Towards a typology of pathways: The rise of people-centred norms in the legitimation of global governance organizations
Type
conference paper
Date Issued
2020-10-07
Author(s)
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 not the only path leading to the adoption of people-centred norms. We propose a typology of four different paths to people-based norms and provide evidence for each of them across different regional and global international organizations. With this, we demonstrate that empirically, the rise of peoplebased norms is a more prevalent phenomenon than so far acknowledged in the literature. We also show the value-added of more fine-grained analytics for explaining this phenomenon.
cases. Yet, the direct response to public demands is not the only path leading to the adoption of people-centred norms. We propose a typology of four different paths to people-based norms and provide evidence for each of them across different regional and global international organizations. With this, we demonstrate that empirically, the rise of peoplebased norms is a more prevalent phenomenon than so far acknowledged in the literature. We also show the value-added of more fine-grained analytics for explaining this phenomenon.
Language
English
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Event Title
DVPW IB-Sektionstagung 2020
Event Location
Freiburg i. Br.
Event Date
7.-9. Oktober 2020
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Eprints ID
261179