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Aseem Prakash is a professor of Political Science, the Walker Family Professor of the College of music and Sciences and the Founding Director of the UW Center for Environmental Politics. He serves as the General Editor of the Cambridge University Press Series on Business and Public Policy and the Associate Editor of Business & Society. In addition to serving on editorial boards of several additional journals, he has been elected as the Vice-President of the International Studies Association (2015-2016). Professor Prakash is a member of National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's Board on Environmental Change and Society and International Research Fellow at the Center for Corporate Reputation, University of Oxford. He was elected to the position of the Vice President of the International Studies Association for the period, 2015-2016. He is the recipient of International Studies Association, International Political Economy Section's 2019 Distinguished Scholar Award that recognizes "outstanding senior scholars whose influence and path-breaking intellectual work will continue to impact the field for years to come as well as the Associations' 2018 James N. Rosenau Award for "scholar who has made the most important contributions to globalization studies". The European Consortium for Political Research Standing Group on Regulatory Governance awarded him the 2018 Regulatory Studies Development Award that recognizes a senior scholar who has made notable "contributions to the field of regulatory governance."
His most prominent contribution pertains to the club approach to the study of voluntary programs in the context of business firms, and extended it to the context of the non-profit sector. Outside actors do not fully know how firms or nonprofits are functioning internally. Voluntary programs are a signaling mechanism to convey this information to outside actors in a credible way. Because participation in such programs in costly, participants need to get something in return. The club approach suggests that club membership allows members to appropriate certain benefits which are non-rival and excludable (i.e., have the characteristics of club goods). These can pertain to reputation, goodwill, access to capital, regulatory relief, etc. Given that voluntary programs tend to have varying levels of effectiveness, the club approach helps to predict ex-ante how program design affects program efficacy.
In addition to his work on environmental issues, he is among the second wave scholars who suggest examining NGOs from a collective action perspective. The first ways scholars suggest that NGOs are somehow different from firms and governments because they are guided by principled concerns, not instrumental reasons. Nonprofit scholars claim that nonprofits are more reliable than firms because they are subject to the non-distributional constraint: that is, they can generate profits but cannot distribute them. The second wave scholars question these assertions on both theoretical and empirical grounds. For them, NGOs and nonprofits are guided by both instrumental reasons and principled beliefs. Further, managers have several ways of circumventing the non-distributional constraint and using organizational resources to their advantage. Indeed, the low entry barriers in establishing nonprofits has led the nonprofit/NGO pool to be contaminated with purely instrumental organizations. The collective action approach provides an analytic and systematic approach to study nonprofits and NGOs. Insights about voluntary regulation which have been developed in the context of the for-profit sector travel quite well to the study of the non-profit sector.
His other prominent contribution pertains to the role of trade and FDI networks in influencing regulatory races in areas such as human rights, labor rights, environmental policies.
Aseem Prakash has written and edited several books and articles on the subjects of corporate environmentalism, NGOs, and globalization. He also contributes to public scholarship via platforms such as The Conversation, Slate, The Washington Post, Huffpost, Regulatory Review, The Hill, and opendemocracy.
Accountability Clubs: Voluntary Regulation of Nongovernmental and Nonprofit Organizations (Cambridge University Press, 2010) (with Mary Kay Gugerty)
Advocacy Organizations and Collective Action (Cambridge University Press, 2010) (with Mary Kay Gugerty)
Voluntary Programs: A Club Theory Perspective (The MIT Press, 2009) (with Matt Potoski)
Coping with Globalization (Routledge, 2000) (with Jeffrey Hart)
Responding to Globalization (Routledge, 2000) (with Jeffrey Hart)
Globalization and Governance (Routledge, 1999) (with Jeffrey Hart)
Key Journal Articles
The Politics of Climate Change Adaptation. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 2018 (with Nives Dolsak).
Do Donors Reduce Bilateral Aid to Countries with Restrictive NGO Laws?: A Panel Study, 1993-2012, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 2018, 47(1): 89-106
(with Kendra Dupuy).
Reducing Toxic Chemical Pollution in Response to Multiple Information Signals: The 33/50 Voluntary Program and Toxicity Disclosures. Ecological Economics, 2018,
146: 193-202 (with William McGuire and Phi Cong Hoang).
How Voluntary Environmental Programs Reduce Pollution. Public Administration Review, 2018, forthcoming (with Phi Cong Hoang and William McGuire).
Do Government and Foreign Funding influence Individual Donations to Religious Nonprofits?: A Survey Experiment in Pakistan. Nonprofit Policy Forum, 2017, 8(3):
237–273 (with Rafeel Wasif).
Do Economic Problems at Home Undermine Worker Safety Abroad?: A Panel Study,1980-2009. World Development, 2017, 96 (August): 562–577 (with Sijeong Lim).
The Shanghai Effect: Do Exports to China Affect Labor Practices in Africa? World Development, 2017(January): 1-18 (with Christopher Adolph and Vanessa Quince).
Hands Off My Regime! Governments’ Restrictions on Foreign Aid to Nongovernmental Organizations in Poor and Middle-Income Countries. World
Development, 2016, 84 (August): 299–311 (with Kendra Dupuy and James Ron).
Regulation by Reputation: Monitoring and Sanctioning in Nonprofit Accountability Clubs. Public Administration Review, 2016, 76(5): 712-722 (with Joannie Tremblay Boire and Mary Kay Gugerty).
The EU Effect: Does Trade with the EU Reduce CO2 Emissions in the Developing World? Environmental Politics, 2016, 26(1): 27-48 (with Matthew Potoski).
“Bluewashing" the Firm?: Voluntary Regulations, Program Design and Member Compliance with the United Nations Global Compact. Policy Studies Journal, 2015,
43(1): 115-138 (with Daniel Berliner).
Who Survived? Ethiopia’s Regulatory Crackdown on Foreign-Funded NGOs. Review of International Political Economy, 2015, 22(2): 419-456 (with Kendra Dupuy and
James Ron).
Public Authority and Private Rules: How Domestic Regulatory Institutions Shape the Adoption of Global Private Regimes. International Studies Quarterly, (with Daniel Berliner).
National Styles of NGO Regulation. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 2014, 43(4): 43: 716-736 (with Elizabeth Bloodgood and Joannie Tremblay-Boire).
Voluntary Regulations and Innovation: The Case of ISO 14001. Public Administration Review, 2014, 74(2): 233-244 (with Sijeong Lim).
NGOization, Foreign Funding, and the Nicaraguan Civil Society. Voluntas, 2014, 25(2): 487–513 (with Dean Chahim).
Global Private Regimes, Domestic Public Law: ISO 14001 and Pollution Reduction. Comparative Political Studies, 2014, 47(3): 369 - 394 (with Matthew Potoski).
Economic Development and Gender Equality: Is there a Gender Kuznets Curve? World Politics, 2013, 65(1): 156-184, (with Joshua Eastin).
Where is the Tipping Point? Bilateral Trade and the Diffusion of Human Rights, 1982-2004. British Journal of Political Science, 2013, 43(1): 133-156 (with Xun Cao and Brian Greenhill).
From Norms to Programs: The United Nations Global Compact and Global Governance. Regulation & Governance, 2012, 6(2): 149–166 (with Daniel Berliner).
Voluntary Environmental Programs: A Comparative Perspective. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 2011, 31(1)L 123-138 (with Matthew Potoski).
Charity Watchdogs and the Limits of Information-Based Regulation. Voluntas, 2011, 22(1): 112-141 (with Rebecca Szper).
The Two Limits Debates: "Limits to Growth" and Climate Change. Futures, 2011, 43(1): 16-26 (with Joshua Eastin and Reiner Grundmann).
Trade Competition and Domestic Pollution: A Panel Study, 1980‐2003.International Organization, 2010 (with Xun Cao)
Growing Exports by Signaling Product Quality: Trade Competition and the Cross‐National Diffusion of ISO 9000 Quality Standards. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 2010 (with Xun Cao)
Trade and Labor Rights: A Panel Study, 1986‐2002. American Political Science Review, 2009 (with Brian Greenhill & Layna Mosley)
Investing Up: FDI and the Cross‐National Diffusion of ISO 14001. International Studies Quarterly,2007 (with Matthew Potoski)
Protecting Jobs in the Age of Globalization: Examining the Relative Salience of Social Welfare and Industrial Subsidies in OECD Countries. International Studies Quarterly, 2007 (with Xun Cao and Michael D. Ward)
Racing to the Bottom? Globalization, Environmental Governance, and ISO 14001. American Journal of Political Science, 2006 (with Matthew Potoski)
Green Clubs and Voluntary Governance: ISO 14001 and Firms' Regulatory Compliance. American Journal of Political Science, 2005 (with Matthew Potoski)
Covenants with Weak Swords: ISO 14001 and Firms' Environmental Performance. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 2005 (with Matthew Potoski)
Using Ideas Strategically: Examining the Contest between Business and NGO Networks in Intellectual Property Rights. International Studies Quarterly, 2004 (with Susan Sell)
The Regulation Dilemma: Cooperation and Conflict in Environmental Governance. Public Administration Review, 2004 (with Matthew Potoski)
Green by Choice? Cross‐National Variations in Firms' Responses to EMS‐based Environmental Regimes. World Politics, 2001 (with Kelly Kollman)
Responsible Care: An Assessment. Business & Society, 2000.
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP). OMB's most prominent function is to produce the president's budget, but it also examines agency programs, policies, and procedures to see whether they comply with the president's policies and coordinates inter-agency policy initiatives.
A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in humanitarianism or the social sciences; they can also include clubs and associations that provide services to their members and others. Surveys indicate that NGOs have a high degree of public trust, which can make them a useful proxy for the concerns of society and stakeholders. However, NGOs can also be lobby groups for corporations, such as the World Economic Forum.
ISO 14000 is a family of standards related to environmental management that exists to help organizations (a) minimize how their operations negatively affect the environment ; (b) comply with applicable laws, regulations, and other environmentally oriented requirements; and (c) continually improve in the above.
Governance is the process of interactions through the laws, norms, power or language of an organized society over a social system. It is done by the government of a state, by a market, or by a network. It is the decision-making among the actors involved in a collective problem that leads to the creation, reinforcement, or reproduction of social norms and institutions". In lay terms, it could be described as the political processes that exist in and between formal institutions.
The Forest Stewardship Council A. C. (FSC) is an international non-profit, multistakeholder organization established in 1993 that promotes responsible management of the world's forests, via timber certification. It is an example of a market-based certification program used as a transnational environmental policy.
Ecolabels and Green Stickers are labeling systems for food and consumer products. The use of ecolabels is voluntary, whereas green stickers are mandated by law; for example, in North America major appliances and automobiles use Energy Star. They are a form of sustainability measurement directed at consumers, intended to make it easy to take environmental concerns into account when shopping. Some labels quantify pollution or energy consumption by way of index scores or units of measurement, while others assert compliance with a set of practices or minimum requirements for sustainability or reduction of harm to the environment. Many ecolabels are focused on minimising the negative ecological impacts of primary production or resource extraction in a given sector or commodity through a set of good practices that are captured in a sustainability standard. Through a verification process, usually referred to as "certification", a farm, forest, fishery, or mine can show that it complies with a standard and earn the right to sell its products as certified through the supply chain, often resulting in a consumer-facing ecolabel.
Marketisation or marketization is a restructuring process that enables state enterprises to operate as market-oriented firms by changing the legal environment in which they operate.
Environmental policy is the commitment of an organization or government to the laws, regulations, and other policy mechanisms concerning environmental issues. These issues generally include air and water pollution, waste management, ecosystem management, maintenance of biodiversity, the management of natural resources, wildlife and endangered species. For example, concerning environmental policy, the implementation of an eco-energy-oriented policy at a global level to address the issues of global warming and climate changes could be addressed. Policies concerning energy or regulation of toxic substances including pesticides and many types of industrial waste are part of the topic of environmental policy. This policy can be deliberately taken to influence human activities and thereby prevent undesirable effects on the biophysical environment and natural resources, as well as to make sure that changes in the environment do not have unacceptable effects on humans.
The Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) is a voluntary environmental management instrument, which was developed in 1993 by the European Commission. It enables organizations to assess, manage and continuously improve their environmental performance. The scheme is globally applicable and open to all types of private and public organizations. In order to register with EMAS, organisations must meet the requirements of the EU EMAS-Regulation. Currently, more than 4,600 organisations and more than 7,900 sites are EMAS registered.
The Maryland School of Public Policy is one of 14 schools at the University of Maryland, College Park. The school is located inside the Capital Beltway and ranks 16th nationally for schools of public policy according to U.S. News & World Report (2012).
An environmental audit is a type of evaluation intended to identify environmental compliance and management system implementation gaps, along with related corrective actions. In this way they perform an analogous (similar) function to financial audits. There are generally two different types of environmental audits: compliance audits and management systems audits. Compliance audits tend to be the primary type in the US or within US-based multinationals.
Nonprofit studies is a multidisciplinary field of teaching and research that focuses on practices of the nonprofit sector and can date back to the 1920s. This area of inquiry examines the management and effectiveness of the nonprofit sector, and has sub-areas of research including administration, marketing, communication, economics, human resources, philanthropy, ethics, law, information technology, social entrepreneurship, grant writing, policy, fundraising, advocacy, volunteerism, data research, and civic engagement.
Regulatory competition, also called competitive governance or policy competition, is a phenomenon in law, economics and politics concerning the desire of lawmakers to compete with one another in the kinds of law offered in order to attract businesses or other actors to operate in their jurisdiction. Regulatory competition depends upon the ability of actors such as companies, workers or other kinds of people to move between two or more separate legal systems. Once this is possible, then the temptation arises for the people running those different legal systems to compete to offer better terms than their "competitors" to attract investment. Historically, regulatory competition has operated within countries having federal systems of regulation - particularly the United States, but since the mid-20th century and the intensification of economic globalisation, regulatory competition became an important issue internationally.
Sustainability standards and certifications are voluntary guidelines used by producers, manufacturers, traders, retailers, and service providers to demonstrate their commitment to good environmental, social, ethical, and food safety practices. There are over 400 such standards across the world.
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are defined by the European Commission as having less than 250 employees, independent and with an annual turnover of no more than €50 million or annual balance sheet of €43 million.
Accountable Now is a global platform, founded in 2008 by a group of independent non-profit organisations, which is intended to foster accountability and transparency of civil society organisations (CSOs), as well as stakeholder communication and performance. It supports CSOs to be transparent, responsive to stakeholders and focused on delivering impact.
Environmental certification is a form of environmental regulation and development where a company can voluntarily choose to comply with predefined processes or objectives set forth by the certification service. Most certification services have a logo which can be applied to products certified under their standards. This is seen as a form of corporate social responsibility allowing companies to address their obligation to minimise the harmful impacts to the environment by voluntarily following a set of externally set and measured objectives.
Multistakeholder governance is a practice of governance that employs bringing multiple stakeholders together to participate in dialogue, decision making, and implementation of responses to jointly perceived problems. The principle behind such a structure is that if enough input is provided by multiple types of actors involved in a question, the eventual consensual decision gains more legitimacy, and can be more effectively implemented than a traditional state-based response. While the evolution of multistakeholder governance is occurring principally at the international level, public-private partnerships (PPPs) are domestic analogues.
Foreign funding of NGOs is a controversial issue in some countries. In the late Cold War and afterward, foreign aid tended to be increasingly directed through NGOs, leading to an explosion of NGOs in the Global South reliant on international funding. Some critics of foreign funding of NGOs contend that foreign funding orients recipients toward donor priorities, making them less responsive to the communities they work in.
Transnational environmental policies are efforts to confront global environmental issues such as climate change, ozone depletion, or marine pollution. Environmental policies are transnational when they include actors from at least two sovereign states. As of 2018, more than 1,800 multilateral environmental agreements are in effect.
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