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Best practices in global governance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 January 2017

Steven Bernstein  and
Hamish van der Ven
Steven Bernstein*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Toronto
Hamish van der Ven*
Affiliation:
The MacMillan Center, Yale University
*
*Correspondence to: Steven Bernstein, Department of Political Science, University of Toronto, 100 St George Street, Toronto, ON, M5S-3G3. Author’s email: steven.bernstein@utoronto.ca
**Correspondence to: Hamish van der Ven, The MacMillan Center, Yale University, 34 Hillhouse Avenue, New Haven CT, 06520-8206. Author’s email: hamish.vanderven@yale.edu
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Abstract

Best practices are increasingly used to govern a range of global issues. Yet, the rise of global governance through best practices has received scant attention in the International Relations literature. How do best practices differ from other modes of governance? How are they constructed? And to what end? We offer a novel conceptualisation of best practices as a unique mode of global governance principally distinguished by basing claims of political authority on existing practices. Belying their apolitical terminology, best practices in global governance are purposively constructed by political actors to steer targeted actors toward desired ends. We illustrate the characteristics of governance through best practices with reference to state and non-state global governance initiatives in a wide range of issue areas, ranging from finance and development to human rights and the environment, and through an in-depth case study of the ISEAL Alliance, a disseminator of best practices for transnational sustainability standard-setters. We find that governance through best practices has both positive and negative consequences. While it offers a pragmatic approach to global governance under conditions of fragmentation and polycentricity, it can also mask underlying power dynamics and political agendas and therefore requires ongoing critical scrutiny.

Keywords

Best PracticesGlobal GovernanceLegitimacyPolitical AuthorityTransnational Sustainability Standards
Type
Articles
Information
Review of International Studies , Volume 43 , Issue 3 , July 2017 , pp. 534 - 556
Copyright
© British International Studies Association 2017 

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References

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82 ISEAL Alliance, ‘Standard-Setting Code Revision Draft 5.1’.

83 Ibid., p. 5.

84 Ibid., pp. 5–7.

85 Ibid., p. 12.

86 Ibid., p. 11.

87 Ibid., p. 11–12.

88 ISEAL Alliance, ‘ISEAL Code of Good Practice for Setting Social and Environmental Standards – Draft Version 5.3’.

89 Graeme Auld makes a similar point, suggesting that early standards create a template for subsequent ones. See Graeme Auld, ‘Confronting trade-offs and interactive effects in the choice of policy focus: Specialized versus comprehensive private governance’, Regulation & Governance, 8:1 (2014), pp. 126–48.

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