One ought not get too categorical about distinguishing the public and private sectors when thinking about the wider 'sustainability' and 'social impact' agendas.
This blog's name plays off the differences we apprehend between public and private actors and activity, from principles (e.g. differing legitimacy levels as between corporations and public authorities) to drivers (e.g. differing incentives and audiences) to practicalities (e.g. different tools and techniques even where the ends are common).
But in many socio-enviro responsibility & sustainability contexts, the public-private distinction may be difficult to make. Or it may be not useful to dwell on, where it blinds us to the significant governance contributions of private actors towards what are ultimately public goals.
Past posts have dwelt on this, but this one (the first for 2018) is prompted by three recent things that I see as connected in relation to this enduring public-private debate.
The first is my delight this week in meeting my new PhD student here at ANU, who will study the financial sector as a significant source of influence on the human rights impact of business more generally. (See recently in this regard the Thun Group of Banks view on one aspect of this, here).
Who is a 'regulator' and what counts as 'regulation', and what are appropriate and effective contributions that those policing bottlenecks in the economy -- such as financiers and insurers -- can play in furthering regulatory objectives? How does formal Regulation (with a big R) or other policy interventions (regulation with a small r?) leverage these contributions?
The second is that I recently returned from a sustainable development symposium at the University of Indiana, Bloomington on balancing freedom vs security in the regulation of cybersecurity. Given that (mostly privately owned) tech firms dominate much activity in cyberspace, they will surely play an outsize role in the governance of that space relative to public authorities.
With this influence comes elevated levels of responsibility on the part of private actors (and expectations of increased accountability about how that power and influence is used).
Which brings me to the third prompt for this post: a Twitter thread from @KateAronoff about a meeting (to which the media were not invited) between Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Amazon CEO Jeff Bizos, described by a CBC journalist as a 'bilateral' meeting. Now technically it is bilateral if two parties are involved. But Aronoff's point was to get us to pause and consider the implications of a world where the language of diplomacy is seamlessly used in this way. Normally, only heads of state have bilateral meetings... but then Amazon does 'run' a large part of the world in net terms.
Surveys suggest many consumers/citizens trust (private) big brand firms and business leaders more than they trust public institutions and elected political leaders. Trust is a key component of regulatory legitimacy and effectiveness. Yet as we design societal impact regulatory models for the globalised (and virtual) economy, and make use of -- or just acknowledge as real -- private governance contributions, we need to think about the authority and legitimacy and other qualities that only public institutions ultimately have.
Jo
@fordthought
