ABSTRACT
Among the increasingly important roles of business in global governance is that of being a partner to governments and international organizations. This may take many forms, but recently increased significance has been put on the formation of public-private partnerships (PPPs). These have raised important theoretical and normative questions. Related to the formation of such PPPs with the United Nations’ (UN) organizations, concerns have particularly been voiced about how such PPPs affect the legitimacy and accountability of the UN (Bull et al. 2004, Martens 2007) and of transnational governance more broadly (Börzel and Risse 2005). Critics have argued that such PPPs imply a co-optation of the multilateral organizations by global capital (Richter 2002, 2003), and that they fragment international cooperation and undermine efforts for cooperation and equity among states (Zammit 2003). Indeed, one extreme position is that PPPs imply a ‘privatization’ of international and transnational governance.
