International authority and its politicization

Abstract

The article focuses on the politicization of international authority as a thus far little understood development in world politics. We first define the concept and show that there is an empirical trend towards politicization of international institutions. We then argue that the increasing authority of international institutions has led to their politicization and we relate this hypothesis to alternative explanations. The validity of the authority–politicization nexus is illustrated by the rise of international authority in parallel to politicization. We go on to distinguish different policy functions such as rule definition, monitoring, interpretation, and enforcement in order to show that especially those international institutions with a high level of authority meet with strong contestation of their competencies. We conclude the article by exploring various avenues for future politicization research.

The ‘Milky Way’ of intermediary organisations: a transnational field of university governance

“…Furthermore, future research could examine when and how intermediaries rather form venues for influence of the European Union and other political bodies. Do intermediaries in other words contribute to an increased politicisation of the university field (see de Wilde and Zürn, 2012;Zürn et al, 2012)? Interestingly, a number of organisations in central positions within the field appear, but without an obvious place in any of the identified clusters.…”

The Politics of Rating Freedom: Ideological Affinity, Private Authority, and the Freedom in the World Ratings

“…In response, Zürn et al advocate for a multi-layered conceptualization of authority, in which the first layer involves actors recognizing an authority as "functionally necessary" and the second layer involves actors recognizing an authority as legitimate. 21 I find this approach-in which legitimacy is not necessary for authority but adds a layer to it-helpful for thinking about why ratings acquire authority. In the two-stage argument I develop, ratings are more likely in the first stage to have authority among actors who share ideas with raters and also to have legitimacy.…”

Introduction: the differentiated politicisation of European governance

“…We posit that politicisation can be empirically observed in (a) the growing salience of European governance, involving (b) a polarisation of opinion, and (c) an expansion of actors and audiences engaged in monitoring EU affairs (cf. De Wilde 2011;De Wilde and Zürn 2012;Green-Pedersen 2012;Hutter and Grande 2014;Statham and Trenz 2013;Zürn et al 2012). The latter dimension especially directs most studies of politicisation to the public sphere as the infrastructure through which more actors and audiences become involved in European governance.…”