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.
A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control. NGOs often focus on humanitarian or social issues but can also include clubs and associations offering services to members. Some NGOs, like the World Economic Forum, may also act as lobby groups for corporations. Unlike international organizations (IOs), which directly interact with sovereign states and governments, NGOs are independent from them.
The ISO 14000 family is a set of international standards for environment management systems. It was developed in March 1996 by International Organization for Standardization. The goal of these standards is 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. The standards were designed to fit into an integrated management system.
Governance is the overall complex system or framework of processes, functions, structures, rules, laws and norms born out of the relationships, interactions, power dynamics and communication within an organized group of individuals. It sets the boundaries of acceptable conduct and practices of different actors of the group and controls their decision-making processes through the creation and enforcement of rules and guidelines. Furthermore, it also manages, allocates and mobilizes relevant resources and capacities of different members and sets the overall direction of the group in order to effectively address its specific collective needs, problems and challenges.
The Forest Stewardship Council GmbH (FSC) is an international non-profit, multistakeholder organization established in 1993 that promotes responsible management of the world's forests via timber certification. This organization uses a market-based approach to 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.
Eco-Management and Audit Scheme or Environmental Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) is an international standard for environment management systems. It was developed in March 1993 by European Commission. The goal of the standard is to enable organizations to assess, manage and continuously improve their environmental performance. The standard was designed to fit into an integrated management system. 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 EMAS Regulation. Currently, more than 4,600 organisations and more than 7,900 sites are EMAS registered.
The Global Reporting Initiative is an international independent standards organization that helps businesses, governments, and other organizations understand and communicate their impacts on issues such as climate change, human rights, and corruption.
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.
Cary Coglianese is an American legal scholar who is the Edward B. Shils Professor of Law and professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he is also director of the Penn Program on Regulation.
The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) is a private organization that works as a "coalition of action" from the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) and brings together retailers and brand owners (manufacturers) from across the CGF membership. The GFSI operates under multi-stakeholder governance, with the objective to create "an extended food safety community to oversee food safety standards for businesses and help provide access to safe food for people everywhere". GFSI's work in benchmarking and harmonization aims to foster mutual acceptance of GFSI-recognized certification programs across the industry, with the ambition to enable a "once certified, accepted everywhere" approach.
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-sized enterprises (SMEs) have been identified as a problem area in the field of environmental regulation. Small and medium-sized enterprises are defined by the European Commission as having fewer 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 non-governmental organizations (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.
Nives Dolšak is the Stan and Alta Barer Professor in Sustainability Science, and the Director of the School of Marine and Environmental Affairs at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington. She has also served as a visiting professor of Economics at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.
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