WSSD Multistakeholder Partnerships for Sustainable Development & Democratic Legitimacy

Over the past two decades, world politics has been undergoing a tremendous transformation which has formed the foundation for the introduction of new transnational governance mechanisms. This project addresses the concept of transnational multistakeholder partnerships exemplified the multistakeholder partnership for sustainable development, introduced at the World Summit for Sustainable Development in 2002 in Johannesburg. Besides being an implementation mechanism of Agenda 21, several of multistakeholder partnerships for sustainable development can be considered standard-setting mechanisms. By being standard-setting mechanisms their potential impact on contemporary global environmental policy-making reaches beyond the original implementation mandate of Agenda 21 and larger questions of democratic legitimacy are raised. This project concludes that the multistakeholder partnerships for sustainable development generally have failed to meet the criteria for democratic legitimacy. However, if core governance deficits are properly addressed in the designing of multistakeholder partnerships there are grounds for optimism with regard to their achievement of democratic legitimacy.