Shifting Alliances in the Accreditation of Higher Education: On the ...

within the industry unless it is somehow sanctioned, either officially or implicitly, by the
government. Therefore, in most cases it is necessary for the self-regulatory body to
somehow persuade other firms operating within that sector of the body‘s legitimacy.
Suchmann defines legitimacy as ―a generalized perception or assumption that the actions
of an entity are desirable, proper, or appropriate within some socially constructed system
of norms, values, beliefs and definitions.‖ 29 Without the perception of legitimacy,
attempts at industry self-regulation are unlikely to succeed unless they are somehow
clearly sanctioned by the government. In most cases, however, the self-regulatory body
must achieve a degree of legitimacy within its own sector before it can be sanctioned by
the government.
Weimer lists the following ways that private standards, which are a common form
of industry self-regulation, are given legitimacy: adoption of standards by public
regulators, incorporation of standards into private contracts, use of standards as a defense
against tort, and use of standards in accreditation systems that are required for
participation in government programs (e.g. Medicare and Medicaid). 30 Although private
standards themselves are not legally binding, they may come to be used as though they
were and, in some cases, may actually become legally enforceable. Weimer adds that
―[t]he process by which private standards gain regulatory force generally involves the
29 The Suchmann (1995) definition was taken from Cashore (2002) by Vallejo and Hauselmann. Vallejo
and Hauselmann do not provide the initial Suchmann citation and so I am unable to provide it here. Source:
Cashore B., ―Legitimacy and Privatisation of Environmental Governance: How Non-State Market-Driven
(NSMD) Governance Systems Gain Rule-Making Authority,‖ Governance: an International Journal of
Policy , Administration and Institutions 15, no. 4, (October 2002): 503-529. Source: Nancy Vallejo and
Pierre Hauselmann, ―Multi-stakeholder Governance: A Brief Guide.‖ International Institute for Sustainable
Development. http://www.idsd.org (May 2004), 3.
30 David L. Weimer, ―The Puzzle of Private Rulemaking: Expertise, Flexibility, and Blame Avoidance in
U.S. Regulation.‖ Public Administration Review 66, no. 4 (July/August 2006): 575.
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