The institutionalisation of private governance: conceptualising an emerging trend in global environmental politics

The concept of global governance denotes a fundamental change in the steering mechanisms employed by governments and international organisations as well as in the relation between public and private interests in the provision of global public goods. Next to public-private partnerships and public policy networks, private governance institutions, involving civil society organisations and business actors, enter the centre stage of global governance research within the wider context of international relations theory.

This paper develops a conceptual framework to understand the emergence and impact of private transnational governance institutions in global environmental politics. This phenomenon, referred to as the 'institutionalisation of private governance', has not received as much attention in academic debate as public-private partnerships or global public policy networks have. I argue that private governance institutions can be understood as systems of rules, norms, and obligations prescribing the behaviour of transnational actors in a specific issue area. They emerge as the result of close cooperation between companies, business associations, and a wide range of non-profit organisations. As a result, 'governance without government' becomes more and more institutionalised in global environmental politics. But what precisely is the role of private institutions in global governance, why do they emerge, and what is their impact?

To answer this set of questions, the first part of this paper introduces global governance as an analytical concept to understand the profound changes in the nature of the global political system. The second part proposes a clarification of the concept of private governance institutions by comparing it to rival concepts, such as private inter-firm regimes, green alliances or private organisations. Afterwards, the paper assesses five private governance institutions in the field of environmental politics according to their function and impact. The remainder of the paper discusses different approaches that address the puzzle of private governance institutions' emergence. Preliminary empirical evidence suggests that further research is necessary, especially on the phenomenon of business-civil society cooperation.

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