Determinants of international environmental cooperation : does national ENGO strength foster a country's international environmental commitment?

Abstract

This thesis examines the effect of domestic determinants on a country's international environmental commitment. It concentrates on the prevailing political system on the one hand and environmental pressure group strength on the other hand. I postulate that both, an increase in democracy as well as an upsurge of environmental lobby groups tend to shorten the delay time until a country ratifies an international environmental agreement. A proportional hazard model is used in order to test the hypotheses empirically.The results exhibit some support for the theoretically expected effects. Democracy as well as environmental pressure group strength tend to reduce ratification delay in four out of five agreements that are under study here. One treaty, however, exhibits reverse effects, indicating that the relationship cannot be generalized on all international environmental problems.