Agni Kalfagianni

The Causes and Consequences of Private Food Governance

This paper investigates the creation and consequences of private regulation in global food governance. It points to the power to govern and the authority to govern as the two crucial conditions for the emergence and diffusion of private food regulation. More specifically, the paper argues that the power to govern is a function of the structural power of agrifood corporations, particularly retail food corporations in our case. The authority to govern is a function of the perceived legitimacy of retail food corporations as political actors. By linking power and authority to the material and ideational structures existing in the global political economy of food, this paper analyses the processes that serve to create, maintain and reproduce private regulation in food governance. With its analysis, the paper aims to contribute to the theoretical and empirical debates on private authority, private regulation and the challenges for sustainability in the global food system.

Participation and inclusiveness in private rule-setting organizations: does it matter for effectiveness?

Governance, from local to global levels, relies increasingly on private governance arrangements. Private actors, specifically corporations and civil society organizations, increasingly design, implement and monitor rules and standards that guide and prescribe behavior in a range of policy areas, including sustainability, banking and international security, to name a few. Even though the involvement of private actors in global politics is not a new phenomenon, the creation of cooperative arrangements in the form of organizations that lead to private regulation – thus complementing traditional ways of political influence – is relatively novel. This paper focuses on private rule-setting organizations that have emerged in the global governance of sustainability. It starts from the observation that, despite seemingly performing similar roles and functions, organizations differ both in terms of outputs they produce as well as rules of participation and decision-making. Accordingly, the paper evaluates whether organizations providing a more inclusive and participatory approach in relation to others have different implications for the quality and relevance of rules (outputs). Hence, it aims to shed light on the way private rules and standards are decided and the associated implications, in view of their increasing role and relevance in sustainability governance. In more detail, we contend that there is no linear relation between democratic legitimacy and effectiveness. While inclusiveness and representativeness in the standard-setting process will probably lead to more stringent and comprehensive rules, those regulatory systems with high stringency will be the ones least taken up. Empirically, the paper illustrates its argument with a comparison of five private rule-setting organizations that have emerged in the global governance of fisheries sustainability: the Marine Stewardship Council, Friend of the Sea, the Aquaculture Stewardship Council, the Global Aquaculture Alliance and GlobalGAP.

Exploring the Output Legitimacy of Transnational Fisheries Governance

Abstract Private rule-setting organizations increasingly design, implement, and monitor rules and standards that prescribe behavior in the global governance for sustainability. In this article we develop criteria against which we evaluate the output legitimacy of these organizations along two dimensions on the basis of their acceptance by different constituencies. The internal dimension refers to the acceptance of the organizations rules and standards by the relevant target group, and is assessed on the basis of standard uptake and compliance. The external dimension signifies the ability of the organization to have broader political and socio-economic impact that reaches beyond the target group, and is evaluated on the basis of structural, cognitive, and regulatory effects. With reference to the Marine Stewardship Council and Friend of the Sea, our analysis illustrates that while claims by private organizations to output legitimacy are not unfounded in sustainability governance, they can also be contested when considered in a global context.

Private Food Governance: Implications for Social Sustainability and Democratic Legitimacy

The global food system and its governance have important implications for the question of sustainability. Engaging over half of the world’s population, agricultural production provides a livelihood for a major proportion of people on the planet, and food is a commodity that touches us all as consumers. Food production and trade, moreover, have important implications for socioeconomic outcomes and, depending on their organization and distribution, can work to either enhance or detract from economic opportunities and environmental and social living conditions.

The Representativeness of Global Deliberation: A Critical Assessment of Civil Society Consultations for Sustainable Development

During the negotiations of the Sustainable Development Goals, the United Nations consulted worldwide nearly ten million people for their views. Such proliferating megaconsultations are often uncritically accepted as a remedy for an assumed democratic deficit of intergovernmental institutions. We argue, however, that the potential of civil society consultations to democratize global governance is constrained by the limited legitimacy of these consultations in the first place. Global consultations regularly fail to include civil society actors from developing countries, or show other sociodemographic biases. Also, they often fail to strengthen accountability between citizens, international organizations and governments. In this article, we investigate the causes of this phenomenon by exploring the relationship between the design of consultations and their democratic legitimacy. The basis for our argument is an in-depth empirical study of three consultations carried out during the negotiations of the Sustainable Development Goals. We find that design is an important variable to explain the overall legitimacy of consultations. Yet its exact role is sometimes unexpected. Extensive material resources and open access conditions do not systematically enhance the legitimacy of the studied consultations. Instead, developing clear objectives, allocating sufficient time to participants, and formally binding the consultation to the negotiations hold considerably more promise.

Private agri-food governance and the challenges for sustainability

In the past few decades, transnational corporations (TNCs) have become pivotal actors in agri-food governance of sustainable development. Their remarkable growth in both number and size as well as their global reach have made them particularly attractive partners for governments and civil society organisations aiming to foster environmental and social goals by harnessing market forces. In this context, the development of standards and certification schemes that prescribe and monitor environmental and socially responsible behaviour in agri-food supply chains increasingly involves the participation of TNCs. While TNC involvement in sustainable agri-food governance has the potential to achieve great benefits by transforming the market from within, it might also come at a cost. Accordingly, this contribution explores the effects of TNC endorsement of private agri-food sustainability initiatives. Adopting a critical perspective, this contribution argues that while some positive consequences can be identified, for example, a larger penetration of the mainstream market, TNC involvement in agri-food governance will likely also lead to the development of less stringent, comprehensive and inclusive standards. Moreover, the mechanisms with which sustainable development objectives are constituted and implemented by TNCs risk changing the fundamental principles and ideas of sustainable development as equitable and participatory governance. The chapter illustrates its argument with an examination of TNC involvement in a select number of initiatives.

Sustainable Information in the Pork Chain

Agricultural and food objectives have shifted during the past decades from ensuring food sufficiency to striving for food sustainability. At the end of the Second World War, a devastated Europe searched for ways to feed its undernourished population. In the European political agenda at that time, issues of food security, land reforms, increasing productivity and technological improvement scored very high. The aim was to produce enough affordable food for society. At the national levels, state-driven policies supporting the industrialization, intensification and rationalization of agricultural production were put forward with the adoption of the Fordist model of increasing wage/productivity (McMichael 1997) through American led reconstruction programs such as the Marshal Aid (Goodman and Redclift 1991; Marsden et al. 1996; Ward and Almas 1997). At the same time, industrialization – which paid much higher wages than labour in agriculture – occurred in different sectors of the economy and resulted in urbanization and rural exodus. For that reason, subsidies were introduced to keep agricultural labour from lapsing to competitive fields and secure production. The results were rewarding: agriculture began to transform from a relatively backward and highly labour-intensive sector of the economy towards one of increasing technological sophistication (Bowler 1985; Gardner 1996), while the process of business termination slowed down (Van Leeuwen, 2003).

Applying the multi-level perspective on socio-technical transitions to rentier states: the case of renewable energy transitions in Nigeria

ABSTRACT Although numerous studies have been conducted in recent years on energy transitions, they have been predominately developed and applied in industrialized countries. It is however important to examine the applicability of transition theories, as they are currently formulated, beyond OECD countries. This paper analyses renewable energy transitions in Africa, using Nigeria as a case study, to elucidate the analytical and methodological challenges that sustainability transition studies are facing in developing countries, particularly rentier states. In doing so, the paper employs the lens of the multi-level perspective (MLP) on socio-technical transitions - a well-established theory that emphasizes the role of ‘niches’, ‘regimes’ and ‘landscapes’ in instituting transitions. Based on a detailed analysis of Nigeria, we argue for a more nuanced enquiry of the construct ‘regime’ that better accounts for the rentier character of the state including the role of political elites and prevalent client-patron relationships. As such, our paper makes an important contribution to the further refinement and enrichment of the MLP by focusing on the political dimensions of energy transitions.

Seeking optimality in climate change agri-food policies: stakeholder perspectives from Western Europe

This article examines stakeholder perspectives on the ‘optimality’ of the climate policy mix in the agri-food sector in the EU using the criteria of environmental effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, and political feasibility. Based on a literature review and selected stakeholder interviews in two Northern (The Netherland and UK) and two Southern EU Member States (Italy and Spain), we conclude that the current policy mix is far from optimal. There are currently no EU-wide policy instruments to address GHG emissions in the agri-food sector, and little Member State level action. A number of initiatives from the private sector (particularly retailers) are present, although they are limited in scope and objectives. Looking forward, three concrete recommendations for improvements may be identified. First, stakeholders identify the need for the development of EU-wide policy instrumentation for GHG abatement from the agri-food sector, to provide a ‘level playing field’ for farmers and other economic agents in the sector. Second, many stakeholders consider it crucial that a holistic, ‘whole supply chain’ in contrast to a ‘piecemeal’ approach is taken. Third, the role of government is considered important, but predominantly in terms of providing a general framework within which more ambitious voluntary approaches could develop. Policy relevance From a policy perspective, this article aims to assist the EU develop more ‘optimal’ climate policies for the agri-food sector by taking into account the views and perspectives of different stakeholders involved in different countries on three main ‘optimality’ criteria, namely, environmental effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, and political feasibility.

Democratic Legitimacy of Transnational Corporations in Global Governance

The objective of this chapter is to explore the democratic legitimacy of transnational corporations (TNCs) in global governance. In pursuit of this objective, the chapter investigates political activities of TNCs within transnational processes of private and public governance. It starts from the recognition that, global governance is increasingly being created not only by (inter)governmental actors but also by private actors. Corporations, in particular, have become key players in the global governance system. On the one hand, they have acquired and expanded a ‘new’ role as a political actor through the creation of private governance institutions, such as private standards, or public-private or private-private partnerships (PPPs). On the other hand, they have expanded their ‘traditional’ political power in terms of influence exercised on public governance output, due to their advantage over other actors in terms of resources, such as exclusive information and financial and human resources. As a result of the central role that TNCs play as political actors in global governance structures and processes today, the question of the democratic legitimacy of their political activities moves into the spotlight. Democracy, after all, is one of the major political achievements of mankind. With the shift of political decision-making to the global level and to non-state actors, as captured in the global governance literature, there is an urgent need to address the question of how to maintain basic requirements of participation, transparency, and accountability.