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

本论文旨在了解不同的监管机构是如何互动的。它将考察以下研究问题：“为什么欧盟(EU)以不同的监管方式对不同问题领域的现有私人环境监管做出了回应？”本项目中的私人环境监管是指由非国家行为者(行业组织、公司、非政府组织)开发的自愿认证和生态标签计划，以诱导企业的环境友好行为。通过考察欧盟在四个问题领域(有机农业、生物燃料、渔业和公平贸易)对私人监管的反应，这项研究将解释为什么在某些情况下，欧盟通过制定自己的公共认证计划做出强烈反应，而在其他情况下，它决定根本不干预，或仅以非常有限的方式进行干预。通过检查这些问题领域公共政策和私人监管的历史共同演变，并通过分析欧盟监管反应的决策过程，本研究将确定可以解释观察到的差异的因果机制和过程。通过深入的半结构化访谈，我将从欧盟官员和决策者、欧盟层面和国家利益以及倡导团体、私人环境监管项目的代表、问题专家和学术机构收集原始数据。这些数据将与决策过程的数据相辅相成，这些数据将从案头研究和从受访者那里获得的笔记和文件中开始。本论文的主要学术贡献是关注一个未被探索的因变量，即公共当局对私人环境监管的监管反应。这项研究将有助于对公共和私人监管之间的相互作用以及更广泛地研究非国家行为者在政治中的作用的新的研究。尽管本论文将局限于环境问题领域，但预计结论也可以推广到其他问题领域。换言之，预计环境问题的特殊特征不会决定公众对私营部门监管的反应，而是更普遍的因素，如私营部门监管方案的具体特点和企业对这些方案的参与，来解释公共当局的反应。目前，私人行为者正在利用认证和标签方案来解决日益多样化的问题领域中的环境和社会问题。这项研究将有助于产生关于公共当局如何更好地整合公共和私人政策工具的政策相关知识。此外，了解公共政策与私人监管项目的互动方式将为此类项目的发起人提供有关其设计和功能的有用信息。

This dissertation project aims to understand how different regulatory institutions interact. Itwill examine the following research question: "Why has the European Union (EU) responded toexisting private environmental regulation in different issue areas in diverse regulatory ways?"Private environmental regulation in this project refers to voluntary certification and eco-labelingprograms developed by non-state actors (industry organizations; firms; non-governmentalorganizations) to induce corporate environmentally friendly behavior. By examining EUresponses to private regulation in four issue areas (organic agriculture, biofuels, fisheries, andfair trade) this research will explain why in some cases the EU has responded strongly bydeveloping its own public certification program, while in other cases it has decided not tointervene at all, or only in a very limited way.By examining the historical co-evolution of public policy and private regulation in these issueareas, and by analyzing the decision-making processes of the EU's regulatory responses, thisstudy will identify the causal mechanisms and processes that can explain the observedvariation. Through in-depth, semi-structured interviews I will gather original data from EUofficials 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 begathered during desk research and from notes and documents obtained from interviewees.This dissertation's main intellectual contribution is its focus on an unexplored dependentvariable, namely the regulatory responses of public authorities to private environmentalregulation. This study will contribute to the nascent research on the interaction between publicand private regulation and on the role of non-state actors in politics more broadly. Even thoughthis dissertation will be limited to environmental issue areas, it is expected that the conclusionsare generalizable to other issue areas as well. It is not expected, in other words, that theparticular characteristics of the environmental issues determine public responses to privateregulation, but rather that more general factors, such as the specific features of privateregulatory programs and corporate involvement in these programs, explain public authorities'responses.Private actors are currently using certification and labeling programs to address environmentaland social problems in an increasingly diverse range of issue areas. This research will contributeto generating policy relevant knowledge on how public authorities can attain a betterintegration of public and private policy instruments. Furthermore, understanding the waypublic policy interacts with private regulatory programs will generate useful information forinitiators of such programs regarding their design and functioning.