Book review: rules without rights: land, labor and private authority in the global economy by Tim Bartley

The Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh, which killed more than 1,100 people, shunted global production networks into the spotlight. We saw the horrors of precarity, lax safety standards and weak representation. These are typical in factories the world over, not aberrations. Sexual harassment is also endemic. Why do these abuses persist? What’s the underlying political economy? Why is private regulation the widely accepted solution? And is it actually working? Alice Evans reviews Rules Without Rights: Land, Labor and Private Authority in the Global Economy, in which Professor Tim Bartley presents a comprehensive analysis of global governance, before setting out an inspirational new agenda.