Outsourcing governance: states and the politics of a ‘global value chain world’

States and the Political Economy of Unfree Labour

“…As has been well documented in the literature on the privatisation of governance (Cutler et al 1999, Soederberg 2010, Büthe and Mattli 2011, Mayer and Phillips 2017, the turn towards corporate self-regulation has bolstered the power and authority of firms vis-à-vis the public, and especially, working populations. Firms have used this power and authority to maximise profit and design business models and organisations to facilitate future profits and growth.…”

“…By devolving authority over markets and corporate conduct directly to companies themselves, states opened the door to the heightened involvement of private actors in economic governance processes, such that an increasingly 'significant degree of global order is provided by individual firms that agree to cooperate, either formally or informally, in establishing an international framework for their economic activity' (Cutler et al 1999: 3-4). Private governance of this sort has not arisen independently of states; rather, the ongoing 'delegation' or 'outsourcing' of key governance functions to private actors, especially in relation to regulation, reflects the active agency of states in promoting private governance and shaping the forms it takes (Bartley 2007, Abbott and Snidal 2009, Green 2014, Mayer and Phillips 2017.…”

Rents, Power and Governance in Global Value Chains

“…In both systems, and the majority of other hybrid governance systems, the judicial function tends to stand as an independent body, separated from legislative and executive functions. Mayer and Phillips (2017) also highlight the extent to which this nation-state led governance is in some circumstances, outsourced.…”

“…Moreover, there has also been a concerted effort to start the process of analysing GVCs through a broader governance lens dealing with national and supranational institutions, and issues of international tax and wealth accumulation (Mayer and Phillips 2017;Bair 2017;Postuma and Rossi 2017;Seabrooke and Wigan 2017 work by specifically focusing on how governance in GVCs provides opportunity or constrains various actors from exercising of power over the distribution of rents.…”

“…We are aware of the dangers of sounding too simplistic. The nation state is not an unvariagated tool of large global corporations (Mayer and Phillips, 2017). Rather, it is the site of contested power, albeit with unequal influence wielded by the various stakeholders attempting to influence its capacities, direction, functions and operations.…”