The forest policy outputs of regional regimes: a qualitative comparative analysis on the effects of formalization, hegemony and issue-focus around the globe

Abstract

International regimes, defined as sets of norms and rules around which members’ expectations converge, are providing structures for facilitating cooperation in a given issue area.Two main lines of environmental regime scholarship prevailed thus far: one on structuraldesign aspects of international institutions and one on their effects and effectiveness. However, questions on how such effects are achieved in detail largely remain unanswered.Against this background, this study aims to analyze the institutional design conditionsunder which regional regimes produce strong or weak policies. We do so by qualitativelycomparing, using a fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), nine regionalregimes across the world towards their ability of producing regime forest policies as anillustrative issue area. Three structural conditions were identified as being influential onregime policy: (i) The degree of formalization (ii) The existence of hegemonic/powerfulmember state(s) and (iii) Scope or issue specificity bearing the identity of a regime. Ourresults showed that no one condition on its own was necessary to produce either strongor weak regime forest policy. However, all three conditions, through three different configurations, created a robust pathway for producing strong regime policy. In addition, thecombination that showed the presence of all three conditions was related to weak regimepolicy. These results open several prospects for future research on the relationship betweenregimes´ structures and regime policy.