Global rules are increasingly made without the direct involvement of states. This book explores what this privatisation of global rule-making means for democracy. Based on contemporary theoretical approaches to democratic global governance, it reconstructs three prominent rule-making processes in the field of global sustainability politics: the World Commission on Dams, the Global Reporting Initiative and the Forest Stewardship Council. The book argues that, if designed properly, private transnational rule-making can be as democratic as intergovernmental rule-making.