In new forms of public-private or even private governance arrangements beyond the state the functional division of labour between the private and the public sector is blurred. Companies have taken on authoritative roles and regulatory functions in processes of norm setting and norm development. This corporate behavior is a new type of norm-entrepreneurship. In order to prevent corporate governance contributions from losing sight of the public interest, they have to meet contextualized normative criteria of legitimacy.
In 'Vom Business Case zum Public Case? Der Beitrag privater Selbstregulierung zu Global Governance' (From Business Case to Public Case? The Contribution of Private Self-regulation on Global Governance) Klaus Dieter Wolf and Sandra Schwindenhammer argue, therefore, that corporate governance contributions must be embedded in an overarching institutional architecture of global governance in which public institutions can safeguard the conditions under which private self-regulation can make meaningful contributions to governance beyond the state.
The article was published in the journal Zeitschrift für Unternehmens- und Wirtschaftsethik and is available as download by courtesy of Rainer Hampp publishing (www.Hampp-Verlag.de).