Engineering Uncontestedness? The Origins and Institutional Development of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)
Business and Politics, Vol. 12, No. 3, October 2010
64 Pages Posted: 14 May 2011 Last revised: 13 Jul 2014
Date Written: October 1, 2010
Abstract
Private regulation often entails competition among multiple rule-makers, but private rules and regulators do not always compete. For substantial parts of the global economy, a single private body is recognized as the focal point for global rule-making (in its area of expertise). The selection of the institutional setting here effectively takes place prior to drawing up the specific rules, with important consequences for the politics of regulating global markets. In this paper, I develop a theoretical explanation for how a private transnational organization may attain such preeminence - how it can become the focal point for rule-making in its area of expertise. I emphasize the transnational body's capacity to pursue its organizational self-interest, as well as timing and sequence. I then examine empirically a particularly important body of this kind, which today is essentially uncontested as the focal point for private regulation in its area, even though its standards often have substantial distributive implications: the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). I analyze the persistence and changes in the IEC's formal rules or procedures and informal norms, as well as the broadening scope of its regulatory authority and membership over more than a century.
Keywords: governance, global private politics, international institituions, institutional change, regulation, standards, technology, electrical engineering, IEC
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