Inequality and legitimacy in global governance: an empirical study

Abstract

This article undertakes an empirical investigation of the relationship between structural inequalities and legitimacy beliefs in global governance. Normative theory often emphasises inequality as a major source of injustice in global politics, but we lack empirical research that examines the implications of inequality for legitimacy in concrete situations of global governance. This paper draws on large mixed-method survey evidence regarding inequality perceptions and legitimacy beliefs at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a key site of global Internet governance that has given particular priority to issues of diversity and inclusion. Our analysis arrives at four main findings. First, participants in ICANN do perceive substantial structural power asymmetries and often find them to be problematic. Second, persons on the perceived subordinate side of these power stratifications tend to observe larger inequalities and to find them more problematic than persons on the perceived dominant side. However, third, these perceptions and concerns about inequality almost never associate with legitimacy beliefs towards ICANN, even among people in structurally subordinated positions and among people who express the greatest worries regarding power inequalities. Fourth, in forming legitimacy perceptions, participants at ICANN generally prioritise other aspects of institutional purpose, procedure and performance, unconnected with inequality. This lack of a relationship between perceptions of inequality and legitimacy beliefs suggests that, however sympathetic policy elites at ICANN might be towards greater equality in principle, they are unlikely to give it precedence in practice.

Citizens, Elites, and the Legitimacy of Global Governance

“…These non-results add to other research that has not observed consistent gender effects on international attitudes (Alesina and La Ferrara 2002;Brewer et al 2004;Edwards 2009;Jongen and Scholte 2022). An exception is Johnson (2011), who…”

“…finds, using Asia Barometer Survey data, that women support the UN more than men; however, Dellmuth and Tallberg (2015), using World Values Survey data, do not replicate this significant effect. A study of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) shows that women on average see larger gender inequalities than men in that global governance institution, and find those hierarchies more problematic, but that these concerns have no association with their confidence in ICANN (Jongen and Scholte 2022).…”

Granting legitimacy from non‐state actor deliberation: An example of women's groups at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

“…The effort indicates that they find the governance institution “worthy” of their resources and support (Bäckstrand et al, 2021). Jongen and Scholte (2022) point out that when actors have underlying faith in a ruling apparatus, they are more ready to participate in its processes. Participating in Side Events can be interpreted as an endorsement in action; event hosts are more likely to consider the UNFCCC a legitimate venue for governing global climate change.…”

It's Ordered Chaos: What Really Makes Polycentrism Work

“…A deeper structure of modernity is apparent with the pervasive power across polycentric governance of the Internet of a techno-rationalism that prioritizes instrumentalist problem-solving through engineering fixes. Moreover, structurally embedded hierarchies of influence pervade the many institutions of polycentric Internet governance: inter alia in respect of age, ethnicity/race, gender, North-South geopolitics, and English language (Jongen and Scholte 2021). These various underlying ordering principles can operate concurrently on the Internet, sometimes in relations of mutual reinforcement and sometimes in contradiction (Scholte 2020).…”