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The quest for legitimacy in world politics – international institutions’ legitimation strategies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 December 2015

Jennifer Gronau  and
Henning Schmidtke
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Abstract

The article presents a top-down approach to the study of the empirical legitimacy of international institutions. It starts from the observation that international institutions’ representatives are engaged in various strategies aimed at cultivating generalised support. The article asserts that such strategies should be taken into account to gain deeper insights into the legitimation process of international institutions. To systematise these legitimation efforts and facilitate their empirical analysis, the article introduces the concept of legitimation strategies, which are defined as goal-oriented activities employed to establish and maintain a reliable basis of diffuse support. An analytical differentiation between three types of legitimation strategies is introduced depending on the addressees of legitimation strategies, that is, member state governments, international institutions’ staff, and the wider public. The applicability of the concept and the relevance of legitimation strategies for international institutions’ communication, behaviour, and institutional design is demonstrated by an empirical analysis of the G8’s and the IMF’s reaction to legitimation crises in the recent past of both institutions. In addition, the case studies suggest that a balanced set of legitimation strategies that takes into account the legitimacy concerns of all three constituencies is more likely to be successful in improving legitimacy perceptions.

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Articles
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Review of International Studies , Volume 42 , Issue 3 , July 2016 , pp. 535 - 557
Copyright
© 2015 British International Studies Association 

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Footnotes

*

This project was carried out at the TranState Research Centre 597, University of Bremen, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). Additional financial support from the Global Democratic Governance Profile Area at the University of St. Gallen is gratefully acknowledged. We are especially grateful to Dominika Biegoń, who contributed to an earlier version of this article. We wish to thank the anonymous reviewers, Klaus Dingwerth, Matthias Ecker-Ehrhardt, Ulrich Franke, Anna Geis, Frank Nullmeier, and Dominik Zaum as well as the participants of various workshops for their valuable feedback and enriching discussions. The usual disclaimer applies.

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143 This was even acknowledged by the Fund (IMF, The IMF and Civil Society Organizations: Striking a Balance (Washington, DC: IMF, 2001)).

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148 IMF, Report of the Group of Independent Persons Appointed to Conduct an Evaluation of Certain Aspects of the Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility (Washington, DC: IMF, 1998), p. 24.

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150 As indicated by our protest event data analysis for the period between 1996 and 2004.

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