Abstract
AbstractPromoting Private Security Company (PSC) self-regulation has become a key focus due to high profile scandals during the military interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Related efforts include the Montreux Document, the International Code of Conduct for Private Security Service Providers (ICoC), American National Standards Institute/ASIS certification, and the new International Standards Organization (ISO) Management System Standard for Private Security Operations. Implicit in industry self-regulation, however, is the assumption that the consumers of private security services will help facilitate and enforce professional standards by shifting their custom to PSCs which have signed up to these codes of conduct or certification schemes. This article investigates the validity of this assumption with regard to government contracting. To what degree are public agencies able – and willing – to let professional standards guide their contracting behaviour? To answer this question, this article develops a general framework for the analysis of public consumer influence through choice, voice, and exit which draws on insights from microeconomics and Albert Hirschman’s classical treatiseExit, Voice, Loyalty.Taking the United States government as an illustrative example, the analysis observes several obstacles to encouraging security industry self-regulation through consumer power.
Highlights
Private Security Companies (PSCs), that is, companies that supply land-based services such as ‘guarding; close protection; physical protection measures; security awareness; risk, security, and threat assessment; the provision of protective and defensive measures for compounds, diplomatic, and residential perimeters; escort of transport; and policy analysis’ have become important actors in global security governance.[1]
The findings suggest that choice among competing PSCs is likely to play only a minor role in facilitating industry self-regulation and certification because consumers are influenced by other factors when selecting their suppliers
Following the Montreux Document, the ICoC as well as the development of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI)/ASIS and International Standards Organization (ISO) Standards for PSCs, much hope is placed on voluntary standards and self-regulation of transnational security firms
Summary
Private Security Companies (PSCs), that is, companies that supply land-based services such as ‘guarding; close protection; physical protection measures; security awareness; risk, security, and threat assessment; the provision of protective and defensive measures for compounds, diplomatic, and residential perimeters; escort of transport; and policy analysis’ have become important actors in global security governance.[1]. Instead of imposing a public licensing regime, the US government’s ‘regulatory’ efforts have primarily relied on voice to raise PSC industry standards by including them into contracts or making them a precondition for bids Penalising the companies is the only effective way to ensure the proper screening, training, and supervision of private security contractors
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