Special Issue: Public and Private Labor Standards Policy in the Global Economy

This Global Policy Special Issue on public and private protections of labor and social standards in the global economy explores whether public and private regulations of such standards develop in harmony or tension with one another. It promotes an approach to studying public-private interactions in global labor governance that is sensitive to how interactions are important at different stages in the making of public and private regulation; how the causal interaction can go from the public to the private and from the private to the public; how such interaction varies in quality and promise across different parts of the world, labor issue areas and policy instruments; and how public-private interaction can only be captured by combining case histories with large-N analysis. The evidence from the Special Issue's articles leads to a set of generic propositions, describing how public interventions tend to strengthen private labor policy, while private interventions tend to either modestly substitute for or have little effect upon public labor and social protections. The article then discusses how these dynamics may be influenced by the political contentiousness of the specific labor issue and the characteristics of the state.

Special Issue Articles

Luc Fransen and Brian Burgoon - Introduction to the Special Issue: Public and Private Labor Standards Policy in the Global Economy

Genevieve LeBaron and Andreas Rühmkorf - Steering CSR Through Home State Regulation: A Comparison of the Impact of the UK Bribery Act and Modern Slavery Act on Global Supply Chain Governance

Jette Steen Knudsen - How Do Domestic Regulatory Traditions Shape CSR in Large International US and UK Firms?

Brian Burgoon and Luc Fransen - Support for Ethical Consumerism and Welfare States in the Global Economy: Complements or Substitutes?

Mark Anner - Monitoring Workers’ Rights: The Limits of Voluntary Social Compliance Initiatives in Labor Repressive Regimes

Sijeong Lim and Aseem Prakash - From Quality Control to Labor Protection: ISO 9001 and Workplace Safety, 1993–2012

Axel Marx, Nicolás Brando and Brecht Lein - Strengthening Labour Rights Provisions in Bilateral Trade Agreements: Making the Case for Voluntary Sustainability Standards