Marine protected areas and small-scale fisheries in South Africa: promoting governance, participation, equity and benefit sharing

This monograph studies the progress achieved by conservation partners in South Africa on the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Programme Element Two components of governance, participation, equity and benefit sharing, from the perspective of small-scale fishing communities. It explores the strategies and mechanisms used by different authorities to create the conditions whereby local communities can benefit from marine protected areas (MPAs), of which South Africa has gazetted 24, highlighting examples of best practice. The monograph will be useful for researchers, scientists, fishworker organizations, environmentalists and anyone interested in the protection of marine biodiversity and the promotion of sustainable fisheries management.

The Aarhus Convention and its implementation in Ireland: strengthening the role of NGOs in environmental governance

One of the most striking features of the 1998 Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters is the leading role envisaged for environmental nongovernmental organisations (ENGOs) in furthering compliance with environmental law. The Convention aims to secure the special status of ENGOs in environmental governance procedures by guaranteeing procedural rights of access to information, participation in decision-making and access to review mechanisms. Although Ireland did not become a Party to the Convention until September 2012, the Aarhus procedural rights were already guaranteed under European Union (EU) law. The EU has been a Party to the Aarhus Convention since May 2005 and has adopted a number of legislative measures to implement the Convention. This thesis examines the evolving role of ENGOs in environmental governance in Ireland. It provides a doctrinal analysis of the impact of the Aarhus Convention and EU law on Irish law and governance arrangements involving ENGOs. The thesis considers the extent to which Ireland has delivered faithfully on the standards set by the Aarhus Convention to facilitate ENGOs to fulfil the role envisaged for them under the Convention.

Substitutes for legal protection: corporate governance and dividends in Victorian Britain

Companies in Victorian Britain operated in a laissez-faire legal environment from the perspective of outside investors, implying that such investors were not protected by the legal system. This article seeks to identify the alternative mechanisms that outside shareholders used to protect themselves by examining the dividend policy and governance of over 800 publicly traded companies at the beginning of the 1880s. We assess the importance of these mechanisms by estimating their impact on Tobin's Q. Our evidence suggests that dividends and well-structured and incentivized boards of directors may have played a role in protecting the interests of outside investors.

Governing Ireland:From Cabinet Government to Delegated Governance

The structures of Irish government were once considered reliably stable, professional and efficient. The economic crash of 2008 swept away all such sureties. How did we fail to foresee the challenges and avert a crisis that has undermined the state in every respect? Initial explanations have focused on the absence of robust mechanisms to challenge policy, a lack of imagination and expertise in policy design, and inadequacies in policy implementation and evaluation. Others still have pointed to the inability of traditional structures of decision-making and oversight to manage the multidimensional nature of modern policy problems, as well as an increasingly complex administrative system.

This new book offers a fresh and sustained scrutiny of the Irish system of national government. It examines the cabinet, the departments of Finance and the Taoiseach, ministerial relationships with civil servants, the growth and decline of agencies, the executive's relationship with Dáil Éireann and other monitoring agencies, the impact of the European Union, the courts, the media and social partnership. Distinguished academics are brought together in this volume to reassess Irish governance structures in the context of much greater diversity in policy processes and delegation in government. The book is essential reading for anyone interested in how the Irish state is governed, including practitioners and students of Irish politics.

Corporate Mechanisms and the Presumption of Accountability

This paper seeks to draw out this focus on form in British public administration reform by focusing on the role that the idea of the corporate form has played in reform. Drawing on the codification of Foundation Trusts in the English NHS, I argue that, while accountability ought to be considered as a 'social space' in which conduct conducive to particular interests emerges, reformers tend to regard accountability as a function of appropriate procedures and forms. The turn to the corporate form relies on a hope that it will deliver various 'accountability' benefits will emerge. This hope, I argue, is misplaced

Managing for Legitimacy: Agency Governance in its “Deep” Constitutional Context

Recent literature on bureaucratic structure has gone further than studying discretions given to bureaucrats in policy making, and much attention is now paid to understanding how bureaucratic agencies are managed. This article proposes that the way in which executive governments manage their agencies varies according to their constitutional setting and that this relationship is driven by considerations of the executive’s governing legitimacy. Inspired by Tilly (1984), we compare patterns of agency governance in Hong Kong and Ireland, in particular configurations of assigned decision-making autonomies and control mechanisms. This comparison shows that in governing their agencies the elected government of Ireland’s parliamentary democracy pays more attention to input (i.e. democratic) legitimacy while the executive government of Hong Kong’s administrative state favors output (i.e. performance) legitimacy. These different forms of autonomy and control mechanism reflect different constitutional models of how political executives acquire and sustain their governing legitimacy.

Economic Stability and Economic Governance in the Euro Area:What the European Crisis Can Teach on the Limits of Economic Integration

The recent European economic crisis has dramatically exposed the failures of
the various institutional mechanisms in place to maintain economic stability
in Europe, and has unveiled the difficulty in achieving international coordination
on fiscal and financial stability policies. Drawing on the European
experience, this article analyzes the concept of economic stability in international
law and highlights the peculiar problems connected to its maintenance
or promotion. First, we demonstrate that policies that safeguard and
protect economic stability are largely regulated and managed at the national
level, due to their inextricable relationship with the exercise of national political
power. Until recently, more limited levels of pan-European integration
did not make the coordination of economic stability policies seem necessary.
However, a much deeper level of economic integration makes it very difficult
to tackle an international economic crisis through national responses. If EU
Member states wish to maintain and deepen economic integration, they
must accept an erosion of sovereignty over their economic stability policies.
This will not only deprive states of a fundamental anchor of political power,
but also create a challenge for the maintenance of democratic control over
economic policies. Second, this article argues that soft law approaches are
likely ineffective in enforcing the regulatory disciplines required to ensure
economic stability.

Sustainability indicators and local governance in Portugal

Esta tese tem como principal objectivo compreender o papel dos indicadores de sustentabilidade na governação local em Portugal, bem como perceber o seu potencial para transformar práticas institucionais correntes para o desenvolvimento sustentável. As duas últimas décadas têm testemunhado um crescente debate em torno dos indicadores de sustentabilidade e três abordagens específicas da literatura ganharam corpo: a ‘técnica’, a ‘participativa’ e a de ‘governação’. Esta tese pretende contribuir para a abordagem mais recente e menos explorada da ‘governação’, através do estudo da realidade local portuguesa. Considera crucial perceber como e em que circunstâncias e contextos o papel destes indicadores pode ser diminuído ou potenciado. Desta forma, pretende avaliar se e de que forma é que os indicadores de sustentabilidade têm contribuído para alterar e desafiar contextos de governação locais para o desenvolvimento sustentável no nosso país e se e de que forma estes indicadores têm sido usados. Foram seleccionados e analisados em detalhe sete casos-de-estudo na tentativa de compreender cada um e de construir uma grelha comparativa entre eles utilizando como suporte normativo um conjunto de critérios ‘ideais’ de boa governação. Assim, a tese identifica os principais obstáculos da construção destes indicadores em Portugal, bem como os seus principais contributos positivos e usos. Enquadra igualmente as suas conclusões no contexto de outras experiências locais Europeias e tenta formular algumas recomendações para reforçar o potencial contributo e a utilização destes indicadores. Através dos casos-de-estudo, foi possível verificar que a sua implementação não tem contribuído para fortalecer o diálogo entre os diferentes níveis de governo, para promover a participação de mais actores nas redes de governação, ou mesmo para melhorar mecanismos de participação e comunicação entre governos, cidadãos e actores locais. De qualquer forma, é importante acrescentar que as experiências mais bem sucedidas permitiram efectivamente mudar as capacidades dos governos locais na coordenação horizontal de políticas sectoriais, nomeadamente através de novas relações entre departamentos, novas rotinas de trabalho, novas culturas de recolha e tratamento de dados locais, novos estímulos de aprendizagem, entre muitas outras. O maior desafio coloca-se agora na transposição destes efeitos positivos para fora da esfera governamental. Esperamos que a tese possa contribuir para que decisores políticos, técnicos, académicos e comunidades locais encarem os indicadores de sustentabilidade como processos de aprendizagem que melhoram a capacidade das cidades enfrentarem os complexos desafios e as incertezas do desenvolvimento sustentável.

The Application of a Pluralist Approach of Global Administrative Law on the Governance of Doping in Sport

Plusieurs problèmes liés à l'utilisation de substances et méthodes interdites de dopage dans les sports posent de grands défis à la gouvernance antidopage. Afin de lutter contre le dopage, certains pays ont mis en oeuvre des cadres juridiques basés exclusivement sur le droit pénal tandis que d'autres pays ont plutôt misé sur des mécanismes et organismes spécialisés trouvant fondement en droit privé ou sur un régime hybride de droit public et privé. Ces différentes approches réglementaires ont pour conséquence de faire en sorte qu’il est très difficile de lutter efficacement contre le dopage dans les sports, notamment parce que leur exécution requiert un degré de collaboration internationale et une participation concertée des autorités publiques qui est difficile à mettre en place. À l’heure actuelle, on peut par exemple observer que les États n’arrivent pas à contrer efficacement la participation des syndicats et organisations transnationales liés au crime organisé dans le marché du dopage, ni à éliminer des substances et méthodes de dopage interdites par la réglementation. Par ailleurs, la gouvernance antidopage basée sur les règles prescrites par l’Agence mondiale antidopage prévoit des règles et des normes distinctes de dopage distinguant entre deux catégories de personnes, les athlètes et les autres, plaçant ainsi les premiers dans une position désavantageuse. Par exemple, le standard de responsabilité stricte sans faute ou négligence imposé aux athlètes exige moins que la preuve hors de tout doute raisonnable et permet l'utilisation de preuves circonstancielles pour établir la violation des règles antidopages. S'appliquant pour prouver le dopage, ce standard mine le principe de la présomption d'innocence et le principe suivant lequel une personne ne devrait pas se voir imposer une peine sans loi. D’ailleurs, le nouveau Code de 2015 de l’Agence attribuera aux organisations nationales antidopage (ONADs) des pouvoirs d'enquête et de collecte de renseignements et ajoutera de nouvelles catégories de dopage non-analytiques, réduisant encore plus les droits des athlètes. Dans cette thèse, nous discutons plus particulièrement du régime réglementaire de l’Agence et fondé sur le droit privé parce qu’il ne parvient pas à répondre aux besoins actuels de gouvernance mondiale antidopage. Nous préconisons donc l’adoption d’une nouvelle approche de gouvernance antidopage où la nature publique et pénale mondiale du dopage est clairement reconnue. Cette reconnaissance combiné avec un modèle de gouvernance adapté basé sur une approche pluraliste du droit administratif global produira une réglementation et une administration antidopage mieux acceptée chez les athlètes et plus efficace sur le plan des résultats. Le nouveau modèle de gouvernance que nous proposons nécessitera toutefois que tous les acteurs étatiques et non-étatiques ajustent leur cadre de gouvernance en tenant compte de cette nouvelle approche, et ce, afin de confronter les défis actuels et de régler de manière plus satisfaisante les problèmes liés à la gouvernance mondiale du dopage dans les sports.

Higher Education Governance in Vietnam: University Action, the State and Changing Relationships

Diese Dissertation stellt eine Studie da, welche sich mit den Änderungen in der Governance der Hochschulbildung in Vietnam beschäftigt. Das zentrale Ziel dieser Forschungsarbeit ist die Untersuchung der Herkunft und Änderung in der Beziehung der Mächte zwischen dem vietnamesischen Staat und den Hochschulbildungsinstituten (HI), welche hauptsächlich aus der Interaktion dieser beiden Akteure resultiert. Die Macht dieser beiden Akteure wurde im sozialen Bereich konstruiert und ist hauptsächlich durch ihre Nützlichkeit und Beiträge für die Hochschulbildung bestimmt. Diese Arbeit beschäftigt sich dabei besonders mit dem Aspekt der Lehrqualität. Diese Studie nimmt dabei die Perspektive einer allgemeinen Governance ein, um die Beziehung zwischen Staat und HI zu erforschen. Zudem verwendet sie die „Resource Dependence Theory“ (RDT), um das Verhalten der HI in Bezug auf die sich verändernde Umgebung zu untersuchen, welche durch die Politik und eine abnehmende Finanzierung charakterisiert ist. Durch eine empirische Untersuchung der Regierungspolitik sowie der internen Steuerung und den Praktiken der vier führenden Universitäten kommt die Studie zu dem Schluss, dass unter Berücksichtigung des Drucks der Schaffung von Einkommen die vietnamesischen Universitäten sowohl Strategien als auch Taktiken entwickelt haben, um Ressourcenflüsse und Legitimität zu kontrollieren. Die Entscheidungs- und Zielfindung der Komitees, die aus einer Mehrheit von Akademikern bestehen, sind dabei mächtiger als die der Manager. Daher werden bei initiativen Handlungen der Universitäten größtenteils Akademiker mit einbezogen. Gestützt auf die sich entwickelnden Muster der Ressourcenbeiträge von Akademikern und Studierenden für die Hochschulbildung prognostiziert die Studie eine aufstrebende Governance Konfiguration, bei der die Dimensionen der akademischen Selbstverwaltung und des Wettbewerbsmarktes stärker werden und die Regulation des Staates rational zunimmt. Das derzeitige institutionelle Design und administrative System des Landes, die spezifische Gewichtung und die Koordinationsmechanismen, auch als sogenanntes effektives Aufsichtssystem zwischen den drei Schlüsselakteuren - der Staat, die HI/Akademiker und die Studierenden – bezeichnet, brauchen eine lange Zeit zur Detektion und Etablierung. In der aktuellen Phase der Suche nach einem solchen System sollte die Regierung Management-Tools stärken, wie zum Beispiel die Akkreditierung, belohnende und marktbasierte Instrumente und das Treffen informations-basierter Entscheidungen. Darüber hinaus ist es notwendig die Transparenz der Politik zu erhöhen und mehr Informationen offenzulegen.

Breaking the impasse: towards a new regime for international climate governance

The reality of the current international order makes it imperative that a just and effective climate regime balance the historical responsibility of developed countries with the increasing absolute emissions from many developing nations. In this short outlook article, key pillars are proposed for a new international climate architecture that envisions replacing the current annex system with two new annexes –Annex α, for countries with high current emissions and historically high emissions, and Annex β, for countries with high current emissions and historically low emissions. Countries in both annexes would implement legally binding targets under this framework. Additionally, this proposal includes tweaks and revisions to funding and technology transfer mechanisms to correct for weaknesses and inequities under the current Kyoto architecture. The proposed framework stems from a belief that a top-down, international approach to climate policy remains the most effective for ensuring environmental integrity. Given the slow rate of institutional learning, reforming and improving the current system is held as a more efficient course of action than abandoning the progress already achieved. It is argued that the proposed framework effectively accommodates key equity, environmental integrity and political feasibility concerns.

The end of the opportunism vs trust debate: bounded reliability as a new envelope concept in research on MNE governance

Modern transaction cost economics (TCE) thinking has developed into a key intellectual foundation of international business (IB) research, but the Williamsonian version has faced substantial criticism for adopting the behavioral assumption of opportunism. In this paper we assess both the opportunism concept and existing alternatives such as trust within the context of IB research, especially work on multinational enterprise (MNE) governance. Case analyses of nine global MNEs illustrate an alternative to the opportunism assumption that captures more fully the mechanisms underlying failed commitments inside the MNE. As a substitute for the often-criticized assumption of opportunism, we propose the envelope concept of bounded reliability (BRel), an assumption that represents more accurately and more completely the reasons for failed commitments, without invalidating the other critical assumption in conventional TCE (and internalization theory) thinking, namely the widely accepted envelope concept of bounded rationality (BRat). Bounded reliability as an envelope concept includes two main components, within the context of global MNE management: opportunism as intentional deceit, and benevolent preference reversal. The implications for IB research of adopting the bounded reliability concept are far reaching, as this concept may increase the legitimacy of comparative institutional analysis in the social sciences.

Environmentalities of urban climate governance in Maputo, Mozambique

Interest in the role that cities can play in climate change as sites of transformation has increased but research has been limited in its practical applications and there has been limited consideration of how policies and technologies play out. These challenges necessitate a re-thinking of existing notions of urban governance in order to account for the practices that emerge from governments and a plethora of other actors in the context of uncertainty. We understand these practices to constitute adaptive governance, underpinned by social learning guiding the actions of the multiplicity of actors. The aim here is to unpack how social learning for adaptive governance requires attention to competing understandings of risk and identity, and the multiplicity of mechanisms in which change occurs or is blocked in urban climate governance. We adopt a novel lens of 'environmentalities' which allows us to assess the historical and institutional context and power relations in the informal settlements of Maputo, Mozambique. Our findings highlight how environmental identities around urban adaptation to climate change are constituted in the social and physical divisions between the formal and informal settlements, whilst existing knowledge models prioritise dominant economic and political interests and lead to the construction of new environmental subjects. While the findings of this study are contextually distinct, the generalizable lessons are that governance of urban adaptation occurs and is solidified within a complex multiplicity of socioecological relations.

Wickedness, Governance and Collective Sanctions: : Can Corruption be Tamed?

Tackling a problem requires mostly, an ability to read it, conceptualize it, represent it, define it, and then applying the necessary mechanisms to solve it. This may sound self-evident except when the problem to be tackled happens to be “complex, “ “ill-structured,” and/or “wicked.” Corruption is one of those kinds of problems. Both in its global and national manifestations it is ill-structured. Where it is structural in nature, endemic and pervasive, it is perhaps even wicked. Qualities of the kind impose modest expectations regarding possibilities of any definitive solution to this insidious phenomenon. If so, it may not suffice to address the problem of corruption using existing categories of law and/or good governance, which overlook the “long-term memory” of the collective and cultural specific dimensions of the subject. Such socio-historical conditions require focusing on the interactive and self-reproducing networks of corruption and attempting to ‘subvert’ that phenomenon’s entire matrix. Concepts such as collective responsibility, collective punishment and sanctions are introduced as relevant categories in the structural, as well as behavioral, subversion of some of the most prevalent aspects of corruption. These concepts may help in the evolving of a new perspective on corruption fighting strategies.

Corruption, governance and collective sanctions: : can a wicked problem be tamed?

Tackling a problem requires mostly, an ability to read it, conceptualize it, represent it, define it, and then applying the necessary mechanisms to solve it. This may sound self-evident except when the problem to be tackled happens to be “complex, “ “ill-structured,” and/or “wicked.” Corruption is one of those kinds of problems. Both in its global and national manifestations it is ill-structured. Where it is structural in nature, endemic and pervasive, it is perhaps even wicked. Qualities of the kind impose modest expectations regarding possibilities of any definitive solution to this insidious phenomenon. If so, it may not suffice to address the problem of corruption using existing categories of law and/or good governance, which overlook the “long-term memory” of the collective and cultural specific dimensions of the subject. Such socio-historical conditions require focusing on the interactive and self-reproducing networks of corruption and attempting to ‘subvert’ that phenomenon’s entire matrix. Concepts such as collective responsibility, collective punishment and sanctions are introduced as relevant categories in the structural, as well as behavioral, subversion of some of the most prevalent aspects of corruption. These concepts may help in the evolving of a new perspective on corruption fighting strategies.