‘Stateless’ Regulation and Consumer Pressure: Historical Experiences of Transnational Corporate Monitoring

Abstract

Can market-based regulation based on consumer pressure and ‘independent monitoring’ serve as the basis for transnational corporation regulation? In an increasingly integrated global economy, many scholars and policy makers fear that mobile capital may force a ‘race to the bottom’; can independent non-governmental organizations and ethical consumers provide a counterweight to cost-cutting pressures? This paper compares three of the best known examples of transnational monitoring – the Sullivan Principles in South Africa, the Rugmark social labeling program in India, and the Commission for the Verification of Codes of Conduct's monitoring experiences in the apparel industry of Guatemala – to consider some common features of transnational monitoring.

Citation

Seidman, G. (2005), "‘Stateless’ Regulation and Consumer Pressure: Historical Experiences of Transnational Corporate Monitoring", Buttel, F.H. and McMichael, P. (Ed.) New Directions in the Sociology of Global Development (Research in Rural Sociology and Development, Vol. 11), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 175-207. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1057-1922(05)11007-5