Social legitimacy and political authorityThe case of international organisations

Resumen

The article analyses the consolidation of the political authority of international organizations in terms of their social legitimacy. Since international organizations lack coercive means to assert their authority, they depend on favourable external perceptions of their functioning, which is why the social legitimacy of international organizations is one of their principal sources of power. As such, international organizations are conceived of as global political communities in which states and global civil society, on one hand, share the principles, values and objectives of this community, and, on the other hand, are convinced of their ability, through social and discursive action, to modify common perceptions of reality. This way, social legitimacy is the non-material capacity of international organizations to ensure compliance, based on the subjective perceptions of the states and civil society of three dimensions with respect to the behaviour of international organizations: moral values, the principal of legality and effectiveness. The perceptions these legitimising actors, which construct the social legitimacy of an international organization, can be studied, the article argues, through the analysis of their discourses.