Advocacy Under Authoritarianism: Civil Society's Impact on Environmental Treaty Ratification in Southeast Asia

Christianna Sirindah Parr

Global Policy, 2025, vol. 16, issue 3, 442-453

Abstract: Does civil society in competitive authoritarian and authoritarian countries impact environmental policy? Specifically, does civil society speed up the ratification of international environmental treaties? Treaty ratification is a crucial step for translating international commitments to domestic politics. I argue that in competitive authoritarian regimes, where civil society operates under constraints but retains some space for advocacy, more robust civil society accelerates the ratification of environmental treaties compared to states with weaker civil society. These regimes often tolerate civil society pressure on non‐threatening issues, such as environmental governance, which allows for strategic concessions without undermining state authority. Focusing on Southeast Asia, I conduct an event history analysis to understand how ratification timings of environmental treaties are affected by the participatory environments of civil society organizations. I use three measures of participatory environment: the level of control over civil society, the consultation status of civil society organizations, and the participation of women in civil society. I find that states with more robust civil society ratify environmental treaties faster compared to those with weaker civil society. This study challenges the assumption that authoritarian regimes uniformly ignore civil society and underscores the importance of strategic advocacy in advancing environmental governance.

Date: 2025
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