Private sector influence in the multilateral system: A changing structure of world governance?

Global Governance

Volumn 10, Issue 4, 2004, Pages 481-498

  Bull, Benedicte ^a   Bøås, Morten ^b   McNeill, Desmond ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF OSLO   (Norway)

^b Fafo Institute for Applied International Studies   (Norway)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 11144330060     PISSN: 10752846     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1163/19426720-01004007     Document Type: Review

References (51)

1. This argument is often put forward by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that are critical of the new partnerships. See, for example, Transnational Resource and Action Center (TRAC), A Perilous Partnership: The United Nations Development Program's Flirtation with Corporate Collaboration (San Francisco: TRAC, 1999).
2. We include both private corporations and private foundations in the term private sector. Although these have different purposes, and many UN officials view it as less risky to accept money from foundations than from corporations, for the sake of argument the differences are not considered crucial here. Many foundations are closely linked with corporations, and interaction with them represents the same trend. For a discussion of different concepts related to UN-private sector interaction, see Eeva Ollila, "Health-Related Public-Private Partnerships and the United Nations," in Bob Deacon, Eeva Ollila, Meri Koivusalo, and Paul Stubbs, Global Social Governance: Themes and Prospects (Helsinki: Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, 2003), pp. 36-76.
3. Among other examples of institutional innovations are the Division for Business Partnerships of the UNDP, the World Bank's Business Partnership and Outreach Group, the WHO's Private Partnership Unit, UNESCO's Program for New Partnerships, UNHCR's Private Sector and Public Affairs Service, UNAIDS's Partnership Unit, UNFPA's Private-Sector Initiative, IFAD's Private Sector/Capital Markets Unit, UNIDO's Partnership Programme, and FAO's Investment Centre and Technical Corporation Programme's Unit for Cooperation with the Private Sector and NGOs. Moreover, a separate UN body, the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), was established in 1995 to seek to adapt a business rationale to the UN system. It was established as a body devoted solely to project management and execution, services it sells to other UN bodies.
4. United Nations General Assembly, Towards Global Partnerships: Cooperation Between the United Nations and All Relevant Partners, in Particular the Private Sector, Report of the Secretary-General, 9 October 2001, available online at www.un.org/unfip/flash/partnershipreport.pdf.
5. Sandrine Tesner with George Kell, The United Nations and Business: A Partnership Recovered (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2001).
6. One example is the Codex Alimentarius established by the FAO and the WHO in 1963. The purpose of this institutional structure was to facilitate world trade in foods through the establishment of mandatory international standards. The food industry played a major role in establishing this body. See Leslie Sklair, "The Transnational Capitalist Class and Global Politics: Deconstructing the Corporate-State Connection," International Political Science Review 23, no. 2 (2002): 159-174.
7. See, for instance, TRAC, Tangled Up in Blue: Corporate Partnerships at the United Nations (San Francisco: TRAC, 2000).
8. John G. Ruggie, interview with authors, Harvard University, 30 October 2003.
9. Tesner, The United Nations and Business.
10. Interviews with UNOPS, WHO, UNDP, and UN staff members in New York, February 2003, and in Geneva, April 2003. John Ruggie also expressed support for this view in our interview with him on 30 October 2003.
11. For an exposure of Ruggie's ideas about the Global Compact, see John G. Ruggie, "global_governance.net: The Global Compact as Learning Network," Global Governance 7, no. 4 (2001): 371-378.
12. Tesner, The United Nations and Business. Most of the people we have interviewed in and around the UN support this view, regardless of their views on the Global Compact and private sector participation in general.
13. Global Fund staff member, interview with authors, Geneva, 8 April 2003.
14. UNOPS staff member, interview with authors, New York, 25 February 2003.
15. Ollila, "Health-Related Public-Private Partnerships and the United Nations."
16. See, for example, Development Today (June 2001). Partly because of this critique, more of the GAVI funding (currently close to 40 percent) is now channeled toward strengthening immunization systems.
17. Interview with authors, 9 April 2003.
18. International Labour Office, Governing Body, Information Note on Corporate Social Responsibility and International Labour Standards, WP/SDG, Geneva, March 2003.
19. Virginia Haufler, A Public Role for the Private Sector: Industry Self-Regulation in a Global Economy (Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2001).
20. Elisabeth Olson, "ILO, Long in Eclipse, Regains Some Prominence," New York Times, 23 March 2000.
21. See Nicholas G. Onuf, World of Our Making: Rules and Rule in Social Theory and International Relations (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1989); and Nicholas G. Onuf, "Intervention for a Common Good," in Michael Mastanduno and Gene Lyons, eds., Beyond Westphalia? National Sovereignty and International Intervention (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994), pp. 1-23.
22. See Nicholas G. Onuf, World of Our Making: Rules and Rule in Social Theory and International Relations (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1989); and Nicholas G. Onuf, "Intervention for a Common Good," in Michael Mastanduno and Gene Lyons, eds., Beyond Westphalia? National Sovereignty and International Intervention (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994), pp. 1-23.
23. See Robert Cox, Approaches to World Order (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996); Stephen Gill, ed., Gramsci, Historical Materialism and International Relations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993); and Stephen Gill, Power and Resistance in the New World Order (Basingstoke, England: Palgrave, 2003).
24. See Robert Cox, Approaches to World Order (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996); Stephen Gill, ed., Gramsci, Historical Materialism and International Relations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993); and Stephen Gill, Power and Resistance in the New World Order (Basingstoke, England: Palgrave, 2003).
25. See Robert Cox, Approaches to World Order (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996); Stephen Gill, ed., Gramsci, Historical Materialism and International Relations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993); and Stephen Gill, Power and Resistance in the New World Order (Basingstoke, England: Palgrave, 2003).
26. Cox, Approaches to World Order, pp. 131-133.
27. Ibid., p. 138.
28. For a further elaboration of a neo-Gramscian approach to the multilateral system, see Morten Bøås and Desmond McNeill, eds., Global Institutions and Development: Framing the World? (London: Routledge, 2004).
29. This is the Gramscian concept of power as elaborated by Stephen Lukes, Power: A Radical View (Basingstoke, England: Macmillan, 1974), p. 194.
30. See Morten Bøås and Desmond McNeill, Multilateral Institutions: A Critical Introduction (London: Pluto Press, 2003).
31. See, particularly, Robert W. Cox and Harold K. Jacobson, The Anatomy of Influence: Decision-making in International Organizations (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1972).
32. Tesner, The United Nations and Business.
33. Ian Hurd, "Legitimacy and Authority in International Politics, " International Organization 53, no. 2 (1999): 381.
34. See, for example, Catherine Caufield, Masters of Illusion: The World Bank and the Poverty of Nations (New York: Henry Holt, 1996); and Kevin Danhaer, 50 Years Is Enough: A Case Against the World Bank and the IMF (Boston: South End Press, 1994).
35. See, for example, Catherine Caufield, Masters of Illusion: The World Bank and the Poverty of Nations (New York: Henry Holt, 1996); and Kevin Danhaer, 50 Years Is Enough: A Case Against the World Bank and the IMF (Boston: South End Press, 1994).
36. Some Northern and Southern research institutions and advocacy groups have recently formed the Alliance for a Corporate Free UN to oppose further interaction between the UN system and big business. See Peter Utling, "The Global Compact and Civil Society: Averting a Collision Course," Development in Practice 12, no. 5 (November 2002): 644-647.
37. See Helmut K. Anheier and Stefan Toepler, eds., Private Funds, Public Purpose: Philanthropic Foundations in International Perspective (New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, 1999); Richard Higgott, Geoffrey Underhill, and Andreas Bieler, eds., Non-State Actors and Authority in the Global System (London: Routledge, 2000); Karsten Ronit and Volker Schneider, eds., Private Organisations, Governance and Global Politics (London: Routlege, 1999); A. Claire Culter, Virginia Haufler, and Tony Porter, eds., Private Authority and International Affairs (New York: State University of New York Press, 1999); and Rodney Bruce Hall and Thomas J. Biersteker, eds., The Emergence of Private Authority in Global Governance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002).
38. See Helmut K. Anheier and Stefan Toepler, eds., Private Funds, Public Purpose: Philanthropic Foundations in International Perspective (New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, 1999); Richard Higgott, Geoffrey Underhill, and Andreas Bieler, eds., Non-State Actors and Authority in the Global System (London: Routledge, 2000); Karsten Ronit and Volker Schneider, eds., Private Organisations, Governance and Global Politics (London: Routlege, 1999); A. Claire Culter, Virginia Haufler, and Tony Porter, eds., Private Authority and International Affairs (New York: State University of New York Press, 1999); and Rodney Bruce Hall and Thomas J. Biersteker, eds., The Emergence of Private Authority in Global Governance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002).
39. See Helmut K. Anheier and Stefan Toepler, eds., Private Funds, Public Purpose: Philanthropic Foundations in International Perspective (New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, 1999); Richard Higgott, Geoffrey Underhill, and Andreas Bieler, eds., Non-State Actors and Authority in the Global System (London: Routledge, 2000); Karsten Ronit and Volker Schneider, eds., Private Organisations, Governance and Global Politics (London: Routlege, 1999); A. Claire Culter, Virginia Haufler, and Tony Porter, eds., Private Authority and International Affairs (New York: State University of New York Press, 1999); and Rodney Bruce Hall and Thomas J. Biersteker, eds., The Emergence of Private Authority in Global Governance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002).
40. See Helmut K. Anheier and Stefan Toepler, eds., Private Funds, Public Purpose: Philanthropic Foundations in International Perspective (New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, 1999); Richard Higgott, Geoffrey Underhill, and Andreas Bieler, eds., Non-State Actors and Authority in the Global System (London: Routledge, 2000); Karsten Ronit and Volker Schneider, eds., Private Organisations, Governance and Global Politics (London: Routlege, 1999); A. Claire Culter, Virginia Haufler, and Tony Porter, eds., Private Authority and International Affairs (New York: State University of New York Press, 1999); and Rodney Bruce Hall and Thomas J. Biersteker, eds., The Emergence of Private Authority in Global Governance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002).
41. See Helmut K. Anheier and Stefan Toepler, eds., Private Funds, Public Purpose: Philanthropic Foundations in International Perspective (New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, 1999); Richard Higgott, Geoffrey Underhill, and Andreas Bieler, eds., Non-State Actors and Authority in the Global System (London: Routledge, 2000); Karsten Ronit and Volker Schneider, eds., Private Organisations, Governance and Global Politics (London: Routlege, 1999); A. Claire Culter, Virginia Haufler, and Tony Porter, eds., Private Authority and International Affairs (New York: State University of New York Press, 1999); and Rodney Bruce Hall and Thomas J. Biersteker, eds., The Emergence of Private Authority in Global Governance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002).
42. Rodney Bruce Hall and Thomas J. Biersteker, "The Emergence of Private Authority in International Relations," in Hall and Biersteker, The Emergence of Private Authority in Global Governance, pp. 3-22.
43. Culter, Haufler, and Porter, Private Authority and International Affairs.
44. Wolfgang H. Reinecke and Francis M. Deng, Critical Choices: The United Nations, Networks, and the Future of Global Governance, Report of the UN Vision Projecy on Global Public Policy Networks, March 2000, available online at www.globalpublicpolicy.net.
45. Bøås and McNeill, Global Institutions and Development.
46. Louis Emmerij, Richard Jolly, and Thomas G. Weiss, Ahead of the Curve (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001).
47. See, for example, Christopher L. Gilbert and David Vines, eds., The World Bank: Structure and Policies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000).
48. Bøås and McNeill, Global Institutions and Development.
49. See Susan Strange, The Retreat of the State: The Diffusion of Power in the Global Economy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996); and Saskia Sassen, "The State and Globalization," in Hall and Biersleker, The Emergence of Private Authority in Global Governance, pp. 91-114.
50. See Susan Strange, The Retreat of the State: The Diffusion of Power in the Global Economy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996); and Saskia Sassen, "The State and Globalization," in Hall and Biersleker, The Emergence of Private Authority in Global Governance, pp. 91-114.
51. David Detomasi, "Internalional Institutions and the Case for Corporative Governance: Towards a Distributive Governance Framework?" Global Governance 8, no. 4 (2002): 422.