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Four paths instead of one: The rise of people-centred norms in the legitimation of global governance organizations
Type
conference paper
Date Issued
2021-09-15
Author(s)
Witt, Antonia
Abstract (De)
In legitimating themselves, international organizations not only address their member states. They
frequently target civil society organizations, private donors, the wider public, and individual
beneficiaries as well. In this paper, we focus on the latter group and show how international
organizations have increasingly come to invoke “the people” as a reference group for their legitimacy
claims. Conventional explanations would interpret references to “the people” as the response to
societal demands, expressed for instance in increasing levels of politicization of internationalized
authority. Our analysis of legitimation discourses of regional and global international organizations
shows that politicization matters in some cases. Yet, the direct response to public demands is only one
among several paths leading to the adoption of new legitimacy standards. We propose a typology of four different paths to people-based norms and provide illustrations for each path. With this, we
demonstrate that empirically, the rise of people-based norms is more pervasive as well as more diverse than the existing literature tends to assume. Our analysis thus reveals the value-added of more fine-grained analytical tools for the rise of alternative legitimacy norms for international organizations.
frequently target civil society organizations, private donors, the wider public, and individual
beneficiaries as well. In this paper, we focus on the latter group and show how international
organizations have increasingly come to invoke “the people” as a reference group for their legitimacy
claims. Conventional explanations would interpret references to “the people” as the response to
societal demands, expressed for instance in increasing levels of politicization of internationalized
authority. Our analysis of legitimation discourses of regional and global international organizations
shows that politicization matters in some cases. Yet, the direct response to public demands is only one
among several paths leading to the adoption of new legitimacy standards. We propose a typology of four different paths to people-based norms and provide illustrations for each path. With this, we
demonstrate that empirically, the rise of people-based norms is more pervasive as well as more diverse than the existing literature tends to assume. Our analysis thus reveals the value-added of more fine-grained analytical tools for the rise of alternative legitimacy norms for international organizations.
Language
English
HSG Classification
contribution to practical use / society
HSG Profile Area
SEPS - Global Democratic Governance
Event Title
DVPW-Kongresse 2021
Event Location
Online
Event Date
14.-06.09.2021
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Eprints ID
264587