Legitimacy in Global Governance ― Sources, Processes, and Consequences

Legitimacy is central for the capacity of global governance institutions to address problems such as climate change, trade protectionism, and human rights abuses. However, despite legitimacy's importance for global governance, its workings remain poorly understood. That is the core concern of this volume: to develop an agenda for systematic and comparative research on legitimacy in global governance. In complementary fashion, the chapters address different aspects of the overarching question: whether, why, how, and with what consequences global governance institutions gain, sustain, and lose legitimacy?

The volume makes four specific contributions. First, it argues for a sociological approach to legitimacy, centered on perceptions of legitimate global governance among affected audiences. Second, it moves beyond the traditional focus on states as the principal audience for legitimacy in global governance and considers a full spectrum of actors from governments to citizens. Third, it advocates a comparative approach to the study of legitimacy in global governance, and suggests strategies for comparison across institutions, issue areas, countries, societal groups, and time. Fourth, the volume offers the most comprehensive treatment so far of the sociological legitimacy of global governance, covering three broad analytical themes: (1) sources of legitimacy, (2) processes of legitimation and delegitimation, and (3) consequences of legitimacy.

Jonas Tallberg is Professor of Political Science at Stockholm University. His research interests are global governance and European Union politics. He currently directs the research program 'Legitimacy in Global Governance' (LegGov), funded by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond. Previous publications include The Opening Up of International Organizations: Transnational Access in Global Governance (Cambridge University Press, 2013, co-authored) and Leadership and Negotiation in the European Union (Cambridge University Press, 2006). His articles have appeared in journals such as International Organization, International Studies Quarterly, British Journal of Political Science, and European Journal of International Relations.


Karin Backstrand is a Professor in Environmental Social Science at the Department of Political Science at Stockholm University. Her research revolves around global environmental politics. Karin's work appears in journals such Global Environmental Politics and European Journal of International Relations. She is co-editor of The Research Handbook on Climate Governance (with Eva Lovbrand, Edward Elgar, 2015), Rethinking the Green State: Environmental Governance towards Climate and Sustainability Transition (with Annica Kronsell, Routledge, 2015) and a special issue in Environmental Politics titled 'Non-state actors in the new landscape of climate cooperation' (with Jonathan Kuyper, Bjorn-Ola Linner and Eva Lovbrand, 2017).


Jan Aart Scholte is Professor of Peace and Development in the School of Global Studies at the University of Gothenburg, as well as co-director of the Centre for Global Cooperation Research at the University of Duisburg-Essen. Previous publications include Globalization: A Critical Introduction (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005) and Building Global Democracy? Civil Society and Accountable Global Governance (editor, Cambridge University Press, 2011). He is a former lead editor of the journal Global Governance.