Unternehmen als Normunternehmer

"Let us choose to unite the power of the market with the authority of universal ideas."

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, 1999

"Business practices rooted in universal values can bring social and economic gains."

UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon, 2007

Triggered by public-private partnership initiatives like the UN’s Global Compact, the implications of involving the private sector in the setting and implementation of norms and standards in governance processes beyond the state have become one of the most controversial issues in the global governance debate. In order to assess the potential contributions, but also the limitations of private self-regulation as a complement or even a substitute for public regulation, this project investigates the conditions under which market actors, if at all, may be expected to contribute to the provision of public goods by filling regulatory gaps and by contributing to the spread of norms. Guided by the more general theoretical interest in how public functions can be fulfilled in a post- and transnational constellation, we systematically compare different private and public-private self-regulatory initiatives. More information ...