Demokratisk legitimitet i det globala livsmedelssystemet

Sammanfattning: Scholars today recognize private governance in a number of areas, and one of them is the global food-system, which is the focal point of this essay. The rise of private governance has brought new challenges into the world of food concerning how it is steered but also regarding which actors that participate in the decision-making. Various scholars have observed the current development and fear that self-regulation can harm the democratic balance within the political system. This thesis applies a normative evaluation analysis that questions the democratic legitimacy of the transnational corporations – retailers – that increasingly are dominating the rulemaking within the global food system. The analysis focuses on the Third Food Regime, a development where supermarket chains are creating their own sustainability standards, which they apply all through their global distribution system. The findings of this study demonstrate that no self-evident answer exists in the question of global governance of food. Thus, globalization has brought consequences that also question the legitimacy of state actors and their involvement in the global food system.