Historical Analysis of Institutional Regimes in Switzerland ... - IDHEAP

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From an empirical point of view, the analysis of the transformation and effects of an IR would
imply the identification of the above-mentioned constitutional elements of the IR. The diachronic
analysis will make it possible to make a statement on the breadth of the IR and will reveal the
goods and services for which the use of the resource was regulated using specific public policies,
or by means of the introduction of property and use rights over time. The coherence of the IR
can be evaluated by combining the policy design and property and use rights.
In the empirical analysis, a distinction should be drawn between the formal legal nature of state
interventions and title to property and the actual incentives set for individual behaviour in relation
to the goods and services provided by the resource. Hence, it is completely possible for the use
rights to be rendered concrete or new property rights recognised through public policies. As a
component of public policies, the instruments which are relevant to use rights affect the regulative
system. New use rights, such as the access right, may have been introduced, however the formal
change may have been the result of the redesign of the protection and use policy.
4.2 The typology of Institutional Resource Regimes
It is very difficult to classify IRs at present. As a heuristic assumption, we postulate a variable
degree of differentiation (on the basis of the goods and services provided by the resource) of the
property and use rights and of the design of the relevant public policies for different natural
resources (see Figure 1). Different stages of the development of an IR development can be
identified from a theoretical point of view:
Figure 1: Gradual differentiation of Institutional Resource Regimes
Degree of
differentiation
of the resourcespecific
policy design
complex IR
simple IR
complex IR
integrated IR
No IR
simple IR
complex IR
Degree of differentiation of the regulative system
• From a theoretical point of view, we speak of a "no IR situation", in cases where
neither property and use rights nor public policies exist. Chances are in this instance that
a resource or its services and goods have not yet been discovered. This was the case for
biodiversity until recently.
• If the use rights are formulated either directly in detailed regulative systems (e.g. new
definition and application of property and use rights) and/or at least indirectly through an
initial policy design (e.g. general police clause for protection of use rights or bans and
licence reservations), this can be referred to as a “simple IR situation”. We suspect
that this kind of simple IR emerges when the central actors observe scarcity in
connection with the predominantly homogenous use of one or several goods or services