Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: Public and Private Regulatory Interactions: EU Responses to Private Environmental Regulation

Yale University, New Haven CT

Investigators

Abstract

This dissertation project aims to understand how different regulatory institutions interact. It will examine the following research question: "Why has the European Union (EU) responded to existing private environmental regulation in different issue areas in diverse regulatory ways?" Private environmental regulation in this project refers to voluntary certification and eco-labeling programs developed by non-state actors (industry organizations; firms; non-governmental organizations) to induce corporate environmentally friendly behavior. By examining EU responses to private regulation in four issue areas (organic agriculture, biofuels, fisheries, and fair trade) this research will explain why in some cases the EU has responded strongly by developing its own public certification program, while in other cases it has decided not to intervene at all, or only in a very limited way. By examining the historical co-evolution of public policy and private regulation in these issue areas, and by analyzing the decision-making processes of the EU's regulatory responses, this study will identify the causal mechanisms and processes that can explain the observed variation. Through in-depth, semi-structured interviews I will gather original data from EU officials and decision-makers, EU-level and national interest and advocacy groups, representatives from private environmental regulatory programs, issue experts and academics. These data will be complemented with data on the decision-making processes, which will be gathered during desk research and from notes and documents obtained from interviewees. This dissertation's main intellectual contribution is its focus on an unexplored dependent variable, namely the regulatory responses of public authorities to private environmental regulation. This study will contribute to the nascent research on the interaction between public and private regulation and on the role of non-state actors in politics more broadly. Even though this dissertation will be limited to environmental issue areas, it is expected that the conclusions are generalizable to other issue areas as well. It is not expected, in other words, that the particular characteristics of the environmental issues determine public responses to private regulation, but rather that more general factors, such as the specific features of private regulatory programs and corporate involvement in these programs, explain public authorities' responses. Private actors are currently using certification and labeling programs to address environmental and social problems in an increasingly diverse range of issue areas. This research will contribute to generating policy relevant knowledge on how public authorities can attain a better integration of public and private policy instruments. Furthermore, understanding the way public policy interacts with private regulatory programs will generate useful information for initiators of such programs regarding their design and functioning.