Auld, Graeme. 2014. Constructing Private Governance: The Rise and Evolution of Forest, Coffee, and Fisheries Certification. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Abstract

See that fair-trade sticker on your coffee? That dolphin-safe emblem on your tuna can? The certificate of sustainability that comes with your new wooden furniture? Plenty of consumers have, too, and in recent years, the environmentally and socially conscious shopper has become a fixture of retail in North America and Europe. Many of us seek out ethical and environmentally sustainable products, and are willing to pay a premium for such products. But where do those labels come from? What drives their creation and evolution? And who decides the scope of certification? Graeme Auld’s book, Constructing Private Governance, works toward a more complete understanding of private certification and its place in contemporary discussions of global governance. Situated within the emerging literature on private governance and environmental politics, Auld impressively explains why some certification programs have organized faster than others and accounts for variation in certification schemes across industries. By uncovering the contested political histories of private certifications, Auld begins building a theory of private governance that explains why and how certain types of certification emerge. He traces the histories of certification across three industries—forestry, coffee, and fisheries—and tests ten hypotheses about market and political structures and the design and reproduction of certification programs. Auld’s hypotheses are built upon a brief but accessible review of path dependence literatures in both economics and political science. Conventional approaches in both fields are found to be ill-equipped to deepen our understanding of the new challenges of private governance: “Certification programs occupy the middle ground between political authority and market exchange; they give more options for exit than the former and more options for voice than the latter” (p. 221). Indeed, though many scholars of political science have shifted to analyzing private governance as a global phenomenon, understanding the actions and decisions of private firms and NGOs requires a broader understanding of both market and political structures and the options available to various actors. Auld thus begins his analysis of each industry from an understanding of its respective market and political structures, specifying how barriers to entry