National and Global Origins of Environmental Association

Abstract

We examine the origins of voluntary associations devoted to environmental protection, focusing on the divergent trajectories of industrialized versus developing countries. We consider a wide range of domestic economic, political, and institutional dynamics that give rise to environmental associations. Developing and extending neo-institutional world polity arguments, we characterize domestic association in the developing world as the product of global cultural models, legitimation, and resources. Using event history and dynamic panel models, we analyze the formation of domestic environmental associations for a large sample of countries in the contemporary period. Among highly industrialized countries, domestic factors—resources and political institutions that afford favorable opportunities—largely explain the prevalence of environmental associations. In contrast, global forces are a powerful catalyst for environmental organizing in the developing world. The environmental movement, which had domestic origins in the West, became institutionalized in the world polity, generating new associations on a global scale. We also find positive effects of democratic institutions and philanthropic foundations. Environmental degradation and societal affluence are not primary drivers of environmental association. We conclude by reflecting on the implications of globally-sponsored voluntary associations, which appear to be common in the developing world.

Accountability in Global Governance: Civil Society Claims for Environmental Performance at the World Bank

“…Civil society groups have a superior ability to monitor policies and programs that directly impact identifiable and small groups of people (Keck and Sikkink 1998:27 Additionally, civil society groups that face high risks from sharing information should be less likely to provide monitoring. Policy advocacy depends on freedom of association and space for collective action (Longhofer and Schofer 2010). IOs and their members states may not want their failures exposed and may seek to squelch claims of poor performance (Clark 2003).…”

The Structural Sources of Association

“…Agency and related legal frameworks) resulted in rapid proliferation of environmental interest groups (Caldwell 1990;Hironaka 2000;Longhofer and Schofer 2010 For example, the temperance movement was given the responsibility of handling the government's propaganda against widespread misuse of alcohol; the farmer's movement, the responsibility of handling subsidies to farming; small business organizations, the responsibility of implementing subsidies to support small business; and so on (Rothstein 2002: 214).…”

“…international mobilization generated rapid changes in national environmental laws and sharp increases in domestic pro-environmental mobilization across the developing world (Longhofer and Schofer 2010;Frank et al 2007).…”

Signalling Demand for Foreign Investment: Postsocialist Countries in the Global Bilateral Investment Treaties Network

“…2 At the same time it would be incorrect to assume that the adoption of certain institutional arrangements directly translates into economic practice. Research in the world society tradition shows that economic policies can be considered as scripts that are part of contemporary global culture and are diffused through international governmental and nongovernmental associations (Meyer et al 1997;Ramirez et al 1997;Frank et al 2000;Longhofer & Schofer 2010). As such, decoupling, or the difference between formal policies or scripts and practices on the ground, can be expected (Meyer et al 1997).…”