Skip to content

Disaggregating public‐private governance interactions: European Union interventions in transnational private sustainability governance

Renckens, Stefan. 2020. Disaggregating Public-Private Governance Interactions: European Union Interventions in Transnational Private Sustainability Governance. Regulation & Governance (online first)

Abstract

Transnational private sustainability governance, such as eco‐certification, does not operate in a regulatory or jurisdictional vacuum. A public authority may intervene in private governance for various reasons, including to improve private governance’s efficient functioning or to assert public regulatory primacy. This article argues that to properly understand the nature of public‐private governance interactions—whether more competitive or complementary—we need to disaggregate a public authority’s intervention. The article distinguishes between four features of private governance in which a public authority can intervene: standard setting, procedural aspects, supply chain signaling, and compliance incentives. Using the cases of the European Union’s policies on organic agriculture and biofuels production, the article shows that public‐private governance interaction dynamics vary across these private governance features as well as over time. Furthermore, the analysis highlights the importance of active lobbying by private governance actors in influencing these dynamics and the resulting policy outputs.

Full article available here

You might like these publication categories

Recent publications

Earth System Governance – Volume 24

We are delighted to present the twenty-fourth volume of Earth System Governance, the open-access journal for all those interested in…

The Politics and Governance of Decarbonization: The Interplay between State and Non-State Actors in Sweden

This book examines how, and under what conditions, states – in collaboration with non-state actors – can govern a societal…

Sustaining Development in Small Islands: Climate Change, Geopolitical Security, and the Permissive Liberal Order

The viability of small island developing states (SIDS) is threatened by three distinct processes – a backlash against globalisation; rising…