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Abstract
This paper examines the legitimacy of NGOs in the context of international politics. Legitimacy is increasingly associated with NGOs in the role of political actors on a global stage. However, conceptualisation of NGO legitimacy is unclear in the literature. The paper proposes four legitimacy models to clarify how their legitimacy is theorised: the market model, the social change model, the new institutionalism model, and the critical model. The paper's argument is that the models represent four different schools of thought on NGO legitimacy each with a different understanding of NGOs’ role in the international system. Each model is discussed based on the theoretical premises they adapt, the legitimacy criteria and the arguments this generates, and the conclusions they make about the legitimate role of NGOs at the international level. The models provide a heuristic starting point for exploring how NGOs can be theorised as legitimate (rightful and credible) actors in international structures.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Earlier versions of this article were presented at the annual conference of the Development Studies Association in 2012, and at a Seminar at Durham University in 2014. The author hereby thanks those who have reviewed this article for their helpful comments.
Additional information
Erla Thrandardottir is a visiting research fellow at City University London. Her research focuses on legitimacy and NGOs, in particular the link between legality and legitimacy. Her PhD thesis explored the internal legitimacy of three large NGOs (Amnesty, Cafod, Greenpeace) in the United Kingdom and the power relations these units have with the international offices of their global networks. Erla is currently working on how NGOs claim legal legitimacy at the international level and how this affects our understandings of their role as democratic agents in global politics. She is currently writing a chapter on knowledge production in Greenpeace in an edited book and collaborating on a paper about Greenpeace in India.