On 16 October 2015 Mr Scott Jerbi defended his PhD thesis in International Studies at the Graduate Institute. The committee was presided by Professor Gilles Carbonnier and included Professor Thomas Biersteker, thesis director, as well as Professor Kenneth Abbott from Arizona State University. Mr Scott Jerbi tells us more about his research and findings.

Emerging scholarship on “transnational new governance” and the related concept of “orchestration” addresses how actors consciously “initiate, support, and shape” hybrid public-private governance initiatives in different policy domains. To date, there has been a general lack of developed micro-level analysis and clarification of functional roles of individual states across such governance efforts, with greater emphasis placed on the prominence of international organisations (IOs) as orchestrators. Proponents hypothesise a number of potential benefits that could be gained by greater state orchestration to achieve transnational regulatory goals. However, few comparative analyses of public-private governance initiatives in specific policy areas have been undertaken focused on examining the relative importance of individual state roles.

This thesis presents a multi-case study methodology in a single-issue domain – examining so-called “multi-stakeholder initiatives” (MSIs) with specific mandates relating to international human and labour rights standards. The research tests the orchestration concept, with particular attention to clarifying state actor roles in these human rights focused initiatives.

The study makes a number of contributions to the literature on transnational new governance and emerging scholarship on orchestration. First, the case studies confirm that state actors, working alone or in cooperation with a relatively small number of other states, have adopted orchestration techniques such as agenda setting, convening and related support consistent with the proposed orchestration mode of global governance to achieve specific policy objectives. Second, although IOs clearly rely on orchestration in a range of contexts, the study helps clarify the importance of individual state actors as orchestrators, particularly in the establishment of such initiatives aimed at addressing complex questions relating to corporate responsibilities in the human rights field. Third, rather than viewing orchestration theory only from the perspective of its value in expanding research on broadly defined public-private partnerships (PPPs), this study illustrates that MSIs in the human rights domain constitute a distinct form of orchestration, most notably through emphasis on collaborative and process-oriented standard setting, a commitment to equal representation of different stakeholder constituencies in governance mechanisms despite acknowledged power differences, and attention to participant accountability and assessment of performance over time.