This article provides a novel systematic exploration of ways and extents that institutional characteristics shape legitimacy beliefs toward multistakeholder global governance. Multistakeholderism... Show moreThis article provides a novel systematic exploration of ways and extents that institutional characteristics shape legitimacy beliefs toward multistakeholder global governance. Multistakeholderism is often argued to offer institutional advantages over intergovernmental multilateralism in handling global problems. This study examines whether, in practice, perceptions of institutional purpose, procedure, and performance affect legitimacy assessments regarding this form of global governance. The analysis focuses on the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), one of the largest and most institutionally developed global multistakeholder arrangements. Evidence comes from a mixed-methods survey of 467 participants in ICANN. We find that this representative sample accords high importance in principle to many institutional features, and also rates the actual institutional operations of ICANN quite highly on various counts. Moreover, many institutional characteristics associate significantly with participants' legitimacy beliefs toward ICANN. However, not all institutional qualities have this significance, and the relevance of individual- and societal-level circumstances indicates that institutional sources do not provide a full explanation of legitimacy. The article contributes refinements to theory of legitimacy in global governance; demonstrates the value of mixed-methods survey work in this field; supplies unique original data and analysis; and identifies implications for the politics of (de)legitimation around multistakeholderism. Show less
Stemming from the exceptionalist understanding of the 1979 revolution and/or relying on the key political and economic characteristics of the rentier state theory, most explanations of the Iranian... Show moreStemming from the exceptionalist understanding of the 1979 revolution and/or relying on the key political and economic characteristics of the rentier state theory, most explanations of the Iranian post-revolutionary state privilege national space and downgrade capitalism as a totalizing unity. In contrast, this article defines the state as a set of institutional forms reflective of social relations that are generated from contestations over the processes of capital accumulation, arguing that these national social relations have been constituted through their interaction with global social relations. Accordingly, by documenting a conspicuous institutional reorganization of the Iranian state since the late 1980s, it contends that this transformation is the consequence of the reconfiguration of the class basis of the state. The article maintains that this class reconfiguration is internally related to the process of Iranian neoliberalization which has been spawned as a result of the interaction of global and local dynamics. Show less
Chapter 3 examines the decisions that inform the BRI’s institution building.It explores the tension between strategic and effficiency-oriented concerns, tracing these tensions across three issue... Show moreChapter 3 examines the decisions that inform the BRI’s institution building.It explores the tension between strategic and effficiency-oriented concerns, tracing these tensions across three issue areas: tax, trade, and development finance. The chapter shows that, in dealing with challenges, the Chinese government lacks an integral governance framework that systemically coordinates all relevant institutions. Instead, it takes varied institutional approaches to overseeing BRI projects, ranging from bilateral trade agreements to multilateral fijinancial institutions. This raises the question of what is driving China’s development of agreements and institutions for the BRI. The chapter argues that China’s development of BRI tax initiatives is mostly motivated by efficiency drivers, its trade agreements with key BRI partners by strategic drivers, and its efforts to establish multilateral financial institutions by both drivers. Show less
Western donor countries consider a proper functioning multiparty democracy as one of the most import conditions for achieving more legitimate governance and subsequently economic development and... Show moreWestern donor countries consider a proper functioning multiparty democracy as one of the most import conditions for achieving more legitimate governance and subsequently economic development and reduction of poverty in their partner countries. Support to free and fair elections is an integral part of the ‘good governance’ agenda of the traditional donor community. On the basis of the findings of this study, it appears however that it is not so much the acceptance of Western type political institutions or compliance with generally endorsed liberal-democratic standards that determine the possibilities for developing countries to achieve economic transformation and substantial poverty reduction, but rather the nature of the political settlement among the political elites. Show less
