Diagnosing the role of the state for local collective action : types of action situations and policy instruments

Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu MdM-2015-0552This paper presents a diagnostic approach to the role and capacity of governments to facilitate local collective action and alleviate environmental problems. The paper adds to a nascent scholarship aiming to conciliate theories on "governance by government" and "governance by self-organization". We adopt two premises for that purpose: (1) policy instruments shall be tailored to the strategic nature of local resource management decisions; and (2) such nature is not static and can be modified via governmental policies. We first build on the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework to characterize the decision-making situations that local resource users face and the local rules that shape said situations. Then, based on common pool resource (CPR) and policy instrument choice theory, we identify four mechanisms through which different policy instruments can facilitate local collective action (change in payoffs and their perception, reduction of transaction costs, reduction of uncertainty, and normative consonance). This analytical approach is then applied to four illustrative cases of water management in Germany, France, Greece and Spain. As shown, local resource users are embedded in not one but many overlapping decision-making situations. In this context, the promotion of collective action is rarely accomplished via a single policy instrument or mechanism but via bundles of them. Also, the paper illustrates the importance of understanding how governmental policies modify the structure of rules and incentives that affect local resource users, potentially facilitating local collective action and the solution of environmental problems

Impact of AlCl₃ on the Self-Assembly of the Anionic Surfactant Sodium Polyethylene Glycol Monoalkyl Ether Sulfate in Aqueous Solution

Small-angle neutron scattering has been used to study the self-assembly of the anionic surfactant sodium polyethylene glycol monoalkyl ether sulfate in aqueous solution and in the presence of Al³⁺ multivalent counterions in the form of AlCl₃. The addition of the Al³⁺ ions promotes significant micellar growth of the initially globular micelles into highly elongated structures until ultimately lamellar structures form. Increasing the size of the polyethylene oxide, EO, group progressively suppresses micellar growth before lamellar formation. Reducing the alkyl chain length has a similar effect on the structural evolution. Both trends are associated with increased solubility with increasing EO group size and decreasing alkyl chain length. Both the size of the EO group and the length of the alkyl chain affect sodium diethylene glycol monododecyl ether sulfate/Al³⁺ complex formation and drive lamellar formation to progressively higher AlCl₃ concentrations