The merits or otherwise of private governance – in regard to social justice and democracy, for example – are considered in Part III of this book. The point at the present juncture is to note that contemporary globalization has brought with it a considerable privatization of regulation. Polycentric governance involves not only multiple scales of activity, but also the spread of private alongside public mechanisms of governance. Inasmuch as this privatization has responded to the slow development of official regulatory arrangements in various areas of globalization, together with prevailing neoliberal doctrine, the trend could be reversed as and when neoliberalism recedes and more public-sector frameworks are constructed.