Democracy through technocracy? Reinventing civil society as a state-monitored and unpaid service provider in the EU FLEGT VPA in Laos

IF 8.6 1区 环境科学与生态学 Q1 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Sabaheta Ramcilovic-Suominen
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

This paper analyses the European Union’s (EU’s) democratising agenda within the frame of the EU’s Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) in Laos. In particular, it focuses on the requirement for the participation of civil society organisations (CSOs) in the VPA and the Lao state actors’ responses to this requirement. I frame the VPA’s democratising agenda and its conditionality of civil society participation as acts of governmentality exercised by the EU in Laos. This EU governmentality is exercised through the EU and EU member states’ funded development partner in the frame of their project supporting the FLEGT VPA process in Laos. The Lao government responses and strategies to the EU governmentality resulted on the one hand in the Lao state’s governmentality towards domestic CSOs, and in counter-conduct (i.e. a subtle and sly resistance to some aspects of the VPA) on the other. First, by tracing the establishment of the Lao FLEGT Civil Society Organisations Network (FLEGT CSO Network), I highlight the trend of depoliticisation and rendering technical, where the EU-funded development partner, with full support and backing from the Lao state, trained the CSOs in various VPA and timber legality issues. In the training, the CSOs were given specific roles and tasks, building up their fields of expertise, and were integrated in the formal VPA organisational structures, which allowed for their scrutiny and tight survelience by the state. Second, I analyse the counter-conduct by the Lao government against a civil society that is independent from the state, which the government manifested through further disempowerment of CSOs and tightening of the CSO regulation shortly after the FLEGT CSO Network was established, while at the same time simulating democratisation by welcoming CSOs’ participation in the VPA. Summoning CSOs as compliant actors and unpaid service providers working for and alongside the state was in part enabled by the VPA’s own rendering technical approach. Hence, the EU’s VPA governmentality and the Lao state counter-conduct mutually reinforced one another, even if their initial agendas around democratisation and CSO engagement in forest governance and the VPA diverged.

通过技术民主实现民主?在老挝的欧盟森林执法与绿色贸易自愿协议(FLEGT VPA)中,将民间社会重塑为受国家监督的无偿服务提供者
本文分析了欧盟(EU)在老挝森林执法、治理和贸易(FLEGT)自愿伙伴关系协定(VPA)框架内的民主化议程。本报告特别关注民间社会组织(CSO)参与《自愿伙伴关系协定》的要求以及老挝国家行为者对这一要求的回应。我将《老挝人民民主共和国自愿和平协议》的民主化议程及其民间社会参与的条件设定为欧盟在老挝实施的政府行为。欧盟的这种政府行为是通过欧盟和欧盟成员国资助的发展伙伴在其支持老挝森林执法和贸易自愿协议进程的项目框架内实施的。老挝政府对欧盟政府性的反应和战略一方面导致了老挝国家对国内民间社会组织的政府性,另一方面也导致了反行为(即对 VPA 某些方面的微妙和狡猾的抵制)。首先,通过追踪老挝FLEGT民间组织网络(FLEGT CSO Network)的建立,我强调了非政治化和技术化的趋势,在这一过程中,欧盟资助的发展伙伴在老挝国家的全力支持下,对民间组织进行了有关各种VPA和木材合法性问题的培训。在培训过程中,民间社会组织被赋予了特定的角色和任务,建立了自己的专业领域,并被纳入了正式的VPA组织结构中,这使得他们能够接受国家的审查和严格监督。其次,我分析了老挝政府对独立于国家的民间社会的反制行为,在FLEGT民间组织网络成立后不久,政府通过进一步剥夺民间组织的权力和加强对民间组织的监管来体现这种反制行为,同时通过欢迎民间组织参与VPA来模拟民主化。在一定程度上,《自愿行动计划》自身的渲染性技术方法使民间社会组织成为遵守规定的行动者和为国家工作并与国家并肩作战的无偿服务提供者。因此,欧盟的 VPA 政府性和老挝国家的反行为相互促进,即使它们最初围绕民主化和民间组织参与森林治理和 VPA 的议程存在分歧。
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来源期刊
Global Environmental Change
Global Environmental Change 环境科学-环境科学
CiteScore
18.20
自引率
2.20%
发文量
146
审稿时长
12 months
期刊介绍: Global Environmental Change is a prestigious international journal that publishes articles of high quality, both theoretically and empirically rigorous. The journal aims to contribute to the understanding of global environmental change from the perspectives of human and policy dimensions. Specifically, it considers global environmental change as the result of processes occurring at the local level, but with wide-ranging impacts on various spatial, temporal, and socio-political scales. In terms of content, the journal seeks articles with a strong social science component. This includes research that examines the societal drivers and consequences of environmental change, as well as social and policy processes that aim to address these challenges. While the journal covers a broad range of topics, including biodiversity and ecosystem services, climate, coasts, food systems, land use and land cover, oceans, urban areas, and water resources, it also welcomes contributions that investigate the drivers, consequences, and management of other areas affected by environmental change. Overall, Global Environmental Change encourages research that deepens our understanding of the complex interactions between human activities and the environment, with the goal of informing policy and decision-making.
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