The geography of discontent: How regional inequalities affect the perceived legitimacy of international organizations

Citizens worldwide are divided over the legitimacy of international organizations, such as the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. Legitimacy is the judgment that political authority is proper and appropriately exercised.

Being legitimate is important to the success of international organizations since it facilitates securing the support, resources, and compliance necessary to solve critical transboundary challenges.

This project examines the sources of individual perceptions of the legitimacy of international organizations by focusing on a surprisingly understudied factor: regional inequalities.

Inequalities between subnational regions have been shown to make anti-system voting more likely in socioeconomically ‘left behind’ places.

This project argues that regional inequalities may also affect citizens´ deep-seated legitimacy beliefs toward international organizations. Empirically, the project relies on three novel datasets.

The first dataset contains regional-level public opinion measures, such as legitimacy beliefs, in 60 countries over 32-years. The second dataset includes socioeconomic and external shocks measures for the same regions.

The third dataset is based on two survey experiments in six countries to study regional inequality effects on legitimacy at the individual level.

The project enhances understanding of how regional inequalities affect the perceived legitimacy of international organizations in an era of ever greater transboundary challenges.