Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Organizing transnational multi-stakeholder standard setting -- 2. Authority as legitimate power -- 3. International organization for standardization : a standard for social responsibility -- 4. Forest Stewardship Council -- 5. Marine Stewardship Council -- 6. Actors and capabilities in the regulatory space -- 7. Dynamics of preferences and strategies of participation -- 8. Power and actor categories -- 9. Legitimacy in the making -- 10. Fragile non-state authority : the long and winding road to legitimate power.

This enriching book provides a novel analysis of the organizational processes behind the establishment, maintenance, and challenges of non-state authority. In doing so, it compares three transnational, multi-stakeholder standard-setting processes: those of the Forest Stewardship Council, the Marine Stewardship Council, and the International Organization for Standardization on the subject of social responsibility (ISO 26000). The authors theorize the fragility of authority defined as legitimate power. They examine the problematic nature of the long-term transnational multi-stakeholder work upon which this authority is based, including the risks of being ruled out by competing rule setters or being split apart by the centrifugal forces inherent in the multi-stakeholder logics.