Regional and transnational discourse: the politics of ideas and economic development in Cascadia.

• Author: Clarke, Susan E.

Abstract

Two features distinguish local economic development initiatives in this new century: they are situated in the gap or disjuncture of economic power and political authority and they increasingly extend across scales. Gaps in the ability of national governments to control global and transnational economic processes (Pierson, 1996; Wallace, 1996)--stemming from the logic of new competition and production processes at a global scale as well as limited national sovereignty--direct the attention and activities of political and economic interests to subnational levels. In turn, conditions of interdependence, indivisibilities, and uncertainty lead to greater efforts to coordinate actors and to channel decisions at subnational levels (Storper, 1997). When these conditions and the consequent need for coordination spill over multiple scales, effective policy initiatives become contingent on establishing multi-level governance arrangements. Even in the absence of formal plans or political union, governance strategies that extend beyond individual communities and, in some cases, across borders are emerging in North America. Recognizing the significance of these multilevel governance strategies will be the cornerstone to understanding local economic development issues in the next decade.

According to Storper (1997), this will entail analyzing both the conventions and relations constituting governance processes. From this perspective, the capacity for multi-level governance is a product both of the ideas that frame different ways of understanding development problems and solutions as well as of the networks and regimes mobilized through these new frames. Using this approach, this paper maps the conventions and relations supporting the notion of regional, multi-level governance arrangements as a solution to disjunctures in the "Cascadia" region in the Pacific Northwest (1). Given the institutional disincentives for cooperation created by the constitutional and fiscal structures binding local governments in Canada and the United States, acceptance of the legitimacy of inter-jurisdictional, cross-border cooperation is a precondition for formation of trans-border and regional regimes.

The analysis draws on archival research as well as interviews with local and state officials (1998-1999) and participants in new bi-national and regional institutions. It is based on interviews with local and state officials and participants in new organizations and institutional structures in Cascadia (2). Along with consideration of newspaper and archival materials (3), these interviews provide a micro-foundation for analysis of the motivations of participants in multi-level governance processes. This empirical strategy improves on inferring policy and institutional preferences from post hoc analysis of policy decisions (Pierson, 1996).

Briefly, I find that building greater regional governance capacity for economic development in Cascadia is hampered by competing definitions of the "problem" solved by Cascadia. Nevertheless, there is some evidence of the emergence of regional governance capacity on transportation issues: there is a coherent, multi-state and bi-national policy community active on regional transportation issues and transportation initiatives are framed as regional solutions to environmental and economic competition concerns.

1. INTRODUCTION

   Globalization trends have produced disjunctures, indeed, non-congruence, of scale between politics and economic activities. In particular, economic activities increasingly are conducted at transnational and global scales while political decision making authority remains situated in national and subnational settings. These scale incongruities produce familiar governance issues in North America and Europe and elicit similar responses: establishing regional and transnational decision making structures and civic organizations to deal with the structural tensions of relations between transnational, national, state, and local governments (4).

   Regional Governance Capacity

   The regional governance concept centers on political processes and decisional capacities. It begins with the proposition that a new political space is emerging at the regional level--in response to the incentives of extra-national institutions such as NAFTA and the European Union as well as to the broader impacts of globalization and economic restructuring. This new political space is characterized by complexity, fragmentation, interdependence, ambiguity, and risk (e.g.; LeGales, 1998; Storper, 1997; Jacobs, 1997; Jessop, 1995). In this context, the governance issue is clear: under what conditions actors at this scale, in this political space, mobilize and coordinate resources sufficient to act purposively and collectively on mutual interests.

   As Storper puts it (1997), the construction of governance processes is contingent on both conventions and relations. That is, territorial linkages are shaped by conventions--ideas and expectations--as well as calculations by actors and organizations of material gains and economies of scale. By recognizing the importance of ideas, as well as interests and institutions (Heclo, 1994), attention is directed to the role of problem-oriented policy communities in generating alternative policy paradigms. These different paradigms set boundaries for political action, create channels for dialogue and decision, and establish the grounds for collective action among diverse interests. In this sense, ideas - along with interests, and institutions--can be seen to have causal roles in contributing to governance capacity at different scales.

   Bringing ideational and cultural factors into the analysis of regional governance is not intended to privilege them as causal factors in a constructivist process where material factors have no independent existence outside the interpretations of them (Berman and McNamara, 1998). Although some might see regional governance capacity as a direct function of the degree of regional identity, regional cultural values, and other ideational and cultural factors, it is important to ground these factors in material conditions. Regional governance capacity is not determined--much less explained--by the networks, partnerships, and other governance arrangements found in some areas and not others. Ideas can be used to cloak self-interest but there are many instances where policymakers are seeking solutions rather than merely pursuing interests; here, the play of ideas is as important in shaping outcomes as is the weight of political influence (Hall, 1993, 289). Thus, we can not analyze the role of ideas, interests, and institutions as independent and distinct political processes; rather, they are interdependent. The most important political questions--including the prospects for regional governance capacity--have to do with the intersect of these factors (Heclo, 1994). Treating any as residual categories leads to incomplete understandings of important political processes.

   This essay examines the role of conventions--ideas and expectations--in undergirding the calculations by actors and organizations of material gains and economies of scale (Storper, 1997). Ideas about regional cooperation are considered preconditions for successful mobilization and formation of regional coalitions. To analyze the politics of scale (Delaney and Leitner, 1997), I examine a North American region displaying relatively vibrant efforts at constructing regional governance capacity: the Pacific Northwest.

   The Reinvention of Cascadia

   The commonality and interdependence of environmental interests in the Georgia Basin-Puget Sound bioregion ("one forest, one waterway, one airshed") is prompting the creation of new institutional structures to protect the quality of life and the competitiveness of the economy in "Cascadia" (Kaplan, 1998; Artibise, 1995; Economist 1993). The Cascadia bioregion runs from Eugene OR along the Cascade Range up to Vancouver BC, distinguished by a temperate coastal rainforest and a vast watershed. Cascadia is promoted as the tenth largest economic center in the world with an economic base including high-tech firms such as Microsoft, McCaw Cellular and Boeing along side logging, fishing, farming, and tourism. Claims that a Cascadia region could constitute a giant high-tech trading bloc, with major bulk-shipping ports in Portland and Vancouver and container-shipping ports in the Seattle-Tacoma area (Kaplan, 1998, 58) exemplify predictions that "in the 21st century, economically integrated and cooperating regions, rather than nation-states or individual enterprises, will be the greatest generators of wealth" (Gold, 1994: 14). Trade within the region is strong historically but with the advent of NAFTA, the North/South trade links through Cascadia...