This paper examines the interaction of rising powers and transnational civil society organisations regarding the legitimation of political authority beyond the nation-state. On the supply-side, there is a growing recognition that international institutions have developed into sites of political authority. This can be expected to engender greater demands for the legitimation of that authority. On the demand-side, the expansion of political influence towards a group of traditionally marginalised ‘rising powers’ poses new challenges for international institutions often identified with Western dominance, by changing both the power basis of international institutions and by advancing different legitimation demands. Contemporaneously, transnational civil society organisations have contributed to the politicisation of international institutions by mobilising societal opposition across state boundaries. While the demands of both rising powers and NGOs have gained attention in recent years, few have compared them or examined the interaction of the two. Where demands converge, the possibility arises for the re-legitimation of international institutions for both audiences. Where demands diverge, international institutions face a pincer movement of delegitimation, a trade-off between increasing legitimacy for one audience while decreasing it for another. Both developments pose wider questions for international authority and for the emerging world order.
