Legitimation of Certifying Partnerships in the Global Market Place

One of the main themes in the debate about global governance through private certifying partnerships regards their legitimacy. This paper argues that the main categories used in this debate – input and output legitimacy – largely result in a normative assessment, which does not help much with understanding better the practices of legitimating processes. As an addition to the literature focusing on legitimacy as a state of affair, this paper studies legitimacy as a dynamic process of change. To analyse these legitimation processes the paper suggests an approach based on the legitimacy challenges that the arrangements need to handle given the functions that they aim to fulfil. This approach is applied in a study of four frontrunner cases in different categories of certifying arrangements. The analysis reveals some of the drivers of legitimating processes and their relationships. It also shows the relative importance of procedural and substantive predetermined criteria to understand legitimacy issues of private regulation in the global market place. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment