Post-Fordist governance of nature: The internationalization of the state and the case of genetic resources – a Neo-Poulantzian perspective

Abstract

ABSTRACT Compared with the stated aims and the claims for urgent action, multilateral environmental agreements show unsatisfying results. Among other reasons – e.g. a deficit in national implementation – lack of coherence among a variety of overlapping and sometimes contradictory international institutions is considered as one major cause which needs to be overcome. In this article, however, it is argued that this lack of coherence is not a result of a lack of cooperation but a form of governance failure strongly connected with the political and economic structures of global capitalism and its ongoing neoliberal-imperial transformation. Moreover, it is demonstrated that this governance failure is a by-product of the articulation of sometimes antagonistic interests and related power relations inscribed in different national and international institutions. Building on the concept of societal relationships with nature, on historical-materialist state theory and its perspective of the internationalization of the state as well as on the regulation approach, the paper analyzes the tension between different international institutions in order to understand the actual transformations towards a post-Fordist governance of nature. The empirical issues dealt with are different international regulations concerning the appropriation of genetic resources, especially the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Agreement on Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) of the World Trade Organization (WTO).