Regime complexity and expertise in transnational governance: Strategizing in the face of regulatory uncertainty

• Main Author: Sigrid Quack
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oñati International Institute for the Sociology of Law 2013-01-01
• Series: Oñati Socio-Legal Series
• Subjects: Transnational governance; expertise; regime complexity; Gobierno transnacional; experiencia; complejidad del régimen
• Online Access: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2340596

<p>The rise and spread of transnational governance arrangements has added to the legal indeterminacy of existing regime complexes. The combined regulatory uncertainty resulting from international regime complexes and transnational polycentric governance heightens the role of expertise in managing this institutional complexity. The rising importance of knowledgeable actors with claims to policy-relevant expertise, according to many scholars, is expected further to advantage well-resourced and powerful actors. However, attention to recent developments in accounting and copyright, as two transnational governance fields that have been dominated by a small group of powerful actors for more than three decades, sheds doubt on the generalizability of such arguments. Although representing least likely cases for change, the empirical evidence presented in this paper shows how apparently weak or marginalized actors &ndash; whether they are part of public bureaucracies or civil society &ndash; developed expertise-based strategies to claim greater involvement and influence in rule and standard-setting. Their strategizing on regime complexity opened up previously shielded policy spaces to broader audiences, thereby transforming actor constellations, preferences and problem definitions in the two policy fields. These findings suggest that under conditions of complexity, indeterminacy and uncertainty, claims to expertise-based rule are becoming increasingly contested &ndash; even in transnational governance fields that have a long-established trajectory of rule-setting and rule-implementation monopolized by small groups of professionals, industrialists or technical diplomats.</p> <hr /><p>El surgimiento y la difusi&oacute;n de las disposiciones de gobierno transnacional ha contribuido a la indeterminaci&oacute;n jur&iacute;dica de los complejos reg&iacute;menes existentes. La incertidumbre regulatoria resultante de los complejos reg&iacute;menes internacionales y del gobierno polic&eacute;ntrico transnacional realza el papel de la experiencia en la gesti&oacute;n de esta complejidad institucional. Seg&uacute;n muchos estudiosos, la creciente importancia de los actores bien informados con pretensiones de experiencia en pol&iacute;ticas relevantes, se espera m&aacute;s para favorecer a los actores poderosos y dotados de recursos. Sin embargo, la atenci&oacute;n a los acontecimientos recientes en materia de contabilidad y derecho de autor, como dos campos de gobierno transnacionales que han sido dominados por un peque&ntilde;o grupo de poderosos actores durante m&aacute;s de tres d&eacute;cadas, arroja dudas sobre la generalizaci&oacute;n de tales argumentos. Aunque representa menos casos probables de cambio , la evidencia emp&iacute;rica presentada en este trabajo muestra c&oacute;mo los actores aparentemente d&eacute;biles o marginados - si son parte de las burocracias p&uacute;blicas o de la sociedad civil - desarrollaron estrategias de especializaci&oacute;n basadas en reclamar una mayor participaci&oacute;n e influencia a la hora de establecer normas. Su formulaci&oacute;n de estrategias sobre la complejidad del r&eacute;gimen abri&oacute; espacios pol&iacute;ticos previamente blindados para p&uacute;blicos m&aacute;s amplios, transformando as&iacute; las constelaciones de actores , las preferencias y las definiciones de los problemas en los dos &aacute;mbitos de actuaci&oacute;n. Estos resultados sugieren que bajo condiciones de complejidad , indeterminaci&oacute;n e incertidumbre, las pretensiones de dominio basado en conocimientos son cada vez m&aacute;s discutidas - incluso en los campos de gobierno transnacionales que tienen una larga trayectoria- y la aplicaci&oacute;n configuraci&oacute;n y puesta en pr&aacute;ctica monopolizada por peque&ntilde;os grupos de profesionales, industriales o t&eacute;cnicos diplom&aacute;ticos.