11,044 research outputs found

    Global equity versus public interest? The case of climate change policy in Germany

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    "The paper attempts to shed some light on the kind of role equity norms play in German sustainable development policy and the related discourse, focusing on the issue of global climate change. Especially the tensions between the public discussion of equity among and within nations are investigated. Attitudes and commitments of the general public and the main actor groups towards global climate change policies and related equity issues are analyzed. One of the central findings of the analysis is that the norm of global fairness enjoys broad (rhetorical) support by all actor groups and the public. However, the support by the public must be characterized as uninformed consent because the effects of the various global climate policies within Germany are either not discussed or played down by the proponents of a progressive climate change policy. The debates are framed by two different but overlapping discourses informed by the concepts of sustainable development or ecological modernization. While with respect to global climate change policy the sustainable development discourse dominates at the programmatic level (concerned with norms, values and fairness principles), it is clearly the concept of ecological modernization that underlies the concrete policies." (author's abstract)"In dieser Studie geht es um die Frage, welche Rolle globale Fairness-Normen in der deutschen Nachhaltigkeitspolitik spielen. Sie wird am Beispiel der Klimapolitik Deutschlands, und zwar auf der nationalen und der lokalen (Lokale-Agenda-21-Prozesse) Ebene untersucht. Fokussiert werden insbesondere die Spannungen, die zwischen Fairness-Konzepten auftreten, die einerseits auf den globalen Raum und andererseits den Nationalstaatsraum bezogen sind. Das betrifft insbesondere Spannungen zwischen konsensbasierten Normen globaler Gerechtigkeit und nationalen Gemeinwohlerfordernissen. In der realen Klimapolitik erweist sich, dass diese BezĂŒge selten systematisch analysiert und diskutiert werden. Das gilt fĂŒr die öffentliche Diskussion ebenso wie fĂŒr den Wissenschaftsbereich. Hieraus folgt unter anderem, dass es zwar eine breite öffentliche UnterstĂŒtzung fĂŒr eine progressive Klimapolitik auf der Basis globaler Gerechtigkeitsnormen gibt, diese UnterstĂŒtzung aber in weitgehender Unkenntnis ĂŒber die sozioökonomischen Verteilungsfolgen einer solchen Politik fĂŒr die Bevölkerung innerhalb Deutschlands erfolgt. Die negativen Equity-Konsequenzen der Klimapolitik innerhalb Deutschlands stehen völlig im Schatten der dominierenden globalen Fairness-Debatte. Gleichwohl sind die konkreten Politiken vom (pragmatischen) Konzept der 'ökologischen Modernisierung' bestimmt, das weitgehend mit konventionellen Gemeinwohlvorstellungen ĂŒbereinstimmt. Das 'Nachhaltigkeitskonzept', dem das Ziel globaler Gerechtigkeit zugrunde liegt, beherrscht hingegen die programmatisch-rhetorische Ebene der globalen Klimapolitik beherrscht." (Autorenreferat

    Civil anarchizing for the common good : culturally patterned politics of legitimacy in the climate justice movement

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    This article presents an ethnographic study of the case of Ende GelĂ€nde (EG), a German civil disobedience network undertaking action for climate justice. We reveal how a politics of legitimacy in civil society organizations such as EG are structured and constructed through different styles of civic action. Specifically, in our case study, a dominant pattern of ‘civil anarchizing’ (CA) emerged, in which legitimacy was continuously negotiated in relation to both external and internal stakeholders. This CA style was also accompanied by a more individual-centered style that we call personalized politics (PP). We compare both styles and describe the tensions that result from their co-occurrence. In addition, we argue that the CA style might be more viable for politicization due to its emphasis on a collective strategy. Finally, we describe how this CA style shaped the participants’ politics of legitimacy by functioning as a negotiated hybrid of civil and uncivil expectations

    Politics and Nuclear Power: Energy Policy in Western Europe

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    With the dramatic changes OPEC precipitated in the structure of world energy markets during the 1970s, energy became a central concern to policymakers throughout the industrialized West. This book examines the responses of public officials in three leading European nations—the Federal Republic of Germany, France, and the Netherlands—to the energy crisis. As the study shows, the proposed energy programs in the three countries shared remarkable similarities; yet the policy outcomes were very different. To explain why, Michael T. Hatch goes beyond the specific content of government energy policy to include an analysis of the policymaking process itself. At the heart of the study is an exploration of the various dimensions of nuclear policy in West Germany. The political consensus on nuclear power that prevailed in the initial years following the energy crisis disintegrated as antinuclear “citizens’ initiatives,” the courts, and trade unions, as well as the traditional political parties, entered the policymaking process. Subsequent government efforts to resolve the political stalemate over nuclear power foundered in a morass of domestic electoral politics and an international debate over nuclear proliferation. Extending the analysis to comparisons with French and Dutch nuclear strategies, Hatch argues that the critical factor in determining nuclear policy was the manner in which the political system structured the nuclear debate. In contrast to West Germany, where the electoral and parliamentary systems enhanced the influence of the antinuclear “Greens,” the electoral system and constellation of political parties in France served to dissipate the influence of the antinuclear forces. Thus in France the nuclear program en-countered few impediments. In the Netherlands, as in West Germany, government policy was paralyzed in the face of antinuclear sentiment across a broad spectrum of Dutch society. Hatch has provided here not only a useful examination of the development of energy policy in western Europe but also a case study of the close interplay between policy and politics. Michael T. Hatch is assistant professor of political science at the University of the Pacific.https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_european_politics/1002/thumbnail.jp

    Micro-political aspects of mandate development and learning in local subsidiaries of multinational corporations

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    Beyond functional-structuralist approaches this paper sheds some light on micro political aspects of mandate development and learning processes in multinational corporations (MNC). As classical micro-political studies have shown, management behaviour and learning are not only constrained or enabled by certain structural and (national) cultural patterns, but have its own political agendas and are shaped by individual interests which leads to game playing, active or passive resistance and (re)negotiation of the 'rules of the game'. Based on the assumption that actors are neither the organs of given structures nor acting fully autonomous, the paper focuses on how subsidiary managers interpret and integrate individual, organisational as well as home and host country institutional factors into certain strategies of action. By discussing critical events in mini case studies on mandate development and learning in German subsidiaries in France we will highlight the interactive dynamics between key-actors micro-political strategies and particular institutional settings. Here we, firstly, discuss institutionalist approaches and investigate how different forms of home and host country embeddedness do influence the development of distinct managerial competences and decision making strategies at the subsidiary level. The paper refers then to the question how the overall strategy and multinational organisational design and policies relate to individual interests of key subsidiary actors. These can to higher or lower degrees be influenced by e.g. differences in nationalities, professional backgrounds as well as career stages, orientations and aspirations. By integrating these diverse relational layers, the paper will provide a more dynamic actor centred approach stressing both, the micro-political aspects and interactive construction of intra and intersubsidiary power relations, a key variable to explain mandate development and learning processes in MNCs. -- Über funktional-strukturalistische AnsĂ€tze hinausgehend, beschĂ€ftigt sich dieser Beitrag mit den mikropolitischen Aspekten von Mandatsentwicklungsprozessen in multinationalen Unternehmen. Im Zentrum der Betrachtung stehen die Strategien und HandlungsrationalitĂ€ten von Tochtergesellschaftsmanagern im Ausland. Anhand von drei Fallbeispielen zeigt der Beitrag wie Manager deutscher Auslandsgesellschaften in Frankreich individuelle, organisationale und institutionelle Faktoren (Heimat- und Gastlandeffekte) interpretieren und zu einer Handlungsstrategie verbinden. Ausgangspunkt ist dabei zunĂ€chst eine Diskussion relevanter AnsĂ€tze des Internationalen Managements und der international vergleichenden Organisationsforschung. Diese AnsĂ€tze werden um einen mikropolitischen Ansatz erweitert, der auf die spezifische Bedeutung von Nationalzugehörigkeit, professionellem Background und individueller Karriereorientierung bei Tochtergesellschaftsmanagern im Ausland abstellt.

    United in diversity? Analysing behaviour expectations of the European Union as a non-state member of the OECD’s development assistance committee

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    The European Union (EU) frequently accentuates its position as the largest provider of Official Development Assistance (ODA). Together with the EU institutions, EU Member States represent 21 of the 30 members of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) that sets out rules and standards for what can be reported as ODA. Following the EU Treaty’s requirement for the EU to work together in international organisations, research has detected a tentative yet positive trend to this end in different international organisations (IOs). This article’s empirical analysis shows no such trend can be detected in the EU’s engagement in the DAC. Explanatory factors include divergent development cooperation approaches inside the EU, discrepancies between the established image of and everyday practice in the DAC, and the EU’s full DAC membership. The findings add to the literature on international organisation governance by exploring different behaviour expectations of non-state membership vis-à-vis that of states

    Corporate Influence in the Post-2015 Process

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    This working paper examines the role and influence of business actors in the process towards the Post-2015 agenda of the UN, with particular attention to the influence of large transnational corporations. The business sector certainly has an important role to play in the implementation process of the Post-2015 agenda, as sustainable development will require large-scale changes in business practices. Some pioneering companies are already on the path towards sustainable development solutions (for instance in the area of renewable energies). However, acknowledging corporations' role must not mean giving them undue influence on policymaking and ignoring their responsibility in creating and exacerbating many of the problems that the Post-2015 agenda is supposed to tackle.This working paper starts with a brief overview of the current process towards the Post-2015 agenda and assesses its political relevance. The second part maps out the key business players involved in various processes surrounding the post-2015 consultations. The third part of the paper analyzes the key messages and policy recommendations of business actors in the post-2015 process. The fourth part explores the problems, risks and side-effects of the corporate influence on the Post-2015 agenda. They relate, on the one hand, to the key messages, on the other hand to the promoted governance models. The final part draws some conclusions, provides policy recommendations for the UN, member states, civil society and academia, and highlights potential paths for future research and policy work

    Paris via Brussels: A three-level game analysis of the EU’s behaviour at the 2015 Paris international climate negotiations (COP21)

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    The EU has been a rare example of a consistent global leadership on climate change. At a time when governments around the world are reluctant to face the challenges of climate change mitigation, the EU was widely praised for helping to push states towards an ambitious Paris Agreement. This thesis asks what influenced the EU’s behaviour at the 2015 Paris international climate negotiations (COP21). To answer this it undertakes an inductive case study of COP21 and the intra-EU negotiations that led up to it. It focuses on the EU’s positions on climate mitigation proposals and more specifically greenhouse gas reductions. The thesis argues that the three-level game, incorporating national, supranational (EU), and international (UNFCCC) negotiating games, is superior to other theoretical frameworks for explaining the EU’s behaviour. It shows that EU member states adopted positions based on political pressures at a national level, but also took into account how they would be received at a supranational level and how they could effect the international negotiations. Ignoring any one of the levels leads to an incomplete analysis of the factors influencing EU climate policy. Throughout the thesis I develop the three-level game, building on Putnam’s two-level game, as a framework for analysing the EU’s behaviour in international climate negotiations and challenge the mainstream, EU-centric explanations for EU climate policy
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