Abstract
Abstract This article examines levels and patterns of legitimacy beliefs toward one of today’s most developed global multistakeholder regimes, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Two complementary surveys find that levels of legitimacy perceptions toward ICANN often rank alongside, and sometimes ahead of, those for other sites of global governance, both multilateral and multistakeholder. Moreover, average legitimacy beliefs toward ICANN hold consistently across stakeholder sectors, geographical regions, and social groups. However, legitimacy beliefs decline as one moves away from the core of the regime, and many elites remain unaware of ICANN. Furthermore, many participants in Internet governance express only moderate (and sometimes low) confidence in ICANN. To this extent, the regime’s legitimacy is more fragile. Extrapolation from mixed evidence around ICANN suggests that, while multistakeholder global governance is not under existential threat, its legitimacy remains somewhat tenuous.
Highlights
In contrast to multilateral global governance, which reserves decision-taking only for states, multistakeholder arrangements give nonstate actors authority in global policy processes.2 These nonstate parties can include business, civil society, researchers, technicians, and the public at large
What do affected people themselves think about legitimacy with respect to global multistakeholder institutions? After several decades of increased use across many issue areas, what levels of legitimacy beliefs do these arrangements attract? How many people, across which constituencies, and with what degrees of conviction endorse the authority of global multistakeholder regimes? Answers to these questions can provide important clues about future trends in global governance
Confidence in various internet governance organizations Survey item: “Generally, when it comes to policy development about the Internet, how much confidence do you have in the current workings of [Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) overall, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), your RIR (AFRINIC, APNIC, ARIN, LACNIC, RIPE), your national government]?”
Summary
What levels and variations of legitimacy beliefs toward ICANN do these surveys reveal? After two preliminary observations, we examine in detail the legitimacy beliefs of general elites. 49.7 percent of respondents in the elite survey replied “I do not know” or did not answer this question, raising further issues about the breadth of ICANN’s legitimacy base Those general elites who know of ICANN rank it fifth in confidence among fourteen global governance institutions. Confidence in various internet governance organizations (means, 0–4 scale) Survey item: “Generally, when it comes to policy development about the Internet, how much confidence do you have in the current workings of [ICANN overall, the ITU, the IGF, the IETF, your RIR (AFRINIC, APNIC, ARIN, LACNIC, RIPE), your national government]?”.
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