Examining the Relevance of Democratic Decline for Marine Fisheries

ABSTRACT Democratic regression is occurring around the world at precisely the time when progress on sustainable development and biodiversity conservation has become essential. To understand the extent to which democratic regression overlaps with (and therefore might be an issue for) marine fisheries, we examine the democracy trends of (i) key fishing states and (ii) key intergovernmental institutions. To do so, we use landings statistics published by the FAO and democracy measurements published by the Economist Intelligence Unit. Our findings suggest that democratic regression is indeed occurring in many critical marine fisheries actors and institutions and therefore represents an important challenge requiring close attention from resource managers, resource users, environmental governance researchers, and stakeholder and rightsholder groups. We outline a series of research themes and questions whose answers could strengthen the understanding of the nature and implications of democratic regression for marine fisheries.