International organizations like the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, or the European Union are a defining feature of contemporary world politics. In recent years, many of them have also become heavily politicized.
In this book, we examine how the norms and values that underpin the evaluations of international organizations have changed over the past 50 years. Looking at five organizations in depth, we observe two major trends. Taken together, both trends make the legitimation of international organizations more challenging today. First, people-based legitimacy standards are on the rise: international organizations are increasingly asked to demonstrate not only what they do for their member states, but also for the people living in these states. Second, procedural legitimacy standards gain ground: international organizations are increasingly evaluated not only based on what they accomplish, but also based on how they arrive at decisions, manage themselves, or coordinate with other organizations in the field. In sum, the study thus documents how the list of expectations international organizations need to fulfil to count as 'legitimate' has expanded over time. The sources of this expansion are manifold. Among others, they include the politicization of expanded international authority and the rise of non-state actors as new audiences from which international organizations seek legitimacy.
Klaus Dingwerth, Professor of Political Science, University of St.Gallen, Switzerland, Antonia Witt, Post-doctoral Researcher, Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF), Ina Lehmann, PhD candidate, University of Bremen, Ellen Reichel, Fundraiser, Ibn Rushd-Goethe Moschee Berlin, Tobias Weise, Communications and Marketing Manager, German University of Health and Sport
Klaus Dingwerth is Professor of Political Science with a focus on the political theory of the globalized and digital society at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, and a Non-Resident Fellow with the Global Public Policy Institute in Berlin. His research interests lie at the intersection of global governance and political theory. His publications include
The New Transnationlism: Transnational Governance and its Democratic Legitimacy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007) and
The Language of World Trade Politics: Unpacking the Terms of Trade (co-edited with Clara Weinhardt, Routledge, 2019).
Antonia Witt is a post-doctoral researcher at the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF), Germany. She holds an M.A. in African Studies and Political Science (2010) as well as a doctorate (2016) from the University of Leipzig, Germany. For her doctoral research 'Ordering by default: The power and politics of post-coup interventions in Africa', Witt was awarded the 2017 Christiane-Rajewsky-Award of the German Association for Peace and Conflict Studies (AFK) as well as the 2018 award of the German Association for African Studies in Germany (VAD).
Ina Lehmann is a PhD candidate at the University of Bremen, Germany. She holds a Master's degree in Peace and Security Studies from the University of Hamburg. Her research interests include global justice, environmental justice, the legitimacy and legitimation of global governance, sustainable development, and climate and biodiversity protection. Her publications have appeared in
Ecological Economics,
Biological Conservation, and
International Studies Perspectives.
Ellen Reichel is a fundraiser at Ibn Rushd-Goethe Moschee Berlin, Germany. She holds an M.A. in Political Science, International Law and Intercultural Communications from the Ludwig Maximilians University Munich. Before embarking on her new position, Reichel was a research associate at the Institute for Intercultural and International Studies (InIIS) of the University of Bremen, Germany as well as at the University of St.Gallen, Switzerland. Her research has appeared in
International Studies Perspectives.
Tobias Weise is a Communications and Marketing Manager at the German University of Health and Sport, Berlin. In 2016, he was awarded a doctoral degree in Political Science from the University of Bremen for his thesis 'Participation and Transparency in Intergovernmental Security Organizations. Resource and Norm Driven Opening in the IAEA and OPCW'. Before joining DHGS, Weise was a research associate at the University of Bremen, Germany and the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. His publications have appeared in
Global Governance and
International Studies Perspective.
