Meta-governance as a challenge An analysis of global private governance for sustainable development

The number of books and papers bearing the term ‘global private governance’ has grown exponentially in the last decade. This paper studies NGO-business initiated transnational regulations. The main purpose is to explore what meanings may be attached to this relatively new form of governance, particularly related to issues of sustainable development, and how the implications may be assessed. After the introduction, the discussion is divided in six parts and a conclusion. Sections two and three examine the potential disadvantages and advantages. It is observed that they are based on different interpretations of liberal democracy and often mirror each other. After a short reflection on the arguments in section four, the fifth section considers meta-governance to be the most important current challenge and the sixth discusses private and public mechanisms of meta-governance. The paper argues that the capabilities of private meta-governance have been a neglected and undervalued topic in research. Taking private meta-governance mechanisms as a starting point the paper also defines a specific meta-governance role of states. The final section draws together the strands of the discussion.