Managers of Global Change: The Influence of International Environmental Bureaucracies (MIT Press)

by Frank Biermann

International bureaucracies--highly visible, far-reaching actors ofglobal governance in areas that range from finance to the environment--are oftenderided as ineffective, inefficient, and unresponsive. Yet despite their prominencein many debates on world politics, little scholarly attention has been given totheir actual influence in recent years. Managers of Global Change fills this gap, offering conceptual analysis and case studies of the role and relevance ofinternational bureaucracies in the area of environmental governance--one of the mostinstitutionally dynamic areas of world politics. The book seeks to resolve apuzzling although most international bureaucracies resemble each other interms of their institutional and legal settings (their mandate, the countries towhich they report, their general function), the roles they play and their actualinfluence vary greatly. The chapters investigate the type and degree of influencethat international environmental bureaucracies exert and whether external orinternal factors account for variations. After a discussion of theoretical context, research design, and empirical methodology, the book presents nine in-depth casestudies of bureaucracies ranging from the environment department of the World Bankto the United Nations' climate and desertification secretariats. Managers of GlobalChange points the way to a better understanding of the role of internationalbureaucracies, which could improve the legitimacy of global decision making andresolve policy debates about the reform of the United Nations and otherbodies.

Paperback

First published January 1, 2009