post thumbnail alt text

Maria-Therese Gustafsson

Stockholm University

Maria-Therese Gustafsson is Assistant Senior Lecturer at the Department of Political Science, Stockholm University. Prominent themes in her research are the impacts of global policies and private governance initiatives, on local communities in the Andean region and in Brazil. Empirically, she has focused on the extractive and climate governance, and more recently of the public and private governance initiatives in the supply chains of soy and beef from Brazil to selected European countries. She currently co-leads two research projects on new supply regulations and their implementation in the supply chains of beef and soy between Europe and Brazil. She has published articles in World Development, Third World Quarterly, WIRE’s Climate Change, Environmental Science and Policy, Global Environmental Politics, and the monography Private Politics and Peasant Mobilization: Mining in Peru (Palgrave).
More about Maria-Therese Gustafsson ›
publication
Domestication of International Norms for Sustainable Resource Governance: Elite Capture in Peru

In recent years, international actors have promoted international norms related to sustainable and inclusive resource governance. However, we know little about how such attempts are contested and adapted in domestic reform processes. Drawing on insights from norm diffusion and institutionalist theories, this article traces how first bilateral aid agencies and then OECD have influenced the institutionalisation of a contested land-use planning (LUP) reform in Peru from 1990 until 2017. Based on 145 interviews and written primary sources, we demonstrate that aid agencies have partially empowered policy coalitions (e.g., civil society and subnational actors) in favour of LUP, whereas OECD's interventions have favoured national elites opposed to LUP. In both cases, we argue that by failing to foresee the political resistance among economic actors and national elites, international actors have contributed to the weakening and elite capture of LUP. Hence, our analysis represents a case of weakly institutionalized norms. The findings extend the existing literature on extractive governance by providing a fine-grained analysis of the process in which national elites and societal coalitions domesticate the institutionalisation of international norms for sustainable and inclusive resource governance. Our findings have broader implications for debates about extractive governance as well as policy strategies for promoting institutional change in resource-rich middle-income countries.

Read more ›
publication
Unpacking the extractivist state: The role of weak state agencies in promoting institutional change in Peru

When a resource boom has begun it is often challenging to develop institutions for governing natural resources in an inclusive and sustainable manner. Whereas existing studies on resource-rich states have focused on political elites or social mobilization for explaining attempts to strengthen such institutions, we know less about the role of less influential reform-oriented agencies (e.g. environmental agencies, subnational governments), and what explains how and why on rare occasions they are surprisingly effective in driving institutional change. Theoretically, we draw on theories on institutional weakness and change. Based on 139 interviews, we analyze the outcomes of different strategies adopted by the Peruvian Environmental Ministry (MINAM) to enforce a participatory zoning and land-use planning (LUP) reform between 2008 and 2016. We argue that weak agencies are dependent upon strategic ability, here referring to the skill of an agency to adapt its strategies to reigning political opportunities, thereby contributing to defending or expanding its autonomy vis-á-vis powerful groups and building alliances with societal actors that could defend it from opponents. By unpacking the dynamics within a resource-rich state, we contribute with a nuanced analysis of the challenges of building and effectively enforcing institutions in a context of expanding extractive industries.

Read more ›
publication
Strengthening subnational institutions for sustainable development in resource-rich states: Decentralized land-use planning in Peru

Weak institutions have been identified as a principal cause of the poor developmental outcomes of many resource-rich states. Research has largely focused on national-level institutions and governance, whereas their subnational equivalents remain understudied. Subnational governments, partially empowered by decentralization reforms, have increasingly sought to use existing institutions to influence mineral resource governance although they have no formal authority over such resources. This article examines the implementation of land-use zoning and planning in three Peruvian regions (2007–2016). It focuses on how and when subnational governments seek to influence mineral governance and under what conditions they succeed in strengthening institutions for inclusive and sustainable development. Theoretically, the article draws on the literature on decentralized forest governance and empirically it is based on extensive ethnographic research carried out in the three regions, written primary sources and 139 semi-structured interviews. Our analysis suggests that, whereas regional governments have strong incentives to use land-use zoning to influence mineral governance, they often lack capacity, accountable representation, and support from the central government. Still, land-use zoning has provided regional governments with information about natural resources that has been used in negotiations with mining companies, but also to improve regional planning. To have durable impacts on development, profound state reform to achieve sectoral integration and political decentralization is, however, needed. Our findings add to debates about extractive governance by showing how subnational governments, without having formal authority over mineral resources, still play an important role in shaping the developmental outcomes of resource extraction. Our paper also provokes important questions regarding how subnational governments could be included in extractive governance and which mechanisms for reconciling different interests are likely to be most effective. All told, a better understanding of how inclusive subnational institutions are effectively enforced and gain stability is crucial for transforming resource wealth into sustainable development.

Read more ›

Stay tuned on the latest news from our research network.

Subscribe to our newsletter now