Individual Sources of Legitimacy Beliefs

Abstract

This chapter examines individual-level factors that may influence legitimacy beliefs towards global governance institutions. The chapter surveys the full breadth of existing political science research in order to chart a forward course for empirical studies of individual-level sources of legitimacy beliefs. The chapter’s threefold core argument maintains, first, that global governance scholarship needs to build on previous insights on legitimacy beliefs from comparative politics and social psychology. Second, research on beliefs in the legitimacy of global governance institutions needs to look comparatively across countries, institutions, issue areas, social groups, and time. Third, future research on sources of legitimacy in global governance can acquire better measures through the use of large-scale surveys and survey experiments.