Field Recognition and the State Prerogative: Why Democratic Legitimation Recedes in Private Transnational Sustainability Regulation
Journal
Politics and Governance
ISSN-Digital
2183-2463
Type
journal article
Date Issued
2017-03-15
Author(s)
Abstract
Like any regulatory effort, private transnational standard-setters need to legitimate themselves to the audiences from which they seek support or obedience. While early scholarship on private transnational governance has emphasized the centrality of democratic legitimation narratives in rendering private governance socially acceptable, evidence from more recent standard-setting schemes suggests a declining relevance of that narrative over time. In my analysis of private sus- tainability regulation, I identify a combination of two factors that jointly contribute to this diminished role of democratic legitimation. First, private transnational governance has become a pervasive phenomenon. This means that new entrants to the field no longer face the same liability of newness that required first movers to make an extra effort in legitimation. Second, private standard-setting has moved from areas characterized by ‘governance gaps’ to areas in which meaningful intergovernmental regulation already exists. In these areas, however, the ‘state prerogative’ in legitimating governance holds. As a result, transnational standard-setters rely not so much on stressing their democratic credentials, but instead emphasize their contribution to achieving internationally agreed goals.
Language
English
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
HSG Profile Area
SEPS - Economic Policy
Refereed
Yes
Publisher
Cogitatio Press
Publisher place
Lisbon
Volume
5
Number
1
Start page
75
End page
84
Division(s)
Contact Email Address
klaus.dingwerth@unisg.ch
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Pattberg, P. (2007). Private institutions and global governance: The new politics of environmental sustainability. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Rosenau, J. (1990). Turbulence in world politics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Rosenau, J. (1995). Governance in the twenty-first century. Global Governance, 1(1), 13–43.
Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil. (2016). About us. Retrieved from http://www.rspo.org/about
Ruggie, J. G. (2013). Just business: Multinational corporations and human rights. New York, NY: W. W. Norton. Schleifer, P. (2013). Orchestrating sustainability: The case of European Union biofuel governance. Regulation & Governance, 7(4), 533–546.
van Dam, C. (2002). La economía de la certificación forestal: Desarrollo para quién? Paper presented at Congreso Iberoamericano de Desarrollo y Medio Ambiente ‘Desafíos locales ante la globalización’, Quito, Ecuador.
Van Rooy, A. (2004). The legitimacy game: Civil society, globalization and protest. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Wapner, P. (1995). Politics beyond the state: Environmental activism and world civic politics. World Politics, 47(3), 311–340.
Whitman, J. (Ed.). (2009). Palgrave advances in global governance. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Wolf, K. D. (2017). Patterns of legitimation in hybrid transnational regimes: The controversy surrounding the lex sportiva. Politics and Governance, 5(1), 63–74.
Abbott, K. W. (2012b). Engaging the public and the private in global sustainability governance. International Affairs, 88(3), 543–564.
Abbott, K. W., Green, J. F., & Keohane, R. O. (2016). Organizational ecology and institutional change in global governance. International Organization, 70(2), 247–277.
Andonova, L., Betsill, M., & Bulkeley, H. (2009). Transnational climate governance. Global Environmental Politics, 9(2), 52–73.
Auld, G. (2014). Constructing private governance: The rise and evolution of forest, coffee and fisheries certification. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Balleisen, E. J. (2009). The prospects for effective coregulation in the United States: A historian’s view from the early twenty-first century. In E. J. Balleisen & D.
A. Moss (Eds.), Government and markets: Toward a new theory of regulation (pp. 443–481). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Bartley, T. (2007). How foundations shape social movements: The construction of an organizational field and the rise of forest certification. Social Problems, 54(3), 229–155.
Benvenisti, E., & Downs, G. W. (2007). The empire’s new clothes: Political economy and the fragmentation of international law. Stanford Law Review, 60(2), 595–631.
Bernstein, S. (2011). Legitimacy in intergovernmental and non-state global governance. Review of International Political Economy, 18(1), 17–51.
Bernstein, S., & Cashore, B. (2007). Can non-state global governance be legitimate? An analytical framework. Regulation & Governance, 1(4), 1–25.
Better Cotton Initiative. (2016). About BCI. Retrieved from http://bettercotton.org/about-bci
Biersteker, T. J., & Hall, R. B. (Eds.). (2002). The emergence of private authority in global governance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Black, J. (2008). Constructing and contesting legitimacy and accountability in polycentric regulatory regimes. Regulation & Governance, 2(2), 137–164.
Bonsucro (2016). Bonsucro—The industry platform for sugarcane. Retrieved from http://www.bonsucro.com/site Botzem, S. (2012). The politics of accounting regulation: Organizing transnational standard setting in financial reporting. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Botzem, S., & Dobusch, L. (2012). Standardization cycles: A process perspective on the formation and diffusion of transnational standards. Organization Studies, 33(5/6), 737–762.
Braithwaite, J., & Drahos, P. (2000). Global business regulation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Brassett, J., Richardson, B., & Smith, W. (2012). Private experiments in global governance: Primary commodity roundtables and the politics of deliberation. International Theory, 4(3), 367–399.
Cashore, B. W., Auld, G., & Newsom, D. (2004). Governing through markets: Forest certification and the emergence of non-state authority. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Cutler A. C., Haufler, V., & Porter, T. (Eds.). (1999). Private authority and international affairs. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
Dingwerth, K. (2007). The new transnationalism: Transnational governance and democratic legitimacy. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Dingwerth, K., & Green, J. F. (2015). Transnationalism. In K. Bäckstrand & E. Lövgren (Eds.), The research handbook on climate governance (pp. 153–163). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Dingwerth, K., & Pattberg, P. (2006). Global governance as a perspective on world politics. Global Governance, 12(2), 185–203.
Dingwerth, K., & Pattberg, P. (2009). World politics and organizational fields: The case of transnational sustainability governance. European Journal of International Relations, 15(4), 707–743.
Dobusch, L., & Quack, S. (2013). Framing standards, mobilizing users: Copyright versus fair use in transnational regulation. Review of International Political Economy, 20(1), 52–88.
Forest Stewardship Council. (2016a). About us. Forest Stewardship Council. Retrieved from https:// ic.fsc.org/en/about-fsc
Forest Stewardship Council. (2016b). Standard setting in FSC (Version 1-1, submitted on 30 June 2016). Retrieved from http://www.isealalliance.org/sites/ default/files/private/FSC,%20Standard%20Setting% 20Code,%20Public%20System%20Report,%20June% 202016.pdf
Green, J. F. (2008). Delegation and accountability in the Clean Development Mechanism: The new authority of non-state actors. Journal of International Law and International Relations, 4(2), 21–55.
Green, J. F. (2014). Rethinking private authority: Agents and entrepreneurs in global environmental governance. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Grigorescu, A. (2015). Democratic intergovernmental organizations? Normative pressures and decision-making rules. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Gulbrandsen, L. H. (2010). Transnational environmental governance: The emergence and effects of the certification of forests and fisheries. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Hannan, M. T., & Freeman, J. (1984). Structural inertia and organizational change. American Sociological Review, 49(2), 149–164.
Haufler, V. (1993). Crossing the boundary between public and private: International regimes and non-state actors. In V. Rittberger (Ed.), Regime theory and international relations (pp. 94–111). Oxford: Clarendon.
Héritier, A., & Lehmkuhl, D. (2008). Introduction: The shadow of hierarchy and new modes of governance. Journal of Public Policy, 28(1), 1–17.
ISEAL Alliance. (2014). Setting social and environmental standards: ISEAL Code of Good Practice (Version 6.0, December 2014). London: ISEAL Alliance.
Kerwer, D. (2005). Rules that many use: Standards and global regulation. Governance, 18(4), 611–632.
Krahmann, E. (2017). Legitimizing private actors in global governance: From performance to performativity. Politics and Governance, 5(1), 54–62.
Lipschutz, R. D., & Fogel, C. (2002). “Regulation for the rest of us?” Global civil society and the privatization of transnational regulation. In R. B. Hall & T. J. Biersteker (Eds.), The emergence of private authority in global governance (pp. 115–140). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Marine Stewardship Council. (2015, July 1). ISEAL compliance—Standard setting code v6.0 (MSC Self-Assessment Report). Retrieved from http://www. isealalliance.org/sites/default/files/private/MSC,%20 Standard-Setting%20Code,%20Public%20System%20 Report,%20July%202015.pdf
Nikoloyuk, J., Burns T. R., & de Man, R. (2010). The promise and limitations of partnered governance: The case of sustainable palm oil. Corporate Governance: The International Journal of Business in Society, 10(1), 59–72.
Pattberg, P. (2007). Private institutions and global governance: The new politics of environmental sustainability. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Rosenau, J. (1990). Turbulence in world politics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Rosenau, J. (1995). Governance in the twenty-first century. Global Governance, 1(1), 13–43.
Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil. (2016). About us. Retrieved from http://www.rspo.org/about
Ruggie, J. G. (2013). Just business: Multinational corporations and human rights. New York, NY: W. W. Norton. Schleifer, P. (2013). Orchestrating sustainability: The case of European Union biofuel governance. Regulation & Governance, 7(4), 533–546.
van Dam, C. (2002). La economía de la certificación forestal: Desarrollo para quién? Paper presented at Congreso Iberoamericano de Desarrollo y Medio Ambiente ‘Desafíos locales ante la globalización’, Quito, Ecuador.
Van Rooy, A. (2004). The legitimacy game: Civil society, globalization and protest. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Wapner, P. (1995). Politics beyond the state: Environmental activism and world civic politics. World Politics, 47(3), 311–340.
Whitman, J. (Ed.). (2009). Palgrave advances in global governance. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Wolf, K. D. (2017). Patterns of legitimation in hybrid transnational regimes: The controversy surrounding the lex sportiva. Politics and Governance, 5(1), 63–74.
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