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The Review of International Organizations

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20-11-2018 | Comment

Contested world order: The delegitimation of international governance

Authors: Liesbet Hooghe, Tobias Lenz, Gary Marks

Published in: The Review of International Organizations | Issue 4/2019

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Abstract

This article argues that the chief challenge to international governance is an emerging political cleavage, which pits nationalists against immigration, free trade, and international authority. While those on the radical left contest international governance for its limits, nationalists reject it in principle. A wide-ranging cultural and economic reaction has reshaped political conflict in Europe and the United States and is putting into question the legitimacy of the rule of law among states.

previous article Legitimacy and contestation in global governance: Revisiting the folk theory of international institutions

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Layne (2012) argues that China’s views on international order are incompatible with those of the United States. Kissinger (2014) warns that unipolarity will be replaced by competition between four regional blocks with incompatible worldviews: European post-Westphalian, Islamic, Chinese, and American.

See especially Anderson et al. (2019); and Schmidtke (2018).

We understand ideology in a broad sense as a set of normative beliefs and values about the proper order of society and how it can be brought about (Jost et al. 2009: 309).

On Europe, see Bechtel et al. (2014); De Vries (2018); Häusermann and Kriesi (2015); Rydgren (2013); Teney et al. (2014); Van Elsas et al. (2016). On Brexit, see Hobolt (2017); Hobolt et al. (2018).

Our argument highlights nationalist mobilization in the liberal heartland as the chief source of instability, but this is compounded by opposition from rising powers and authoritarian rulers. Rising powers may challenge IO governance because it reflects the interests and norms of its Western founders. Authoritarian rulers may reject IO authority because it queries their hold on power. Interestingly, challenges from rising powers or from authoritarian rulers are also often couched in a nationalist rhetoric.

The rule of law was long alien to international relations. The first time that the UN Security Council expressly made reference to the principle was in 1996 (Bingham 2010: 117; see also Alvarez 2005). Beginning in the 1990s, International Relations scholars developed new concepts to come to grips with this development: legalization (Goldstein et al. 2000), institutional design (Koremenos et al. 2001), and judicialization (Romano et al. 2014).

See the 2005 IO special issue on international institutions and socialization which problematized how agents’ priors constrain international socialization (Checkel 2005).

This argument builds on a growing literature that investigates the politicization of IOs. See e.g. Conceição-Heldt (2013); Ecker-Ehrhardt (2014); Hooghe and Marks 2009; Hooghe et al. (2019); Hurrelmann and Schneider (2015); Kay (2015); Mansfield and Mutz (2012); Morgenstern et al. (2007); Rathbun (2012); Rixen and Zangl (2013); Zürn (2004); Zürn et al. (2012).

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“When I was young, we were always winning things in this country. We’d win with trade. We’d win with wars. At a certain age, I remember hearing from one of my instructors, “The United States has never lost a war.” And then, after that, it’s like we haven’t won anything. We don’t win anymore. The old expression, “to the victor belong the spoils” -- you remember. I always used to say, keep the oil. I wasn’t a fan of Iraq. I didn’t want to go into Iraq. But I will tell you, when we were in, we got out wrong. And I always said, in addition to that, keep the oil.” Full text: Trump, Pence remarks at CIA Headquarters on January 23, 2017: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-cia-speech-transcript/

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Title: Contested world order: The delegitimation of international governance
Authors: Liesbet Hooghe
Tobias Lenz
Gary Marks
Publication date: 20-11-2018
Publisher: Springer US
Published in: The Review of International Organizations / Issue 4/2019
Print ISSN: 1559-7431
Electronic ISSN: 1559-744X
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11558-018-9334-3

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Legitimacy and contestation in global governance: Revisiting the folk theory of international institutions

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Does international pooling of authority affect the perceived legitimacy of global governance?

Elite legitimation and delegitimation of international organizations in the media: Patterns and explanations

The legitimacy and legitimation of international organizations: introduction and framework