Towards a ‘pluralist’ world order: creative agency and legitimacy in global institutions

Terry Macdonald,Kate Macdonald

doi:10.1177/1354066119873134

Terry Macdonald, Kate Macdonald

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1177/1354066119873134

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Abstract

This article addresses the question of how we should understand the normative grounds of legitimacy in global governance institutions, given the social and organizational pluralism of the contemporary global political order. We argue that established normative accounts of legitimacy, underpinning both internationalist and cosmopolitan institutional models, are incompatible with real-world global social and organizational pluralism, insofar as they are articulated within the parameters of a ‘statist’ world order imaginary: this sees legitimacy as grounded in rational forms of political agency, exercised within ‘closed’ communities constituted by settled common interests and identities. To advance beyond these statist ideational constraints, we elaborate an alternative ‘pluralist’ world order imaginary: this sees legitimacy as partially grounded in creative forms of political agency, exercised in the constitution and ongoing transformation of a plurality of ‘open’ communities, with diverse and fluid interests and identities. Drawing on a case study analysis of political controversies surrounding the global governance of business and human rights, we argue that the pluralist imaginary illuminates how normative legitimacy in world politics can be strengthened by opening institutional mandates to contestation by multiple distinct collectives, even though doing so is incompatible with achieving a fully rationalized global institutional scheme.

Highlights

The most fundamental normative demand within any political order is articulation of the standards and grounds of legitimacy, in terms of which governing institutions can be judged worthy of support
In this article we have advanced a pluralist vision of legitimacy within global institutions, which presents a distinctive account of the normative grounds of legitimacy within socially and organizationally pluralistic global institutional practices
This account stands in contrast to the orthodox statist imaginary, extrapolated from normative models of legitimacy developed for state-based political orders

Summary

Introduction

The most fundamental normative demand within any political order is articulation of the standards and grounds of legitimacy, in terms of which governing institutions can be judged worthy of support. We argue that many established understandings of legitimacy’s normative grounds are discordant with global pluralism, insofar as they are articulated in terms of a ‘statist’ world order imaginary.3 This sees legitimacy as grounded in rational forms of collective agency, exercised within ‘closed’ communities constituted by settled common interests and identities.

Results

Conclusion