No institutional structure for citizen input

9
Alternative approaches to fitting local
governance into larger scales

• Drama of the Commonslocal self-management of
  common-pool resources can work, if higher levels
  of government/governance use it rather than
  suppress it.
• Ontario Conservation AuthoritiesNonprofit
  entities that bridge between watershed-level
  conservation, and local governments

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How shall we govern Lake Erie, and the other LaMP
Regions?