Rethinking Private Authority – Agents and Entrepreneurs in Global Environmental Governance

"This book is an important contribution to our understanding of private authority in global governance. Conceptually, Green clarifies the forms that private authority takes; empirically, she provides valuable new data on the operation of private authority over time; and theoretically, she introduces a compelling supply-and-demand account of when particular forms of private authority are likely to appear. Her analysis reveals many of the strengths and weaknesses of private rule making and its complex relationship with state authority."--Kenneth W. Abbott, Arizona State University

"The most important book yet written on private authority in world politics. Conceptually rich, carefully argued, and provocative, Rethinking Private Authority goes far beyond its title to provide a significant new foundation for the study of global governance."--David A. Lake, University of California, San Diego

"Jessica Green's ambitious and thoughtful new book shows that private actors--NGOs and firms--often hold the keys to successful governance. In some settings, governments delegate important functions to these actors, but even more interesting is when private actors innovate new forms of governance on their own. Her study, which develops these ideas by focusing on environmental cooperation, is a big step forward in explaining how governance really works."--David G. Victor, University of California, San Diego

"Rethinking Private Authority makes a significant contribution to the growing literature on private governance. Green develops a novel theoretical account of private authority, specifically through the distinction between delegated and entrepreneurial authority, and elaborates for the first time the quantitative extent of private authority in global environmental politics."--Matthew Paterson, coauthor of Climate Capitalism: Global Warming and the Transformation of the Global Economy

"Green provides persuasive empirical evidence that private authority is not displacing public authority--instead, governance in general has been increasing, and private and public authority have expanded together, and not in competition with each other. She also contributes an important distinction between types of private authority--delegated or entrepreneurial--and their relationship to public authority."--Virginia Haufler, author of A Public Role for the Private Sector: Industry Self-Regulation in a Global Economy