Activists and regulatory politics: Institutional opportunities, information, and the activation of environmental regulation

Abstract

• Contributes to the literature on the social basis of regulation in states with weak regulatory capacity, and the literature on the impact of social movements on policy outcomes. • Demonstrates that information provided by regulatory agencies to activists at official docking points shapes the mobilization and framing strategies of activists. • Shows that when regulatory docking points and institutional opportunities are closed to activists, the ability of activists to achieve outcomes that they value can be circumscribed. • Develops the argument that institutional docking points, even in relatively unpropitious contexts, can provide a foothold upon which effective civil society campaigns can be built. This article asks why civil society groups appear to have been more successful in activating regulatory institutions in Chile, than in San Juan province, Argentina. The analysis underscores the central role of information flows at institutional “docking points” where activists interact with the state. Civil society organizations can strengthen bureaucratic enforcement, even in weak states, by providing information and material support to regulators. However, information provided by regulatory agencies to activists at official docking points is also essential to the mobilization and framing strategies of activists. Where institutional opportunities in regulatory bureaucracies are closed to civil society, and information about the project is limited, the ability of activists to mobilize and pressure for change can be circumscribed. The article is based on a comparative case study of the Argentine and Chilean sides of the Pascua Lama mining project, and draws on extensive fieldwork conducted with social-environmental activists and regulatory authorities in San Juan and Buenos Aries, Argentina, and the Huasco Valley and Santiago, Chile.