The ecology of governance organizations (GOs) matters for what is or is not governed, what legitimate powers any governor may hold, and whose political preferences are instantiated in rules. The array of actors who comprise the current system of global governance has grown dramatically in recent decades. Especially notable has been the growth of private governance organizations (PGOs). Drawing on organizational ecology, I posit that the rise of PGOs is both required and facilitated by disagreements between states that block the creation of what might be otherwise effective intergovernmental organizations (IGOs). In a form of “double-negative regulation,” states block IGOs, which in turn leave open niches that are then filled by PGOs, which then both complement and sometimes substitute for state law. The organizational ecology approach outlined here extends and refocuses inquiry in systematic ways that give us a fuller understanding of how and why PGOs have emerged as one of the most striking features of the contemporary world order. The key innovations in this paper are to (a) shift the level of analysis from single agents or populations of agents to the entire field of GOs, including states, IGOs, and PGOs and (b) draw on principles of ecology to understand the composition and dynamics of systems of governance.

治理组织（GO）的生态状况对于受治理或不受治理，任何州长可能拥有的合法权力以及在规则中体现其政治偏好至关重要。在最近的几十年中，构成当前全球治理体系的参与者数量急剧增加。尤其值得注意的是私人治理组织（PGO）的增长。利用组织生态学，我认为PGO的兴起既是必要的，又是由于各州之间的分歧阻碍了PGO的兴起，而这些分歧阻碍了可能成立有效的政府间组织（IGO）的建立。国家以“双重负规制”的形式阻止了政府间组织，而政府间组织又留下了开放的壁ni，然后由PGO填补了这些壁ni，然后PGO既补充又替代了州法。本文概述的组织生态学方法以系统的方式扩展和重新关注了研究，使我们对PGO如何以及为什么成为现代世界秩序最显着特征之一的原因有了更全面的了解。本文的主要创新在于（a）将分析水平从单一代理人或代理人群体转移到GO的整个领域，包括州，IGO和PGO，以及（b）运用生态学原理理解其组成和治理系统的动态。