Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/309883 
Year of Publication: 
2023
Citation: 
[Journal:] The Review of International Organizations [ISSN:] 1559-744X [Publisher:] Springer US [Place:] New York, NY [Year:] 2023 [Pages:] 1-32
Publisher: 
Springer US, New York, NY
Abstract: 
Recent decades have seen an intensification of international organizations' (IOs) attempts to justify their authority. The existing research suggests that IO representatives have scaled up self-legitimation to defend their organizations' legitimacy in light of public criticism. In contrast, this article demonstrates that IOs intensify self-legitimation to mobilize additional support from relevant audiences when their authority increases. We argue that self-legitimation aims primarily to achieve proactive legitimacy expansion instead of reactive legitimacy protection. We develop this argument in three steps. First, we draw on organizational sociology and management studies to theorize the connection between self-legitimation and an organization's life stages. Second, we introduce a novel dataset on the self-legitimation of 28 regional IOs between 1980 and 2019 and show that the intensity of self-legitimation evolves in phases. Third, we provide a multivariate statistical analysis and a brief vignette on the African Union, both of which indicate that IOs that shift from unanimity or consensus to majority voting tend to intensify self-legitimation.
Subjects: 
Legitimation
Justification
Discourse
International organizations
Regional cooperation
Life stages
JEL: 
F53
F55
D72
D73
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Article
Document Version: 
Published Version

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