The post-politics of partnership: Understanding corporate power in multistakeholder governance

Abstract

The rise of ‘multistakeholderism’ in global governance over the past few decades has led to the increasing involvement of corporations as key ‘stakeholders’ in decision-making. As a norm, multistakeholderism invokes deliberative democratic ideals of dialogue and consensus as a procedural solution to complex societal problems. Through an examination of a food policy partnership, this article explores processes of political marginalisation that occur within multistakeholder governance, contrasting formal structures of inclusion with informal exclusion. The article draws on the notion of ‘post-politics’ in developing a decentred analysis of a multistakeholder setting, arguing that the informalisation of decision-making constitutes a key means through which unequal power relations are rendered invisible. While presented as inclusive and participatory, multistakeholder partnerships often reflect a form of post-political regulation in which contestation and conflict are intentionally displaced to informal spheres of decision-making. This article unpacks how pressures to maintain the vision of multistakeholder partnership as deliberative and inclusive can paradoxically result in processes of marginalisation and exclusion, which enhance the power and influence of corporations over policy making. In doing so, the article contributes to understandings of power in a world increasingly characterised by multistakeholder governance, illustrating the tensions that surface between the ‘post-political’ vision of partnerships and informalisation and exclusion in practice.