Environmental Institutions and Policy Innovation

ESM 297

Winter 2013

Instructor:

Aseem Prakash

Professor, Department of Political Science
Walker Family Professor for the College of Arts and Sciences
University of Washington, Seattle

Office: Bren Hall4520

Course Objectives:

This course will examine institutional mechanisms to manage contemporary and emergingenvironmental challenges. While governmental regulations remain the main vehicle for environmental governance across the globe, in the last two decades, a host of new institutional mechanisms have emerged. These include market-based mechanisms, information-based policies such as eco-labels, and voluntary programs. Alongside governments, businesses and NGOs have emerged as important institutional actors in sponsoring these new mechanisms.

As professionals working on environmental issues, you will be immersed in the world of environmental institutions. This class takes a diagnostic approach to environmental institutions. Our objective will be to understand the different type of environmental institutions, their strengths and weaknesses, and how the social, ecological and political contexts influence their efficacy. This is a daunting task because there are so many different institutions sponsored by a range of actors operating in diverse settings. Fortunately, we can draw on some helpful analytic tools to make our task more manageable. This course will equip you to develop a tool kit for your futureprofessional endeavors.

Readings:

We will post the readings on GauchoSpace.

Course Expectations

This course requires active student participation. You are expected to energetically and thoughtfully contribute to class discussions in the following ways.

Articles

I expect you to review all readings prior to the class. Yes, this is an intensive course and you are busy folks. However, without this effort, you will not be able to meaningfully engage in class discussions, which are necessary for the collective learning I seek to foster.

Furthermore, for every session, we will identify students to present and evaluate theassigned articles: if there are four readings assigned for a session, four different students will present one article each. We will review 19 articles in this course. My sense is that you will get to present one article during the duration of this course.

The list of students and the articlesthey have been assigned will be posted on GauchoSpace. For each article, the assigned discussant‐presentershould prepare a two page (single‐spaced) “Article Memo” which summarizes the article, examines its analytic strengths and weaknesses (in terms of logical clarity and consistencyand the empirical support for the claims), and identifies its practical implications (how might this help a public, private, or nonprofit manager in her tasks). Please email this memo to me prior to the class: if you are presenting an article assigned forsay the January 30 session, please email it to me by January30, 12:00 noon (note that the class typically starts at 4:00 or 4:30 p.m.).I will post your memo to the class email list. The discussant‐presenter should budget about 10-15 minutes for the in‐class oral presentation.You don’t need a power point presentation; an oral presentation would suffice.

Eco-Labels Project:

Environmentally conscious consumers look for information to inform their purchase decisions. Consequently, eco-labels have proliferated. A partial listing of these labels can be found here:

You will select the eco-label of your choice and conduct research on it.Please identify your choice in the Google Doc that will be provided by Amy Burgard. You may choose an eco-label that interests you but you may not select the same label as another student. Please review the eco-labels already selected by students in the Google Doc to make sure that there is no duplication. If another student already selected your preferred eco-label, please choose another one that interests you.

Examine this label from the perspective of: (a) business firm that is considering adopting this label, and (b) an environmental NGO. Examine issues such as what aspects of environmental policy or performance does this label cover, how are its obligations enforced, does this create tangible benefits for firms, etc. Prepare a one page summary (single spaced) to be turned in to me and a 15minute, in-class presentation on your eco-label. Power point is ok but not required. If you want to use a PowerPoint, please send it to me byemail.

Evaluation

While this intensive course will cover a lot of material in six humble sessions, I don’t think I will have sufficient data to award a numeric or letter grade. Hence, I will assess you as Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory based on the following:Article Memo, Eco-Labels project, and Class Participation.

Class Schedule

Session1

Monday, January 28

4:00 - 6:50 p.m.

Environmental Challenges: Actors, Institutions, and Politics

  1. Elinor Ostrom. 1990. Governing the Commons. Cambridge University Press. Chapters 1-2.
  1. Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy.1992, 15(2).See the articles by:Terry Anderson and Donald Leal,“Free market versus political environmentalism” and Michael Blumm,“The fallacies of free market environmentalism.”
  1. Daniel Cole and Peter Grossman.1999.“When is Command-and-Control Efficient: Institutions, Technology, and the Comparative Efficiency of Alternative Regulatory Regimes for Environmental Protection.”Wisconsin Law Review. 887.
  1. Robert O. Keohane and David G. Victor. 2011. “The Regime Complex for Climate Change.” Perspectives on Politics.9(1): 7-23.

No class on Tuesday, January 29

Session 2

Wednesday, January 30

4:00 -6:50 p.m.

Globalization and Regulation

  1. Michael Porter and Class van der Linde. 1995. Towards a New Conception of the Environment- Competitiveness Relationship. Journal of Economic Perspectives. 9: 97-118.
  1. David Vogel and Dan Keleman. 2010. Trading Places: The Role of the US and the EU in International Environmental Policies. Comparative Political Studies.
  1. Bruce Gilleya. 2012.Authoritarian environmentalism and China's response to climate change. Environmental Politics. 21(2): 287-307.
  1. Aseem Prakash and Matthew Potoski. 2006. Globalization and ISO 14001. ISO Management System, May-June.

Session 3

Thursday, January 31

4:00-6:50 p.m.

Voluntary Regulation

  1. Matt Potoski and Aseem Prakash. 2013. Green Clubs: Collective Action and Voluntary Environmental Programs Annual Review of Political Science,
  1. Lars Gulbrandsen. 2009. The Emergence and Effectiveness of the Marine Stewardship Council. Marine Policy, 33, 654–660.
  1. Magali Delmas and Laura Grant. 2010. Eco-Labeling Strategies and Price-Premium: The Wine Industry Puzzle. Business & Society.
  1. Virginia Haufler. 2010. Disclosure as Governance: The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative and Resource Management in the Developing World. Global Environmental Politics. 10(3).

Session 4

Friday,February 1

8:30-11:30 a.m.

Firms and Climate Change

  1. Sandra Rothenberg and David Levy. 2012. Corporate Perceptions of Climate Science: The Role of Corporate Environmental Scientists. Business & Society. 51: 31-61.
  1. Bettina Furrer, Jens Hamprecht, and Volker H. Hoffmann. 2012. Much Ado About Nothing? How Banks Respond to Climate Change.Business & Society. 51: 62-88.
  1. Nardia Haigh and Andrew Griffiths. 2012. Surprise as a Catalyst for Including Climatic Change in the Strategic Environment. Business & Society.51: 89-120.
  1. Jason Thistlethwaite. 2011. The ClimateWise Principles: Self-Regulating Climate Change Risks in the Insurance Sector. Business & Society.51: 121-147.

Session 5

Monday, February 4

4:00 - 6:50 p.m.

NGOs and Stakeholders

  1. Erica Sasser, Aseem Prakash, Ben Cashore, and Graeme Auld. 2006. Direct Targeting as NGO Political Strategy. Business and Politics.8(3): 1-32.
  1. Cynthia E. Clark and Elise Perrault Crawford. 2012. Influencing Climate Change Policy: The Effect of Shareholder Pressure and Firm Environmental Performance Business & Society. 51: 148-175.
  1. van Huijstee, Mariette;Pollock, Leo;Glasbergen, Pieter;Leroy, Pieter.2011. Challenges for NGOs Partnering with Corporations: WWF Netherlands and the Environmental Defense Fund.Environmental Values, 20(1): 43-74.

In-class presentation

No class on Tuesday, February 5

Session 6, Wednesday, February 6, 4:00-6:50 pm

In class presentations

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