Scalar Politics and Transnational Governance Innovations: A Political Settlements Lens on the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative in the Andes

ESID Working Paper No 66. Manchester: Effective States and Inclusive Development Research Centre

45 Pages Posted: 19 Dec 2016

See all articles by Anthony J. Bebbington

Anthony J. Bebbington

University of Colorado at Boulder - Department of Geography

Elisa Arond

Clark University

Juan Dammert

Clark University

Date Written: December 19, 2016

Abstract

The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) originated in the international domain but can only operate if adopted at a national scale. How EITI unfolds in a particular country is thus a consequence of the particular interactions between domestic and transnational political processes, and among ideas, institutions and political interests existing at these different national and transnational scales. National politics is especially crucial to the forms taken by EITI. This paper addresses how national political settlements have led to diverse responses to EITI across three Andean countries: Peru (an early adopter); Colombia (a late adopter); and Bolivia (a non-adopter). We argue that national elites have taken up (or, in the case of Bolivia, rejected) EITI as part of a strategy to secure broader goals and to convey particular messages about the state of democracy and political priorities in their countries, including towards actors on the international stage. We conclude that the EITI, and the idea of transparency, are leveraged by national actors to meet domestic political goals and interests, even as these may also be intertwined with other international pressures and contexts. While EITI, and arguments over transparency, can affect the nature of the domestic political settlement, they do so primarily by helping deepen domestic political changes that are already underway and that were the same political changes that created the initial space for EITI.

Keywords: Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (or EITI), transparency, political settlements, Latin America, Andes, transnational governance

Suggested Citation

Bebbington, Anthony James and Arond, Elisa and Dammert, Juan, Scalar Politics and Transnational Governance Innovations: A Political Settlements Lens on the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative in the Andes (December 19, 2016). ESID Working Paper No 66. Manchester: Effective States and Inclusive Development Research Centre, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2887335 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2887335

Anthony James Bebbington (Contact Author)

University of Colorado at Boulder - Department of Geography ( email )

Campus Box 260
Boulder, CO 80309-0260
United States

Elisa Arond

Clark University ( email )

950 Main Street
Worcester, MA 01610
United States

Juan Dammert

Clark University ( email )

950 Main Street
Worcester, MA 01610
United States

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
53
Abstract Views
466
Rank
572,462
PlumX Metrics