ABSTRACT
Having laid the conceptual foundations of the book in Chapter 2 , I will now draw on the notion of diffusion under regulatory capitalism to examine the broad drivers behind the emergence of MEWA frameworks. MEWA frameworks have emerged as a pragmatic legal response to a complex policy issue, which has, in turn, been created by the interaction of a range of factors in each jurisdiction. Those factors include climatic, hydrological, institutional, economic and cultural drivers, as well as the political advantages that have been identified by the jurisdictions in implementing water trading measures. Elements of diffusion have also assisted in the uptake and deepening of MEWA frameworks in the four jurisdictions, which is consistent with regulatory capitalism’s conceptualisation of the international system as an ‘informational network’, 1 in which policies and regulatory approaches are diffused across jurisdictions. In this context, regulatory diffusion occurs among a ‘community of experts who closely observe each other’, 2 and it is through these networks that lessons as to successes and failures are exchanged. 3
Part one of Chapter 2 has examined how the forces of capitalism and corporatisation influenced the demand for more flexible, market-driven water management frameworks in the Murray-Darling Basin. In this chapter, I will build on that analysis and outline a number of other, equally important, factors common to the four jurisdictions that must also be considered in any analysis of the drivers of MEWA frameworks. In Part one I will focus on elements of convergence between the jurisdictions studied in terms of factors that have led to the introduction of MEWA frameworks. Matters to be considered include current climatic and hydrological conditions, water development trajectories, and development pressures, including aridity, population growth and economic development, competition among water users and the various efficiencies and social factors identified by the four jurisdictions in establishing regulatory frameworks, including the transitions from a supplybased approach to one of economic efficiency and environmental sustainability. Part two will then consider in more detail the processes of diffusion that occurred between the jurisdictions from the 1990s. Elements of conver-
tion of water resources occurred alongside reform measures designed to promote ecological sustainability.
