Appropriated authority: a theory of transnational sport governance

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe organisations regulating international sport comprise a distinct mode of transnational governance. Although domestic and international sport governing bodies are typically constituted as private entities, international sport’s (hyper-) nationalistic character and the degree to which these organisations are able to influence public policy suggest that their authority extends well beyond the private sector. This study advances a theoretical explanation of legitimacy and authority in transnational sport governance. To accomplish this task, the author builds on a theory of private authority, developed by Jessica Green, which posits two types of private authority (delegated and entrepreneurial) in international affairs. While transnational sport governing bodies first emerged as a form of entrepreneurial private authority, the author contends that these organisations today possess ‘appropriated authority’. These organisations operate as a de facto governing institution around which state preferences have converged and retain the legitimacy typically associated with delegated private authority, but they exercise this authority outside the constraints of the principal–agent relationship, which Green suggests is a necessary condition for state delegation of authority. In this article, the author argues that appropriated authority in transnational sport governance is a function of two distinct processes. First, through a process of legitimacy adoption, states come to acknowledge and share in perceptions of private sport organisations’ legitimacy to govern. Second, private authority in transnational sport is perpetuated by states’ ability to free ride (to capture low- or no-cost benefits of transnational sport), an arrangement that varies depending upon domestic regime type.