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International political authority: on the meaning and scope of justified hierarchy in international relations
[journal article]
Abstract Traditionally, states were widely believed to be the only institutions claiming political authority. More recently, though, a number of authors have argued that we find various instances of political authority on the international level. We discuss three prominent proposals for conceptualizing inter... view more
Traditionally, states were widely believed to be the only institutions claiming political authority. More recently, though, a number of authors have argued that we find various instances of political authority on the international level. We discuss three prominent proposals for conceptualizing international authority: Michael Barnett and Martha Finnemore's account of the authority of international bureaucracies, David Lake's extension of 'relational' authority to the international realm, and Michael Zürn's recent proposal for 'reflexive' authority. These authors provide a nuanced and empirically rich picture of hitherto mostly overlooked forms of power in world politics. Yet, we argue that in doing so they lose sight of the distinctly normative character of political authority relations: these relations are built on the explicit normative claim to the right to rule. When such a claim is considered to be justified, authority relations generate content-independent reasons for compliance. Thus understood, authority serves an important function, namely, to facilitate broadly accepted and normatively justified forms of hierarchical coordination. From a normative perspective, therefore, broadening the concept of authority to include various other forms of power deprives us of a critical yardstick against which international organizations should be evaluated. Moreover, it creates a distorted picture of the scope of international authority. Our world is shaped by highly problematic power relations. Yet, in order to meet current challenges of global governance, we need more, not less authority. To illustrate this argument we examine the case of the World Bank, an organization that exercises considerable power while explicitly avoiding any claim to political authority.... view less
Keywords
international organization; international relations; international system; authority; legitimacy; legitimation; political domination; World Bank
Classification
International Relations, International Politics, Foreign Affairs, Development Policy
Political Process, Elections, Political Sociology, Political Culture
Free Keywords
Recht der internationalen Organisationen; Theorie der internationalen Organisation; internationale Ordnung
Document language
English
Publication Year
2019
Page/Pages
p. 540-562
Journal
International Relations, 33 (2019) 4
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1177/0047117819856396
ISSN
1741-2862
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed