Week 7, lecture 13: ‘Governance beyond the nation state’
General Assessment:
globalization created a range of problems that exceed the scope of national
sovereignty and therefore can no longer be solved by unilateral action of national
government eg. Regulation of electronic commerce, protection of individual property
rights over digital information
international regimes: established ‘implicit or explicit’ rules, norms and decision
making procedures around which actors’ expectations converge in a given area of int
relations AKA: ‘regime complexes’ ‘polycentric governance’
international organizations: stable forms of cooperation founded on the grounds
of an int agreement
Underlying Rationales
i. Incongruence between transnational problem structure and regulatory
structures
=The underlying problem exceeds the scope of territorially bounded
regulatory structures
problems of transboundary scope are observed in many others than the
related area
the range of countries needed to develop a policy varies ( worldwide or
regional regimes)
! not every problem triggered by globalization is of global scope and hence
not every problem exceeds the regulatory scope of national government!
A such problem can be resolved within the territorial boundaries of one state,
‘best shot’: a good provision is determined by the largest individual
contribution despite the fact that the problem exceeds a single’s
nation jurisdiction. eg US creation of global system for the
administration of internet addresses.
‘weakest link’: the level of provision is based on the sum of
individual contributions ,by the smallest individual contributions eg
the control of illegal and harmful content on the internet is
determined by the country with the lowest regulatory standards,
given that providers can move their services across national borders.
ii. Economic interdependencies
=restrictions to address national policy options due to economic
interdependencies between states due to the global market integration
the abolition on national trade barriers creates potential for the int
mobility of goods and thus capitals and workers put pressure to nation
states to redesign their market regulations to avoid burdens
, strongly economical integrated countries may seek to avoid problems of
collective action by harmonizing regulatory standards => they pre-empt
potential effects of regulatory competition in order to maintain their
‘steering’ potential
Organizational forms and areas of int public policy
Forms of international cooperation:
1. Int organizations
Established by a treaty ratified by members states’ governments to provide the
organization its own legal personality: delegation of specific competencies by
member states and administrative structures and resources to fulfill these tasks
Intergovernmental: only states
Some are neutral forums of debate, others delegate national policy
2. Int regimes
Treaty based regimes without the establishment of an organization with
their own legal personalities and administrations. Instead they rely on
national administrations or ad hoc committees.
3. Coalitions-groupings
Some even lack a legal treaty and they exist only as a coalition of states-
grouping. Eg. Group 7/ Group 20
Geographical scope
- Global scope: membership is open to all nations eg UN
- Cooperation between nations of one region eg EU, NATO
- Int cooperation based on cultural criteria based on linguistic, religious,
historical traditions eg Nordic Council
- Cooperation based on functional considerations eg. Convention of the Marine
Environment of the north east Atlantic of 1972
Policy sectors
Broad range: security, human rights, economic regulation, environmental affairs,
technical standardization
Int cooperation on economic regulation and technical standardization require the
pool of resources for solving existing problems or achieving reduction in economic
costs by means of harmonization
General Assessment:
globalization created a range of problems that exceed the scope of national
sovereignty and therefore can no longer be solved by unilateral action of national
government eg. Regulation of electronic commerce, protection of individual property
rights over digital information
international regimes: established ‘implicit or explicit’ rules, norms and decision
making procedures around which actors’ expectations converge in a given area of int
relations AKA: ‘regime complexes’ ‘polycentric governance’
international organizations: stable forms of cooperation founded on the grounds
of an int agreement
Underlying Rationales
i. Incongruence between transnational problem structure and regulatory
structures
=The underlying problem exceeds the scope of territorially bounded
regulatory structures
problems of transboundary scope are observed in many others than the
related area
the range of countries needed to develop a policy varies ( worldwide or
regional regimes)
! not every problem triggered by globalization is of global scope and hence
not every problem exceeds the regulatory scope of national government!
A such problem can be resolved within the territorial boundaries of one state,
‘best shot’: a good provision is determined by the largest individual
contribution despite the fact that the problem exceeds a single’s
nation jurisdiction. eg US creation of global system for the
administration of internet addresses.
‘weakest link’: the level of provision is based on the sum of
individual contributions ,by the smallest individual contributions eg
the control of illegal and harmful content on the internet is
determined by the country with the lowest regulatory standards,
given that providers can move their services across national borders.
ii. Economic interdependencies
=restrictions to address national policy options due to economic
interdependencies between states due to the global market integration
the abolition on national trade barriers creates potential for the int
mobility of goods and thus capitals and workers put pressure to nation
states to redesign their market regulations to avoid burdens
, strongly economical integrated countries may seek to avoid problems of
collective action by harmonizing regulatory standards => they pre-empt
potential effects of regulatory competition in order to maintain their
‘steering’ potential
Organizational forms and areas of int public policy
Forms of international cooperation:
1. Int organizations
Established by a treaty ratified by members states’ governments to provide the
organization its own legal personality: delegation of specific competencies by
member states and administrative structures and resources to fulfill these tasks
Intergovernmental: only states
Some are neutral forums of debate, others delegate national policy
2. Int regimes
Treaty based regimes without the establishment of an organization with
their own legal personalities and administrations. Instead they rely on
national administrations or ad hoc committees.
3. Coalitions-groupings
Some even lack a legal treaty and they exist only as a coalition of states-
grouping. Eg. Group 7/ Group 20
Geographical scope
- Global scope: membership is open to all nations eg UN
- Cooperation between nations of one region eg EU, NATO
- Int cooperation based on cultural criteria based on linguistic, religious,
historical traditions eg Nordic Council
- Cooperation based on functional considerations eg. Convention of the Marine
Environment of the north east Atlantic of 1972
Policy sectors
Broad range: security, human rights, economic regulation, environmental affairs,
technical standardization
Int cooperation on economic regulation and technical standardization require the
pool of resources for solving existing problems or achieving reduction in economic
costs by means of harmonization
