Citizens, Elites, and the Legitimacy of Global Governance

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Citizens, Elites, and the Legitimacy of Global Governance offers the first full comparative study of citizen and elite legitimacy beliefs toward global governance. Empirically, it provides a comprehensive analysis of public and elite opinion toward global governance, building on two uniquely coordinated surveys covering multiple countries and international organizations. Theoretically, it develops an individual-level approach, exploring how a person's characteristics in respect of socioeconomic status, political values, geographical identification, and institutional trust shape legitimacy beliefs toward global governance. The book's central findings are three-fold. First, there is a notable and general elite-citizen gap in legitimacy beliefs toward global governance. While elites on average hold moderately high levels of legitimacy toward international organizations, the general public is decidedly more skeptical. Second, individual-level differences in interests, values, identities, and trust dispositions provide significant drivers of citizen and elite legitimacy beliefs toward global governance, as well as the gap between them. Most important on the whole are differences in the extent to which citizens and elites trust domestic political institutions, which systematically shape how they assess the legitimacy of international organizations. Third, both patterns and sources of citizen and elite legitimacy beliefs vary across organizations and countries. These variations suggest that institutional and societal contexts condition attitudes toward global governance. The book's findings shed important light on future opportunities and constraints in international cooperation, suggesting that current levels of legitimacy point neither to a general crisis of global governance nor to a general readiness for its expansion.

Lisa Dellmuth, Associate Professor of International Relations, Stockholm University,Jan Aart Scholte, Professor of Global Transformations and Governance Challenges, Leiden University,Jonas Tallberg, Professor of Political Science, Stockholm University,Soetkin Verhaegen, Assistant Professor in
European Politics, Maastricht University

Lisa Dellmuth is Associate Professor of International Relations at Stockholm University. She obtained her PhD from the University of Mannheim in 2011. Her research focuses on aid, legitimacy, and environmental politics in global governance. Her research is published in journals such as the American
Political Science Review, British Journal of Political Science, European Union Politics, Review of International Organizations, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the U.S.A. Dellmuth is the author of Is Europe Good for You? EU Spending and Well-Being (Policy Press, 2021), which
examines the effects of EU spending on citizen well-being, with implications for legitimacy perceptions of the EU.


Jan Aart Scholte is Professor of Global Transformations and Governance Challenges at Leiden University and Co-Director of the Centre for Global Cooperation Research at the University of Duisburg-Essen. He held previous positions at the University of Gothenburg, University of Warwick, London School
of Economics (Centennial Professor), Institute of Social Studies, and University of Sussex. His research interests include globalization, global governance, civil society in global politics, global democracy, and Internet governance. Jan has published extensively, taken research to many practitioner
circles, and is a former lead editor of the journal Global Governance.


Jonas Tallberg is Professor of Political Science at Stockholm University. His primary research interests are global governance and European Union politics. He is the principal investigator of the research program "Legitimacy in Global Governance" (LegGov). Tallberg's books include Legitimacy in
Global Governance: Sources, Processes, and Consequences (OUP, 2018, co-edited), The Opening Up of International Organizations: Transnational Access in Global Governance (CUP, 2013, co-authored), and Leadership and Negotiation in the European Union (CUP, 2006). His articles have appeared in journals
such as American Political Science Review, International Organization, International Studies Quarterly, British Journal of Political Science, Review of International Organizations, and European Journal of International Relations.


Soetkin Verhaegen is Assistant Professor in European Politics at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Department of Political Science, at Maastricht University. Her main research subjects are citizens' perceptions of (il)legitimacy of governing institutions in the context of multilevel
governance, European identity, youth, and political socialization. Soetkin is principal investigator in the GLOBPOL project on citizens' attitudes towards globalization and multilevel governance. She is specialized in survey research and focus groups. Her work has been published in journals such as
American Political Science Review, Journal of Common Market Studies, European Journal of International Relations, European Political Science Review, and Comparative European Politics.

Part I. Introduction and Design
1. Legitimacy in Global Governance
2. Researching Legitimacy Beliefs
Part II. Mapping Legitimacy Beliefs toward IOs
3. Mapping Citizen Legitimacy Beliefs
4. Mapping Elite Legitimacy Beliefs
5. Mapping the Elite-Citizen Gap
Part III. Explaining Legitimacy Beliefs toward IOs
6. An Individual-Level Approach to Legitimacy Beliefs
7. Explaining Citizen Legitimacy Beliefs
8. Explaining Elite Legitimacy Beliefs
9. Explaining the Elite-Citizen Gap
Part IV. Conclusion
10. Legitimacy and the Future of Global Governance