Designing sustainability in the United States-Mexico borderlands: Policy design analysis of the Border Environment Cooperation Commission and prospects for sustainability

This research investigates environmental policy in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. In particular, the analysis focuses on the Border Environment Cooperation Commission's (BECC) ability to facilitate sustainability in the region. Although BECC exerts some positive effects, in general, policy design flaws combined with administrative weaknesses limit the Commission's capacity to promote sustainability.; The research divides into three main sections. The first section provides an overview of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands and justifies the method to analyze the region's public policy. The overview portrays boom-and-bust development pathologies that lead to social, political, economic, environmental hardships. This analysis also presents several regional characteristics—policy oriented social networks, binational institutions, and an ethic of place—that serve sustainability. The methodological overview focuses on policy design theory. According to design theory, effective public policy requires a close fit between the solution and problem contexts and the policy design. The second section evaluates the solution and problem contexts. These contextual analyses include a detailed discussion of sustainability, the problematic nature of public policy in borderlands, and specific characteristics of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. Several criteria for U.S.-Mexico borderlands sustainability are developed based on these contextual analyses. The third section describes and evaluates BECC's performance. The specific focus is devoted BECC's institutional and policy designs and its major program areas. The research concludes with an overview of empirical and theoretical implications and a presentation of policy prescriptions to build BECC's capacity to facilitate sustainability.