The Resilience of Private Authority in Times of Crisis
26 Pages Posted: 5 Jan 2022
Date Written: December 28, 2021
Abstract
From European integration to domestic politics to the development of the global economy, technocracy and private ordering have shaped economic behaviour. Such transformative private-driven forces of economic activity flourished through the promulgation of voluntary standards. In view of the ever-increasing powers that are transferred to private actors and their relative power as a de facto pillar of global regulatory making, it is surprising that their dominance remains largely unaffected by regulatory shocks that they partly cause. Rather, in practice, crises (broadly defined as disruptive disturbances) appear to empower such forces or generate new ones, whereas existing checks and balances fail their initial purpose. In emphasising the role of the innate traits, fabric of interactions and dynamics in times of crises within private rule-making bodies, the present article analyses the foundations for a new, evidence-based theory to explain the resilience of private collective action and establishes a research agenda.
Keywords: private regulation, standard-setting, resilience, regulatory disasters, crisis management, transnational rule-makers, free-riding, voluntary economic activism
JEL Classification: D02, D23, F02, F15, F23, F30, F51, F53, F65, F68, G01, G15, G18, G21, G28, G41, K22, L14, L51
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation