Legitimation of Certifying Partnerships in the Global Market Place

Abstract

One of the main themes in the debate about global governance through private certifying partnerships regards their legitimacy. This paper argues that the main categories used in this debate -input and output legitimacy -largely result in a normative assessment, which does not help much with understanding better the practices of legitimating processes. As an addition to the literature focusing on legitimacy as a state of affair, this paper studies legitimacy as a dynamic process of change. To analyse these legitimation processes the paper suggests an approach based on the legitimacy challenges that the arrangements need to handle given the functions that they aim to fulfil. This approach is applied in a study of four frontrunner cases in different categories of certifying arrangements. The analysis reveals some of the drivers of legitimating processes and their relationships. It also shows the relative importance of procedural and substantive predetermined criteria to understand legitimacy issues of private regulation in the global market place.

Governance challenges of cocoa partnership projects in Indonesia: seeking synergy in multi-stakeholder arrangements for sustainable agriculture

“…Gulbrandsen (2012), for example, suggests that private standards and public policies can reinforce each other, particularly in cases where the state depends on private activities to realize its public objectives. Glasbergen (2013) shows that private sustainability standards need political backing and alignment in governments to become legitimate. The FAO (2014) also refers to potential synergies that can be effectuated through hybrid forms of governance in which voluntary standards interact with public regulations and institutions.…”

“…One of the ambitions is to positively influence the livelihood of smallholder farmers as the main producers of these commodities. Through various forms of voluntary private governance, occasionally with involvement of Northern governments, these partnerships have become important initiators of sustainable change in the production of coffee (Auld 2010;Kolk 2012;Manning et al 2012), palm oil (Schouten and Glasbergen 2011;Brandi et al 2013;Oosterveer 2014;Hospes 2014;Wijaya and Glasbergen 2016), tea (Glasbergen 2013;IDH 2013), cocoa (Bitzer et al 2012;KPMG 2013;Vaast and Somarriba 2014), aquaculture (Hatanaka 2010;Douma and van Wijk 2012; Van der Geest and Unno 2012; Bush et al 2013) and cotton (i.e., Bitzer and Glasbergen 2010).…”

Serving a heterogeneous Muslim identity? Private governance arrangements of halal food in the Netherlands

“…Legitimacy refers to ''a generalized perception or assumption that the actions of an entity are desirable, proper, or appropriate within some socially constructed systems of norms, values, beliefs and definitions'' (Suchman 1995) and therefore ''recognizing the right to govern'' (Coicaud 1997, p. 10). We define legitimate governors as standard setting and enforcing entities whose standards and activities are accepted by producers, retailers and consumers (Glasbergen 2013). Legitimacy challenges are particularly prominent in the realm of private governance as voluntary efforts need more justifications than other forms of authority.…”

Animal Cards, supermarket stunts, and the World Wide Fund for Nature: Exploring the educational value of a business–environmental non-governmental organization partnership for sustainable consumption

“…The motives for businesses to collaborate have been largely reputational (Bos et al, 2013;Glasbergen, 2011Glasbergen, , 2013Van Huijstee et al, 2011;Van Tulder et al, 2001). Motives for ENGOs to collaborate also included goal achievement and funding (Kolk and Van Tulder, 2010;Kopnina and Blewitt, 2014;Van Huijstee et al, 2011;Van Huijstee and Glasbergen, 2010a, b).…”