Globally Sown, Locally Grown: How Local Organizational Capacity Limits the Viability of Global Private Regimes

Abstract

This book asks to what degree, and under what conditions, are global private environmental regimes effective in developing nations? To answer this question, we have examined reasons why the Forest Stewardship Council and the Responsible Care regime have fared so much better in Brazil than in Argentina. Our analysis focused on four factors commonly believed to be critical to regime development and success: market demand for certified goods, transnational actors, governmental support, and industry concentration. While each case presented its own idiosyncrasies, all together these four cases suggest that none of these factors has played a significant role in determining why both private regimes are so much more effective in Brazil than in Argentina. Instead, these cases suggest that local organizational capacity—the social and material resources of local interest groups and coalitions who support these regimes—is the most important determinant of local chapter success. International demand signals, pressures across supply chains, and the activism of transnational industry groups and NGOs may be responsible for the creation of these regimes and their spread to developing nations. Once introduced, however, their effectiveness within national industries depends on the capacities and attitudes of local advocates.