School of Social and Political Sciences - Research Publications
Permanent URI for this collection
Search Results
1 - 10 of 14
-
ItemEthical Consumerism: A Defense of Market Vigilantism(Wiley, 2018)There are many ways in which people can try, acting alone or with others, to change the world for the better. They can engage in political activism or volunteer work or provide financial support for others who do so. They can also act through the medium of the market by providing incentives for change—for example, through paying a higher price for fair‐trade coffee or threatening to withhold purchases in response to the wrongful conduct of other market actors.
-
ItemTransnational policy influence and the politics of legitimation(Wiley, 2019)Many domains of transnational policy are now governed through dynamic, multilevel governance processes, encompassing transnational, national, and subnational scales. In such settings, both membership of policy communities and distributions of authority within them become more fluid and openly contested—increasing the importance of the politics of legitimation as a basis for distributing influence over policy processes and outcomes. Drawing on insights from theories of organizational and institutional legitimation, this article theorizes three distinctive strategies of policy influence exercised by transnational actors in multilevel governance settings, through which strategic efforts to legitimize transnational actors and forums are deployed as means of transnational policy influence. The three strategies involve: transnational field building, localized network building, and role adaptation. The effects of these influencing strategies on policy processes and outcomes are illustrated with reference to the case of Indonesian land governance, in which highly dynamic, contested, and multiscalar governance processes lend our theorized strategies particular salience.
-
ItemNo Preview Available"Post-conflict" reconstruction, the crimes of the powerful and transitional justice(Pluto Journals, 2017-03-01)Periods of armed conflict can generate significant ruptures in the political, economic, cultural and legal life of affected regions. As societies gradually transition from a state of war to a state of peace--conditions that are often unstable and transitory --civil society, governments and legal authorities are frequently weakened by internal divisions, resource gaps, organizational fragility and widespread perceptions of illegitimacy. Furthermore, the immediate demands of the transitional process (including efforts to promote transitional justice) can channel finite civil society resources into peacemaking and reconciliation initiatives, drawing attention away--whether inadvertently or by design--from state and corporate accountability.
-
ItemThe Role of Beneficiaries in Transnational Regulatory Processes(SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC, 2017-03)The editors of this volume highlight the role of intermediaries, alongside regulators and targets, as a way to better understand the outcomes of regulatory processes. Here, we explore the benefits of distinguishing a fourth category of actors: the groups whose interests the rules are meant to protect, the (intended) beneficiaries. We apply that framework to nonstate regulation of labor conditions, where the primary intended beneficiaries are workers and their families, especially in poorer countries. We first outline the different ways in which beneficiaries can relate to regulators, intermediaries, and targets; we then develop conjectures about the effect of different relationships on regulatory impacts and democratic legitimacy in relation to corporate power structures, specifically those embedded in the governance of global supply chains. We illustrate these conjectures primarily with examples from three initiatives—Rugmark, the Fair Labor Association, and the Fairtrade system. We conclude that it matters whether and how beneficiaries are included in the regulatory process.
-
ItemLiquid authority and political legitimacy in transnational governance(CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS, 2017-07)In this article we investigate the institutional mechanisms required for ‘liquid’ forms of authority in transnational governance to achieve normative political legitimacy. We understand authority in sociological terms as the institutionalized inducement of addressees to defer to institutional rules, directives, or knowledge claims. We take authority to be ‘liquid’ when it is characterized by significant institutional dynamism, fostered by its informality, multiplicity, and related structural properties. The article’s central normative claim is that the mechanisms prescribed to legitimize transnational governance institutions – such as accountability or experimentalist mechanisms – should vary with the liquid characteristics of their authority structures. We argue for this claim in two steps. We first outline our theoretical conception of political legitimacy – as a normative standard prescribing legitimizing mechanisms that support authorities’ collectively valuable governance functions – and we explain in theoretical terms why legitimizing mechanisms should vary with differing authority structures. We then present an illustrative case study of the interaction between liquid authority and legitimizing mechanisms of public accountability and pragmatic experimentalism in the context of transnational business regulation. We conclude by considering broader implications of our argument for both the design of legitimate transnational governance institutions, and future research agendas on transnational authority and legitimacy.
-
ItemBeyond Gridlock: Reshaping Liberal Institutions for a Pluralist Global Order(Luiss University Press, 2016)The authors of Gridlock present a compelling if rather disheartening reflection on the state of contemporary global politics, and our persistently unsuccessful collective efforts to advance global institutional cooperation across a range of policy domains. The book is framed around a series of dispiriting narratives of failed international cooperation—from multilateral trade talks to climate negotiations and threats to global security and humanitarianism presented by major civil and regional conflicts. International cooperation is widely recognized to be vital for adequately handling pressing collective problems such as these; yet efforts to negotiate cooperative intergovernmental agreements remain gridlocked.
-
Item
-
ItemReforming accountability in international NGOs: making sense of conflicting feedback(ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD, 2012)
-
ItemAccountability-by-Proxy in Transnational Non-State Governance(WILEY, 2013-07)Transnational non‐state governance arrangements (NGAs) are increasingly common in areas such as labor standards and environmental sustainability, often presenting themselves as innovative means through which the lives of marginalized communities in developing countries can be improved. Yet in some cases, the policy interventions adopted by the managers of these NGAs appear not to be welcomed by their supposed beneficiaries. This article accounts for this predicament by examining the effects of different configurations of accountability within NGAs promoting labor rights. Most labor‐rights NGAs incorporate “proxy accountability” arrangements, in which consumers and activists hold decision makers accountable “on behalf” of the putative beneficiaries of the NGAs: workers and affected communities in poorer countries. The article shows how and why different combinations of proxy versus beneficiary accountability influence the choice of policy instruments used by NGAs, and applies the argument to three prominent non‐state initiatives in the domain of labor standards.
-
ItemThe liberal battlefields of global business regulation(CO-ACTION PUBLISHING, 2010)