Suchergebnisse

In a global risk society, two interlinked developments increase complexity on environmental policy issues: On the one hand, unilateral problem solving is often ineffective in a globalized world. On the other hand, many environmental issues themselves are becoming increasingly complex. States have addressed these challenges by forming international institutions and regimes to collectively deal with environmental problems. But why do states form international environmental regimes on some issues while they fail to do so on others? How do states deal with scientific uncertainty on complex environmental issues and to what extent can scientific uncertainty account for success or failure of regime formation process? This dissertation provides insights on regime formation on highly complex policy issues by theorizing on how scientific uncertainty frames actors' perception of an issue. It is argued that actors are tolerant towards uncertainty on some aspects of an issue while they are not on others. This argumentation is empirically tested against four cases of international regime formation, two successful ones and two failed regime formation processes. The dissertation finds evidence that actors are more tolerant towards scientific uncertainty if it only affects the assessment of benefits while costs are at the same time estimated to be low.

In a global risk society, two interlinked developments increase complexity on environmental policy issues: On the one hand, unilateral problem solving is often ineffective in a globalized world. On the other hand, many environmental issues themselves are becoming increasingly complex. States have addressed these challenges by forming international institutions and regimes to collectively deal with environmental problems. But why do states form international environmental regimes on some issues while they fail to do so on others? How do states deal with scientific uncertainty on complex environmental issues and to what extent can scientific uncertainty account for success or failure of regime formation process? This dissertation provides insights on regime formation on highly complex policy issues by theorizing on how scientific uncertainty frames actors' perception of an issue. It is argued that actors are tolerant towards uncertainty on some aspects of an issue while they are not on others. This argumentation is empirically tested against four cases of international regime formation, two successful ones and two failed regime formation processes. The dissertation finds evidence that actors are more tolerant towards scientific uncertainty if it only affects the assessment of benefits while costs are at the same time estimated to be low.

In der Magisterarbeit werden zwei Debatten im Europäischen Verfassungskonvent auf kommunikatives Handeln im Sinne der habermas'schen Theorie des kommunikativen Handelns untersucht. Dabei wird die vorherrschende Hypothese über den Zusammenhang zwischen institutionellem Setting, kommunikativen Handeln und Verhandlungsergebnisse im Europäischen Verfassungsvertrag herausgefordert und durch die folgenden Hypothesen ersetzt: H1: Wenn ein Verhandlungsgegenstand im Verfassungskonvent distributiver Natur war, dann war der Interaktionsstil wenig diskursiv H2: Wenn ein Verhandlungsgegenstand nicht distributiver Natur war, so war der Interaktionsstil von hoher Diskursivität geprägt. Die Untersuchung anhand des Diskurs-Qualitätsindex zeigt, dass bei gleichem institutionellem Setting die Diskursivität im habermas'schen Sinne variiert und deshalb der Verhandlungsgegenstand ein stärkerer Prädiktor darstellt.

2. Aufl. hrsg. u. verl. von d. Arbeitsgemeinschaft d. Parlaments- u. Behördenbibliotheken, Karlsruhe. - Früher zeitschr.-artige Reihe

Decisions in the context of Climate Engineering (CE), the deliberate large-scale manipulation of the Earth's climate, are decisions made under uncertainty. CE options are associated with a broad range of environmental and societal risks that raise complex questions: How can the risks be assessed and evaluated when balanced against the risks of alternative strategies to counteract climate change? What are the strategic implications for climate politics against the background of insufficient scientific knowledge? Can we estimate the ethical implications of the risks involved for society? Uncertainties and risks represent a central aspect of the issue but cannot be reduced to the traditional technical orientation of risk terminologies. The article elaborates on the specific characteristics of the risks and uncertainties associated with CE technology from six different disciplinary viewpoints. It thereby seeks to reveal chances for a mutual enrichment of these individual viewpoints since each discipline experiences boundaries while examining the complex risks of CE. In this way, the article redefines disciplinary boundaries without entirely dissolving them and without disregarding the valuable contribution every individual viewpoint can make. This aim is realized by means of the identification of new approaches to central questions regarding the risks and uncertainties involved in CE that can only be addressed from an interdisciplinary perspective.